fusebmx13

It was on 7 cells.

And i have the sidewinder 5700 and it rips dude. It is awesome, but if you will be using 3 lipo get MM. My brother has the MM and it is amazing also. Castle knows what they are doing.

astroboycp

Have you guys tried the A123 batteries on the E-firestorm? It seems safer than lipo and pack better punch.

Oregon mud

Anybody else had problems with the grease leaking out of the diff on their truck?

astroboycp

I am thinking of running the E-firestorm stock. Does it increase speed tremendously if the motor is upgraded to brushless? Will I need to change the esc provided if I upgrade to brushless?

Oregon mud

Yes and yes.

calvino

plus your running times go up greatly[8D], which is nice considering a lower turn motor will make you drive for less time[&o]

astroboycp

I thought the stock esc is compatible with brushless motors. Well will stick to stock as don't wish to incur additional cost to get it brushless.

dafpnp

No problem of diffs leaking ..

DARKWAV

I never had any issue with grease coming out off the diff.

Little different story with silicone diff fluid though. I do get some minor leakage around the output shafts/cups. The diff seems to throw some of that stuff up into the rest of the trans gears...at least I know those are staying nice and lubbed. Come to think of it though it is probably about time I check the fluid level in the diff to see if it needs to be topped off. I was thinking this time around I would try out Associated 10K weight. I'll also have a look and see what they've got for seals behind those side bevel gears and perhaps try a little Green Slime on those.

Seems to me though if you're just running that just as an open diff with a little bit of grease in there than it could probably go a long time before doing any maintenance on that diff (probably wait until it is time to replace worn output shafts). If running it with diff fluid though to get some limited slip action maybe need to do a little additional maintenance…still probably less than what's required for a ball diff. It only takes learning how to get the diff in and out once, after that you can get it in and out pretty quickly.

Oregon mud

6 screws and the transmission is in your hand. Thats pretty cool. let me know what you find when you open up your diff. Thanks for the reply.

dafpnp

Has anyone noticed servo saver kicking in while taking high speed turns.
I noticed the front wheels twitching while taking high speed turns in medium grip off road conditions. Just tightened the spring of servo saver a bit. I'll see tomorrow how it behaves.
And well ... I didn't have any shock oils for my front shocks [rear shocks are still in perfect condition]
Tried Olive oil .. too soft
Coconut oil ... again too soft
This time.. something from the kitchen .. Honey and water in 3:1 ratio. My front shocks now damp like new.

DARKWAV

Dude that's Sweeeeet!


get it....sweet...honey...

ha ha...

OK nevermind.

elpurete

Is these really working? i mean the honey and water??? sweet!!!

calvino

lol, a friend of mine made a lame mix of like soap and h2o once and put it into his shocks intead of shock oil, it made them froth like crazy, i have heard of using soap for shock oil, mm, motor oil... it is amazing what can take the place of shock oil[8D]

freestylingford

I don't know if you guys saw my thread on selling my mambified e firestorm or not I said 450 the lowest a few people dogged me saying you won't get 250 for all of it..yadda yadda Well this was with no receiver just the truck alone and all the extra parts I had i got 300 for it plus 20 shipping And for my max amp lipo 6000 mah 7.4v and balancer and my integy lipo charger I got 198 total. so that adds up to 518 dollars. And i still have 2 brushless motors to sell.

Well that thread was deleted so i just wanted some closure on the selling of my first major rc build up. Sorry if i have intruded but at least you know whats possible for yours to sell if you ever want to do something else.

rossiman

dude i was on youre side and didnt i tell you not to worry? LOL i knew you would get decent money for it its ebay!!!! glad ya did good oh and for anybody who is having diff leaking issues just go to autozone or napa and get some mobile one grease and put some on the inside by the outdrives and that will cure the leaking. my mugen mbx5 use to leak diff oil and grease is the cure. i think you guys are runnin some pretty insane diff fluids in this truck just rember the thicker the fluid the more strait line stability it will have but will make it loose in and out of corners. i was gonna try 2k to start with. 10k seems kinda thick to me.

Oregon mud

I just got off the phone with HPI and they told me the reason my diff was leaking out the silicone grease was because it is not meant to be a sealed diff. Your just supposed to put some heavy bearing grease in there. I did it this morning with a mix of lithium grease and powdered graphite and I will see what it drives like at the races on Sunday.

DARKWAV

Next time you're on the phone with that HPI service rep please tell that person their website indicates differently about the E-Firestorm:

"Sealed planetary gear differential -
Nearly zero maintenance, maximum reliability and convenience of tuning differential action with heavy weight silicone oils"

Oregon mud

You know I thought I read that somewhere but I couldn't remember for sure when I was talking to him. Maybe I would get a different answer from a different rep? I will try again tomorrow and see what the next guy tells me.

DARKWAV

At first I though maybe I had seen it in a earlier description or maybe the European HPI website which has more details. But sure enought it is right there on the HPI USA site.

It mentions the sealed diff early in the product description, and then the particular text I pulled out for you is in the "Features" table at the bottom.

Even the description for the Flux mentions same, and I know that description for the Flux has been edited since it first came out because it used to say it was compatible with 3 Cell LiPo. A lot of us took notice of that because we knew the ESC was a rebadged sidewinder which isn't spec'd for 3 Cell LiPo with a 5700 Kv motor. Anyway if the Firestorm wasn't meant to have a sealed diff they could have corrected that part of it by now.

I'm pretty sure this isn't the first time I've heard someone mention they had a similar response from an HPI service representative about the differential. Perhaps there is one customer service rep that isn't as schooled-up on the E-Firestorm and thinks it has an open gear differential like the E-Savage.


Anyway...thanks for looking into this.

I don't think a race truck needs a ball diff to be competitive, but the diff should at least be limited slip to get the power down out of the hole.

Oregon mud

I totally agree with you. I will be calling them back tonight too I think.

Oregon mud

Well I called back and talked to 2 different people that told me the same thing. The diff is "sealed" as in "it has seals in it" but the amount of maintenance depends on the viscosity of the grease used. So if lighter grease like 1K or 2K is used, than you can expect to do maintenance after every pack or two by refilling the diff. The thicker the fluid the less you have to do.

So I decided I wasn't going to accept having to take my transmission apart every 2 packs to fill the diff back up. my first attempt will be a set of O rings fron the hardware store that fit the outdrive nice and snug. But they had a little too much room on the outside edge so I packed some gasket maker into the bottom of the lip and put the O ring in. Than smooth the top of the gasket maker off with my finger and now it will set up till tomorrow.

I will not be running it till Sunday but I will reply back with my findings after I run it a little. I will still be trying 2K fluid and see if this helps my situation. here is a pic of the new seal.......

astroboycp

It's really amazing what can be put into those shocks. Hopefully the bees will not swarm down your firestorm Great tip though, do post some result of your new filled shocks.

Oregon mud

The 2 problems I see with that is it will change viscosity with the temperature and the water will more than likely rust the shock shaft.

dafpnp

yeah ... but I wonder if they are steel shafts, they shouldn't rust. I have concerns about the nut holding the piston though.
Well, rusting requires moisture and air. There is no air in the shocks :-) I assume.

Anyways, this is just experimenting different viscosities of shock fluid while I wait for my shipment to arrive.

Just ran 3 sets of batteries... got more air time with harder front shocks .. jumps much better. Can't figure out whats the equivalent shock oil weight.