lemons95

I've had the RC car for a few years, I played with a little, then stored it in the garage. Recently i've gotten back into it.
I'm tired of pull starting my nitro car, it's always had problems. It use to be that parts were breaking left and right.(got those all fixed now)
I've been watching electric RC cars, with 2s lipo batteries, and a few with 3s lipos...
The 2s lipos look fast, but If my car can handle 3s lipo then I'd like to go with 3s.

How hard would it be to hook up an electric motor to drive train?
Will it work with the existing tranny?
Also will parts from the tornado epx pro work?

Any help would be appreciated.

nitrosportsandrunner

short answer: by the time you get done the conversion, you will have spent 2/3 the cost of buying an electric...and you wont end up with a very reliable model.

long answer: yes it can be done. Homemade motor mount isn't that tough to figure out. Brakes are tricky...the center trans spins freely in one direction (so no motor braking or reverse)
You can lock the center trans together with JB weld to make it act like a simple spur gear. That will allow the electric motor to act as your brake and allow for reverse. Or you can use a "Y" harness for the ESC and the throttle/brake servo. This will let you keep the trans stock, and still have mechanical brakes. But you wont have reverse.

Only a few EPX PRO parts will work. The electrics use a plastic chassis and fully different center driveline, The diffs are the same, but the suspension arms and hubs are not (pivot ball on the nitro, "C" hub on the electric)

Best bet, put your nitro on ebay and try to get $100 out of it (after shipping and ebay fees) and put that towards a EPX Pro (just a bit over $200)

To get a epx pro plus a lipo and lipo charger, you will need around $300.

Again, by the time you have bought a brushless ESC, motor, battery...and made custom motor mount and other small custom bits, you will have spent around $200 anyway.

t2

Here are some photos of my Bazooka conversion. It is a real brute.

I already had most of the equipment so the conversion cost me only $14-- LOL (for the motor mount). I fabricated (aka Hacked- I'm not proud) the rest from existing parts. For some reason the motor mount did not properly fit the existing holes in the chassis (though it was claimed to be a Himoto-Bazooka e-mount). So, I had to use the Dremmel and slot two of the three holes that fix the motor-mount/center-diff-holder to the chassis. Never fear, it is rock solid.

Kyosho has some ready to run kits for about $400, so yes, it is likely cheaper to just buy one already done; But making the jump to electric is going to cost some cash no matter how you slice it. You will need a charger and batteries, plus an education in ePower, and that's no small task. I have no regrets and don't miss nitro in the least... at least for now. I like the Himoto buggy, it is tough and well built, BUT it is a chore finding parts.

Mine is 5S (because those are the batteries I had around from my Helis), but I can say for sure it runs well, and it runs very cool... this motor hardly gets above room temp no matter how hard I run it, even wide open through the back yard for an entire charge. With these knobbies I can out-run my sons eMaxx, even in the grass and it is no slouch... able to pull big wheelies, even at speed.

My pinion is a 13 tooth , these are MOD-1 gears , and it just so happened that the gearing is about perfect with the stock ring gear, 13t pinion, an 1800kv motor with 5S battery packs. At least it's perfect for the type of bashing I do.

I set up a carpet track in the basement... try that with a Nitro!

It weighs a ton using my heli packs (hit the scales at 3600 grams), but who cares? My run times are about ~20 minutes.

If I had it to do over again, I would spring $50 for the Kyosho EZ eMotor mount, as it allows for different size pinions. The motor mount I am using only fits with one size pinion, and It just happened that I had the RIGHT pinion for the voltage and KV of the motor I was using.

t2

Sorry about posting my 1/8 buggy conversion all over your thread... I was cornfused and thinking the Tornado was the same as the Bazook.

Anyhow, I started looking a little and I think nitrosports is defiantly correct. I found an entire car, brand new, with charger and batteries for $189 on eBay (Redcat Racing Tornado EPX Pro 1/10 Brushless Buggy Blue/Flame) free shipping! This would likely cost less that the conversion and you would have spare parts and a working template with a manual and part numbers if you decided to convert your nitro too.

On a broader note however, your general idea about converting to electric was a home run for myself. My nitro cars get dusty because I seldom have the time, my electrics get wore out!