AJsToyz

I have a Tornado XP and I do think the car is really cool , BUT !!! I had a small starting issue. I started the car , had it running for all of 1/2 seconds and it siezed. I'm not talking bound up starter or hydro locked this baby stuck. I've been running nitro engines since the 70's and have never seen this. I had to take the head off to get it to free up. When I tried to cycle it , the piston pushed the cylinder out of the block. I inspected the piston best I could , and the cylinder but didn't see any flaws. It was binding about 1/8" before getting to the top. When I took it out of the box I though this was the highest compression engine I've ever seen the way the starter pulled. It turns out it was too tight. I oiled up the cylinder and slipped it back in. While holding it with my finger so it would have a little give to come up. I pulled the starter for a while and when it got to the point the cylinder stayed in I re-assembled the engine. Its running really good , but I wanted to know is this going to wear out early from being to tight ??

Let me know! Thanks!! Andy

ehroof

actually andy both of my cars the tornado xp and the volcano were extremely tight when i first got them, before the first start up, i think that is why my pullstart broke on the tornado. It was a little pain to get them started from what i thought was a lack of lubrication but after i primed the carb it was still the same so i thought it was hydro locked and took out the plug but it still felt very tight. all i can say is that with the volcano i ran at least 25 tanks and so far no problem at all and it has the same problem as the tornado. the tonado which is newer and has much less run time on it seems to be fine in the engine dept. but the rest of the buggy has been a headache so far.

AJsToyz

Ok , that makes me feel better. I was just really suprised it was that tight. I'm running Morgan Omega fuel because of the higher oil content and I also have airplanes. Not to worried about alot of nitro , I don't race or anything. Its just a toy and I'd like to see it last for a while. I had a Kyosho Stinger with an OS CZ-R , that thing would really scream but do to a lack of cheap parts I sold it.

ehroof

Keep your eyes on your gears Andy, they seem to strip out for no reason. I thought i was lucky but it happened to me too and i was checking the engine screws and mounts, gears were meshed fine, kept checking right up to 5 minutes before mine stripped. just ordered the parts tonight, will fix over the weekend and see if i can see the problem. the parts are cheap, deal with chubbysdad on the forum here clearmontmotorsports.com . if he has it in stock he'll ship it next day and you will get it in a few days. also be careful of the pullstart, transmitter(if you have twitching send redcat email and get new one).

AJsToyz

After I started the car the first time I found a small nylox nut sitting on the table that matched ones on the car but could not find one missing. Thats good to know about the gears too , thanks. The only radio issue I've had was interferance , but it wasen't the fault of the car or transmitter. I was in a place were Police style motorola radios are used and found out when one is q'd it blows out the radio signal. So , from that I broke a steering arm. A little CA glue last night and today its running again. I do have new steering arms ordered to replace the damaged one. I ordered that flower bumper ?? I hope its what I think it is < a wider bumper> I do not like the front of the car that exposed.

ehroof

yeah, some of the names in the owners manual are pretty funny, i will have to check out the flower bumper, my personal is the clutch slice with spring.

AJsToyz

I just remembered my Kyosho Stinger blew the gears out like that. I went to my LHS and got a new clutch housing and spur gear. The new spur gear was steal instead of plastic , the only down side was all the shavings from the aluminum cluth gears spraying all over the car. Did you have to buy the gear set or was it the two differant throttle gears and clutch gear? That "Flower Cover of Bumper" is # 02077. Like I said , I'm hoping its the wide front bumper. One more thing , what is that bag of plastic clips for ?? I looked all over and am clueless to where they go.

bluecaka69

about that flower bumper i have on and i dont really know what car it is for becuase it doesnt fit on tornado right it will work but you need screw and nut but you can tell just by looking at it close it doesnt belong there if anybody knows let me know i think its for the lightning anyboby have one and could verify

AJsToyz

It was in the parts list on the Redcat sight for the Tornado so I ordered one !! Well , I've got extra parts !! LOL

bluecaka69

i just went and checked it out i honestly think its for lightning because they have a foam bumper Part No: 02052 listed and it has the same shape as flower bumper but like you said extra parts

AJsToyz

Well , I'll try to put it on there. If it will nut and bolt it might be better than the stock bumper.

[&:]

Popper252

Those little plastics clips you're refering to are for the suspension, you slip them above the spring to make the ride harder. The thicker ones stiffen things up more than the thinner set. I guess you can use the clips rather than using the screw on the actual shock itself. It took me a while to figure out what they were too

nitrosteve22

My Tornado's .18 was super tight at first so I dropped four small drops of Marvel Mystery Oil down the glow plug hole and a couple down the carb and spun the flywheel a few times and it smoothed out quite a bit but kept the pinch. Still has great pinch,I pop the fuel line off the pipe and blow in it till fuel hits the carb inlet,and it starts in a couple pulls and idles pretty smoothly (although I've been working so much I still only have 1/2 a quart through it lol). If the weather is good tomorrow (and its been super whacky lately) I'll get the rest of that quart through it for sure! I love that mystery oil,some say it gums up after a LONG period of time but I dont leave them sitting that long and it works great for air filter oil and after run oil and it smells really good (not brave enough to taste it though ).

AJsToyz

Popper,

I adjusted the shocks !! LOL Well , they still look good in the bag though!

AJsToyz

Steve,

I've had 6 tanks through the car and its running really good so I tried a little experiment. I have a quart of Traxxas 10% that I bought just to toy with during the winter because it was only 5 bucks on sale. I filled the tank , ran it around , tunned it for that fuel and it won't even think about second gear with the 10% nitro. I've got 1/2A fuel , 25% nitro and 20% oil , and the car is a little hard to handle with that one. It gets a really cool looking smoke trail too. Now I'm going to find out what flavor I'm going to keep it on. I'm going to tune it with Omega 15% , if that does taste good we'll kick it up a notch ! BAMM !! I'd hate to see what this car would do with over 30% nitro properly tuned. Now , I just got to figure out the radio glitch ![sm=confused.gif]

AJsToyz

My transmitter freaked out today !! I was buzzing around the yard and the brakes locked and it stalled. I was like #$%^$^ It SIEZED !!
So I pulled the starter and it was fine. Looked at the servo and was trying to twist off the servo arm !! Turned off the transmitter and it was fine. Turned it back on , and it tried to self destruct again!! I guess I'll send them an email.

shamelessbill

Did you check if the reverse switch was changed on your transmitter?
Also check clutch.
If it will only start with wheels off the ground and they instantly turn its a clutch spring.

AJsToyz

Bill,

Tried the radio switches , tried to trim the radio , nothing. I think the actual stall might have been the idle screw backed out to far, but the radio is acting funny. It only does it to the throttle. If you reverse the steering , it reverses. Trim the steering , it trims. No matter what you did to the throttle trigger it would not release the servo until you shut the transmitter off. After that the servo would go back to the middle. Turn the transmitter on , it would actually twist the servo arm and start torking the linkage. Turned it off again then back on it di a little throttle/brake dance for me then jambed the brakes on again. I wouldn't if I was pulling or pushing the trigger but I wasen't . I'm just glad the brakes came on and it didn't go the other direction , that could have been harsh!!

Andy

AJsToyz

Ok , you'll like this email responce.

Q: I was driving my Tornado XP today and the Radio went crazy. For no reason the brakes locked on the car and the only way to onlocked them was to turn off the transmitter. The car was on a straight away and just stopped. Then while I was trying to figure it out the throttle servo just started going crazy on its own. I shut the radio off for three or four minutes and it seems to be working. Is this a common issue ??

A:It is. All you have to do is let it sit for a while and let the Glow plug cool down.

Thanks,
Violette

This was a cut and paste from my email , so I think I'll be practicing my golf swing with the car radio and buying a new one that works.

Ok , this might start to suck , I might really be paying for this car .... or got what I paid for .... or should have bought a ???

ehroof

Those hot glow plugs wreek havok on the radio you know. What does that mean exactly???? They need to get someone on the redcat crew that knows something about their product. I would for the right money!!! They also told someone here that the shifting is not adjustable on the tornado xp (i and several others have adjusted it with the included shift adjusting clutch screw).

AJsToyz

Mines actually shifting good when the brakes aren't on !! I need to get it off the grass though , hard to judge how its acting when you can't get a good clean run.

bluecaka69

what style of radio did you get cause i think they are just a random pick ifor my tornado i got one with a black steering wheel on it and it has had no problems then with my volcano i got one with a chrome steering wheel and it was acting up like that all i needed to do was carefully take it apart and were the crystal goes in i clamped the female part inside i little tighter for better conectin to the actual crystal no problems since the maybe try that good luck if not radio it warranteed if not i think i read somewere else to make sure and put some tape arond batteries to hold them in place since there is enough room in base that if you hit a bump right you can knock loose a battery and then all h^&* breaks loose good luck

or maybee your glow plug is to hot LOL

AJsToyz

Mine does have the chrome steering wheel but I'd hate to take it apart and have the waranty void. I emailed Darin so we will see what he says. Car is still to cool though.

ehroof

my volcano has the black wheel and it works fine, the tornado xp has the chrome wheel and its the worst, throttle does not work, was able to swap with the volcano radio to break in and use a couple of tanks before the gears stripped. Waiting for reply from redcat too, 1 day so far with no reply. Havent had such great success with email so far.

AJsToyz

Don't try calling , my first call was " All circuits are busy" second call I got through , but sat on hold for a while and hung up.