I'll be retiring my AE .15 that came on my NTC3+ in a few weeks in favor of a WASP .12. Anyhoo, I'm thinking of modding this engine just for the fun of it.

What are some mods I can do to get some serious HP out of this thing? I'm thinking of building a car from spare parts so anything goes. I know, how Frankenstein of me.

Thanks for any tips!

You're modding the AE .15 right? Good. That was a close one.

At first glance I almost thought you were planning on modding the Wasp. I have one in my XXX-NT AD 2 and it is an amazing little motor. Great idle, lots of rpm, even more low end, huge cooling head, overall great buy.

For the AE .15 mods...

Start with smoothing the intake ports on the sleeve, grind out a "swoosh" on the crank port, knife edge the con rod, round the counterweights... That should give you some work to do.

One thing I've always wanted to try in a r/c motor was stuffing the case. I've seen it done in motorcross many times with spectacular results, even better than an all out port and polish job. What happens when you stuff the case is the crankcase pressure goes up and increases the intake velocity which atomizes the fuel better and also gives more umph to the charge going into the cylinder. That only thing though, a fairly major problem, is there is no good place to fill in. What I've seen is filling in the front part of the crank port to smooth the flow into the crankcase. That might also act like stuffing the case.

I hope your not expecting your wasp to beat the AE.15! It wont!!!

Boss290,
Well, actually the Wasp will be better for racing than the (Thundertiger) .15 that comes on the Plus. The Wasp has a crisper response and more torque. I tend to run on a lot of tight tracks where you have few long runs to leg out speed. So quicker power wins out.

gubbs3,
I've heard people say to put glue in the case to fill space, but I'm leary of that. Sounds like a myth to me. But what have you heard to fill the crank with? What do you mean by "swoosh" on the crank port?

Does anyone know the head clearance? I wonder if there is enough room to shave the head? Though keep in mind I've yet to pop open the engine and see how many shims are stock.

I wouldn't reccemmend shaving the head. That's a one way trip to a screwed up engine. Using a hotter glow plug or higher nitro fuel does the same thing. By carving a "swoosh" what I mean is at the exit of the crank port, carve out an indentation in a semi-spiral that helps to suck the fuel/air mix out of the crackshaft.

Ahh. Like an airscrew! Thanks!

You could always put a head shim under the sleve. That raises the sleve up al little and increases the port timing. You might have to shape the shim to make it fit around the little locator pin and stuff.