poor judgement

yea, nothin we can do about the cen feedback situation i guess, but it still winds me up!

regards running in the cold - ppl have said on here and the good ol wildhobbies (RIP) forum that engines dont get up to temperature and wear a lot quicker - come the summer theyve had little or no compression, but it seems ok back in the winter. some used foil around the head, some had seperate pistons and sleeves or complete engines for winter and summer running. depends just how cold it gets i suppose - but running in snow will surely make the motor run too cool.

seen many a long thread arguing all this, so there must be something in it! personally, if its cold outside then i aint gonna stand around freezin me nuts off driving around or get a cold finger whacked by a spur or whatever, nevermind risking a sleeve and piston... but then - i aint racing as there is nothing round here.

maybe worth getting another os18 from the US as a summer motor? if thats the engine u intend/are allowed to race with that is... 90 bucks...

Scouser

All sorted on the engine front. I have a spare NT16 sitting around. As long as I am allowed to use it in the ST series, thats what is going in. If I end up using the Savage, I will be taking the RB out and putting the original S25 back in. If I cant use the NT16 but till fancy racing the CEN, I am thinking about picking up a rear exhaust .12 specifically to use in racing. I will see how everything shapes up first though.

poor judgement

sounds sensible mate, a rear exhaust .12 should be the way to go. not being funny, but if its a goer u might want to start a thread to gather as much info as poss - hope u can finally race it, i felt for u when u were told the funfactors werent allowed to race last time around. i think that cenracer may well be able to help u out with this.

all this winter talk and the suns out here and its about 20 degrees - ha, gonna have to take the truck out to the beach shortly i reckon.

Scouser

Yup, lovely here too. Think the Savvy may make an appearance this afternoon. Let you know what I break later on!!

poor judgement

did i get to break mine first? melted/welded the clutch shoes to the bell tonight whoops - guess some 1.0 springs might be worth a go.

got some pics of my truck "on location" and some shots of my bash spot. i was by myself so no action shots im afraid. clutch only lasted 2 tanks anyway!

rolland

Your spot looks like a blast.
Mine is mainly my back yard which is about 1 acre and the driveway and road. Unfortunatley my wife won't let me tear up the grass to make a proper track.

Have you looked into these, http://www.novarcproducts.com/clutchshoes.html
A set of those shoes with Mugen 1.0 springs would definitely be an improvement over the fiber ones.


rolland

poor judgement

cheers for the link rolland.

its the mugen alloy shoes that ive given a bit of a battering on mugen 1.1mm springs.

ive fitted a cen 11t pinion for the time being, as i seem to have a whole load of them all of a sudden... well 6 of em... if i stay off the real soft sand they do last a bit better, and the clutch is a lot happier with the 11s. the engines torque eats them after 5 or 6 tanks tho. the reason i fitted the cen 11t is that i broke the ofna clutch bell trying to get the 11/15 gears off it yes i heated it up to break the thread lock etc loads of times. sick of buying parts now/still/again...

as soon as i lose the 11t, i will try the 14/18 in 2wd again - its got enough grip not to be too daft in 2wd - still havent tried the buggy wheels (silly things) will give them a go too... when it stops raining...

will order some replacement shoes, 1.0mm springs and new 11/15 and/or 12/16 ofna bell, new bearings, and pinions in the meantime.

poor judgement

double post time again...

those damn 11t pinions... they just split and flyoff everytime now. 5 hard launches and thats ur lot! didnt expect em to last long, but thought they might have the decency to stay there and get stripped at least... tut. ofna ones are on their way.

only ran the mt tyres due to lack of light - went out a bit later than last night. tried to get some pics of the launch... very tricky! especially when its 4 goes and then - pop! WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! frustrating...

noticed on one of my stripped 11t is a good bit thicker than my other cen 11t, and appears to have a little rust on it - unsure if its actually steel or if its a bit of cross contamination from the steel spurs. i remember noticing the extra thickness of the gear (in between the teeth, in the "valley" of the teeth when i got the pinion. it was from ebay and advertised as a cen pinion but wasnt in cen packaging, just a plain plastic bag. typical, no traceability...

Scouser

If thats the CEN clutch bell, I ran that on my CEN with the OS.15 in and even that motor stripped the teeth! I got the impression that if it had been there for much longer, it would have looked just like the one you have there. Have you considered going single speed? All those lovely hardened clutch bells and spur gears, you would be spoilt for choice!

rolland

Try the 14/18 with the buggy wheels in four wheel drive. You engine and clutch setup should have no problems with that combo.

What about using a heavier spring to slow down the clutch engagement? The sudden impact of all that power from the engine is what is killing the pinions.

I switched over to the HPI bells and haven't had a problem with them so I forgot about the need for 11T steel pinions there has to be a solution out there other than custom. I will have to start looking around again.

What about going to a single speed like Scouser said? You said that you did get it to shift and it was to fast/uncontrolable.

rolland

poor judgement

i can still go hardened steel on a 2 speed with the ofna bell, so im going for that i reckon. the 11/15 should be great now ive removed a wobbly spacer from my engine mounts - dont ask, its sorted now!

2nd gear with the 14/18 pinions is the scary bit with tmaxx tyres on, its hard on the clutch too. what i really need is a 47t cen hardened spur for 1st gear, that would sort everything out! seeing as thats not happening tho, i have to go to the smaller pinions. now ive got it shifting properly the 11/15 should be very fast but still controllable.

a single speed wont have the punch off the line that i have now, which is kinda the point of the .28, or it wont have the top speed i want, depending on the gearing of course. with the buggy wheels on i might get away with the single speed, but im not intending to run them all the time, was gonna use them on the 18 centre diff chassis...

not going out again till the ofna bits arrive, i will only kill my clutch and/or pinions.

cheers for the thoughts tho guys, its so close now to being finished and reliable... reliable? i think so...

poor judgement

my latest project - http://spaces.msn.com/members/robncarrie/ probably wont mean a lot to anyone, but its a very special little car to me. the rc might finally get put on the back burner - i mean it this time!!

rolland

I can honestly say I have never seen one befrore. It is a interesting looking car especially for a Honda. The only old Hondas we have over here are the small front wheel drive CVCC's, nothing like that.



rolland

alvinl

That is a cool looking car. I have never seen a honda like it. You going for a full restoration or do you have a custom build in mind?

rolland

I think the laws over there limit what you can do to the drive train. I am not sure about the suspension.



rolland

poor judgement

its been fully restored a good few years ago, run once in a while, just to keep it all freed up etc. its going to be kept standard, well, as it is - its had a change of cams and a few bits (did u see the rev counter?) its a 1967 S800 by the way.

rolland - yea im struggling to find some pinion gears to work well with the 4 speed, shocks are good to go tho....

glad u like it

Scouser

If I had the space I would definitely be a 1:1 nut. Good luck with it mate, post some pics as it progresses.

5150_UK

My Dad suggested running a little richer and I've found that the engine runs better. He explained to me why it runs better but I have since forgotten the exact details []

I just wish CEN would take into account that their customer service outside the US is ****TY to put it midly.

Scouser

Sometimes an official reply isn't necessarily the most helpful. The beauty of this forum is that people will try all sorts of modifications to their trucks and let you know what works and what doesn't, and also whether the changes are beneficial. This includes using parts from other makes on CEN trucks. CEN, although they are extremely helpful, can only tell us our options within the manufacturers own parts. We may be stuck with Irvine over here but at least the US branch of the company knows what they are talking about!
By the way PJ, how's the Honda coming along?

poor judgement

its a massive thread hijacking!

slowly is the answer. got the brakes freed off tho, its going in to a garage to be looked at a bit deeper this week, so potentially running, maybe, if im lucky... next week... hope so.

no real update on the mt either, im waiting on pinions as always... should be the last time tho now, just gotta mod the ofna adjustable mounts to work so i can use the ofna pinions and bell. i made some rough adapter pieces to get it to work before, but they didnt hold firm enough, hopefully these mounts will work ok tho, they look the business.
driveshafts look very twisted now, rears especially - might swap em round to get a bit more life from them, but new ones need ordering... been thinking about that - my diffs are still fine, no transmition probs bar the pinions, at all. just wondering if the twisting plastic shafts are absorbing a good bit of the shock of the engine, well they are... so i might be better off sticking with them rather than going over to rollands buggy shaft mod - yea, im a cheapskate... might be good on the other chassis tho - nope, nothing happened there either, sorry, been too busy.

rolland

The reason behind running richer is because the air is colder and denser, more air goes in so more fuel needs to go in.
From what I hear about Irvine is you really don't want to talk them anyhow. I think the only way to solve the Irvine problem is for you guys to find a local shop and have them order parts directly from CEN. It should be possible if you convince them that all of you will get your parts from them and not Irvine.
CEN not responding is somewhat normal. Like Scouser said they are limited in what advice they can give and there are some really knowledgeable people around here that aren't afraid to try new stuff and different manufacturers parts.

Poor Judgement, this wouldn't be a hi-jacking if you made regular updates.
That really is good news about the diffs holding up.
I still haven't broken anything on mine with the buggy shaft mod but I also haven't really abused it yet. I have been to busy prepping the Mammoth ST to really take then CEN out and thrash it.


rolland

poor judgement

UPDATE: erm.... pinions still aint turned up yet... lol

i was just kiddin about the hijack, mate. so long as its kept sensible and friendly: post what u like guys for all i care!

my lhs has tried to deal directly with cen out of frustration with irvine - cen simply directed them back to irvine, must be an international thing as i understand cen deal directly with any US model shops. (dont tell anyone, but i have supplied my lhs with cen parts!) i normally use ebay sellers such as Lloyd18 and jcleave, both are uk based, and if they dont have the parts, they can normally get them within a week or so.

im still waiting for the diffs to blow, but ive stopped flinching every time i nail the throttle from a standstill now! my os 18 was enough to kill them regularly on the rally setup, both front and rear diffs... i do drive that setup hard tho - difficult not to! are u still on the standard diffs rolland?

uh-oh - savages, mammoths, and I like the look of the havoc too... sounds like our lil funfactors days are numbered! any pics of the mammoth rolland? or has the cam done a runner again?

Scouser

There may be plenty of other models on the market and I have to admit that the Savage is great, but, there is no substitute for the little FF. One thing I did learn since owning the Savage is that I prefer the 1:10 scale to 1:8. If the stadium truck class takes off here, I will be leaving the Savage home and racing the CEN all the time. If I were to buy a different brand now, I would probably go for a Mugen MST-1 or something similar. I think stadium trucks are definitely my thing, sadly I seem to be the only one!!
On the ebay front, I just got a battery box off jcleave but he seems to be running a little short on stock at the moment, I haven't seen a rolling chassis from him for a while!

alvinl

Every time I read this thread (and I have poured over it several times) I cannot help but be amazed the Funfactor holds up to that much power. So many upgrades, so little money.[&o]

poor judgement

zip ties and fluke mate! thats all that it takes... if only that was true...

in fairness to the truck, i just fitted whatever upgrades i felt i needed and it more or less worked. i have read of other .28s in funfactors that are a lot more stock than mine and are running fine. its easy enough to get a SH.28 cheap on ebay and the cen .21 engine mounts, just need an easily made manifold and there u go! it was antwar wasnt it who had a .28 in his? think there was at least one more from rcu too, and of course a few .21s - so yea, not bad really for what they are.

the os 18 will give u a lot less trouble and more useable performance than the .28 tho - in case u werent sure...