Lets suppose that you start your car. Lets also suppose that your son is holding the remote and before you get the igniter out he pulls back on the throttle and it takes off before you have a chance to grab it. He drives it to the end of the driveway and after a few fatherly words he promptly returns it. I remove the ignitor. The engine shut off shortley after. I have been havng a hard time getting it started ever since. After checking the settings and adjusting the throttle it sounded like it wanted to fire up a few times but never did. The pull start is hard to pull. It was hard to pull when I first pulled it also but it suddenly got easier and started. Only when I loosen the glow plug does it get easier. I checked it for flooding but it was ok. It is cold out but the car has been sitting in my house. Could leaving the igntor in cause that much damage so quick or should I worry about something else? I know that this isn't the engine thread but i havent been getting any responses.

it doesnt sound like the ignitor is your problem. either it somehow cooled off very fast when you took it outsid, and it didnt have a chance to get warm, or you could be too rich and when the ignitor is taken off the glow plug is put out and it dies. also, did you check the quality of the glow plug? every coil should glow orange, if there is a white spot, then it should probably be replaced.

Sound's to me like it was flooded if it was hard to pull...

you might want to invest in a heat gun and preheat the engine also buy a temp guage to see if you are running rich

You dont have a tempature gun?

I have a temp gun. I'm 99% sure that it's operator error. I'm still learning my transmitter and I am still trying to get the whole lean/rich thing down. When it initially started I had just brought it out from my house to the garage. After quickly flooding it, pulling the glow plug, draining it...it started right up. It left the chilly atmosphere of my garage and headed toward the end of the driveway in about a 40+ degree temp. As soon as It returned to the garage it shut down. I couldn't get it started again. so...next time I'll try to preheat the head with a blow dryer or something, but in colder weather do you run lean or rich. lean means more air and rich means more fuel... is this right? Seems like I would want to pump in more fuel than cold air. Am I on the right track? Today it's going to get up to about 50 degrees.

Success!! It fired right up after making sure all was warm. Im sure that I will have to rich or lean it but i'm still confused on which i should do for colder weather. Temps around 50 deg. thanx!

You want to richen it up just a tad...

allright, im confused. i thought that richening in cold weather would just exaggerate the problem cause the engine wouldnt get up to proper operating temps.

You want to lean it out for warmer temperature's.

Mase

but how do you get proper operating temps in cold temps (over here its 60) if you have it richened?

If it's 60 there, how's it running?

our engines are running great, im just wondering how you get up to operating temp if you richen it in the cold?[&:]

If you richen it, then it will burn hotter...I think that is right, can anyone back me up?

Mase

im pretty sure thats what you do for a gasoline engine, but ive never done it for my nitros.

With colder temperatures you need to limit the cooling on the motor to attain proper operating temperature. You do not want to lean until you get normal operating temperature in cold weather this will result in a an overly lean setting which will result in detonation and shortened engine life

i dont think i have to worry about wrapping the head cause the coldest it normally gets here is 50, but i always just thought you leaned them a little.

i think you richen it for hot days becuase more fuel more lubricant, and make it lean on a cold day so that it gets
up to oparating temps becuase your engine will run hoter if its leaner i think

richer fuel mixture = COLDER engine temp.

lean fuel mix = HOTTER engine temp.

u need to find the happy place, for ur particular climate and conditions.

If you guys need info on tuning an engine, check out [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_3487834/tm.htm]this thread[/link], it has everything you could possibly need to know. Before I read it I was always asking other people to help tune my engine, but anfter reading all of those post I am able to tune my engines with no problem.

Sorry for the double post, but I found some great info in weather conditions affecting your nitro engine, here it is:

Temperature. Hot weather requires a leaner mixture setting; cold weather requires a richer setting. Most people assume the opposite because they treat the mixture needle like a thermostat. It is wrong to assume that colder weather requires a leaner setting to keep heat in the engine and vice versa. Cold air is denser than hot air. The denser, colder air packs more oxygen into the engine, so going from hot weather to cold needs a commensurate increase of fuel to balance ratio of fuel-burning oxygen and the fuel itself. The opposite is true in hotter weather. Going from cold to hot weather requires a leaner mixture setting.

Humidity. Humidity is the amount of moisture (water vapor) in the air. Moisture in the air takes up volume that would otherwise be occupied by fuel-burning oxygen. Less oxygen means less fuel is required to maintain a proper ratio of air and fuel. High humidity requires a leaner mixture setting than dry conditions.

Barometric pressure. A barometer measures the atmospheric pressure (generally listed in the local newspaper or on the local weather forecast on TV). Higher barometric pressure readings mean more air is getting into the engine, requiring a richer mixture setting to balance the air/fuel ratio.

Altitude. Altitude is an important factor that most of us ignore, yet it affects the engine’s performance possibly more than any other element. The general formula for power loss with increases in altitude is 3 percent for every 1,000 feet above sea level. If you race in Colorado at 5,000 feet instead of in California at sea level, you can expect to lose about 15 percent of the engine’s potential power output, if the engine is tuned properly.
Air is thinner at higher altitudes, which means there’s less fuel-burning oxygen than at sea level. You might sense a common theme here: less air (oxygen) means less fuel to maintain the proper air/fuel ratio. So, running at higher altitudes requires a leaner mixture setting than running at sea level.

than how do you maintain proper operating temps? i still cant figure this out...