SAVAGEJIM

I didnt want to jack Rocco Van's thread anymore so I started this thread to discuss on how you keep out rocks and debris form entering the flywheel and chipping of flywheel fins.

The production debris guards I have seen so far are made by Slammer RC and sold by DDM
http://slammerrc.com/enginedamn.html
http://www.davesmotors.com/s.nl/c.88...t.A/id.6155/.f

And also made by Outwears and also sold by DDM
http://www.davesmotors.com/s.nl/c.88...t.A/id.6362/.f

For the Fan covers, I have seen these Outwearers:
http://www.davesmotors.com/s.nl/c.88...t.A/id.4501/.f

The Outwearers are great in that they screan out su much more crap, but I attempted to fabricate my own guards in attempt to make a more descreet appearacnce. I attached pics of my work below.

SAVAGEJIM

For the fan cover, I used nylon screen door mesh. I cut them out neatly and secured them to the fan cover with 10 lbf fishing line (about 0.012in diameter). I drilled tiniy holes with a hand hobby drill using a 0.024in bit and tied the mesh secure to the fan cover. It looks very descreet if you ask me; you would have to look closely to see the mesh in the fan cover.

46u

My Feedback: (3)

I am lazy so I have the Outerwear pull starter cover. I need to get there case cover. I mostly race so there are not many if any rocks on the track. Looking good Savagejim.

Lars from Norway

Nice work here.I have done almost the same on my fan cover,but i glued it to the cover on the inside.I used door mesh too,we have a lot of it at work so of course i got it for free

SAVAGEJIM

Thanks for the compliments guys. I probably spent about an hour or two messing with the nylon door screen mesh and securing that to the fan cover. If I am to do it again, I am sure I can get the process done in under an hour.

Lars, I'm glad you posted; your fan cover was my inspiration do mount mine up in the very same way. I remember someone esle used screws, washers, and nuts to secure a screen mesh into their fan cover. I cannot remember who that person was, I do hope he posts here too.

SAVAGEJIM

As for the crank case debris guard, what got gears turning in my head was the slammer RC mesh guard.
But what really inspired me to do this was seeing Mooman's home made debris guard; see post #6 in this thread:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8972673/tm.htm

As a result, I went to the store, bought some square mesh chicken wire and went at it myself with small wire cutters, a dremel to sand off the sharp spots where I cut the wires, and a single zip-tie strap. I am actually astonished at how easy it was to make this; I did this all just this morning.

I am still not satisfied with the ability of this mesh to screen out rocks, I cannot help but feel that the rocks that can fit in the squares will still be big enough to damage the flywheel fins. So my next step is to use some more of the nylon door screen mesh I have and wrap that over the chicken wire mesh. Now the problem I can think of is heat from the crank case. The heat could melt the nylon; but I am hoping that the combination of the mesh being about 0.25-1.00in away form the surface of the crank case surface and also the air moving towards the flywheel fin blades will keep the nylon mesh cool enough from melting. If it will melt, I am thinking about getting alum screen door mesh instead. That will resist much more heat before failing.

SELWA

My Feedback: (1)

Good posts and ideas. There are a few other materials you can use but sometimes are hard to find and get. I have some aluminum screening I had kicking around that worked very well for the engine area. I'll post some pics up in the morning.

cuemando

I have used stainless steel mesh. Fixed on with stuff like kneed it which is heat proof.

Lars from Norway

That is very nice to hear!

I too think that the chicken wire is a bit too coarse,still a good amount of room for rocks and debris to find theyre way through there,so the idea of putting some screen mesh there is a good one.I dont think it will melt as there is a constant airflow through there,and as far as i can see no direct contact with the crankcase.

SAVAGEJIM

Thant kneed it stuff, is that like some sort of 2-part epoxy that becomes that clay-like substance? Or is it like JB Weld?

Sounds like a great idea; and if it is strong enough to hold mesh directly to the crank case and crank-flywheel bell like that, I will try to get some to hold alum screen door mesh onto my chicken wire guard.

SAVAGEJIM

Good to hear that! I'm glad that you too are inspired to give this a try; as we all come up with our home-made guards, maybe we will create some innovations that the production sellers such as OutWearers and SlammerRC can use to improve their own products. I do hope they stumble across this thread and employ some of our ideas.

SAVAGEJIM

Thanks for the tip. I was very concerned that nylon will melt there; but I will take one of my RCs out today, put a temp gun in the area and measure the temps there with the engine running. If it is too hot, I can always get alum screen door material.

mooman007uk

So far so good, I went out in gravel and grass and it keeps the nasty stuff out. I used some mesh from home hardware, trimmed it to fit snugly and used 2 cable ties like slammerdamn to secure it, stops grass and fin snapping rocks. Cost 25cents. My main priority was to keep out the dime sized rocks, I'd had one that jammed in so good it bent the case to cylinder deck surface and caused a base gasket blowout, it'll let in 1/8" stones but they don't concern me too much as they just get spit out again

Lars from Norway

Well,i am not sure that it will NOT melt,but i cannot see why it shouldTry to put a piece of the nylon mesh (if you have some leftover) under there,directly onto the cranckcase and see if it melts.

The chicken wire makes a good base/frame for the mesh to be put on by the way

SAVAGEJIM

Well, in looking at the engine mounts of the FG MT I intended to drop this puppy in, I think I have hit another snag.
The FG engine mounts that screw onto the crank bell on the clutch side might hit the wire mesh [:@]

I will try do see if I can wiggle it around and mount the engine mount securely to the engine and cross my fingers that all will be good.

I did however get some alum door screen mesh to go over the chicken wire so that the engine will ingest much smaller particles instead of fin-busting rocks and fouling sticks and grass blades. I decided to go with the alum mesh over the chicken wire because I was running my 2WD FG MT and the engine temp hit over 200degrees F at that area of the crank.

As for securing the alum door screen mesh over the chicken wire, I cannot use fishing line; that too will melt. So what I am opting to do is out of that alum mesh, I will pull out one slum string and use that as securing thread. I hope it all works out; I have yet to try to yank out a single continous string, much less try to tye that like nylon spring.

SAVAGEJIM

I ran into another snag; I totally forgot about the engine guard that mounts to the clutch side of the crank bell. That piece will interfere with the guard.

This is the part in question. The part that rises up and holds the bearing in place abuts the bell housing that is on the clutch side.

dc2 man

hey sj good thread.

i urgently need to do this same mod on my fg beetle as anytime i take it out the grass gets sucked in around the engine and its hard to keep an eye on it,i do not want any of my engines overheating especially my cad G270 motor..

i was putting this off for a while as it involves my taking out that engine again...and jetpro is just a pain to remove lol so now i may just wait until i get my contrast clutch and then do the whole lot together.

would you try epoxy glue of some type for it like that steel epoxy,it hardnes really well and will take to any engine casing.

Mudgy

gotta say (without being biased to Aussie ingenuity)
that's a good way to do it... BTW, its called U-knead-it

kinda like JB weld, yeah

have you seen the stuff called "Termi-Mesh"?
It's a fine weave, stainless steel mesh used as a termite barrier in building industry.
I reckon it would breathe real good, and stop all but dust gettin in.
I used a piece as an air filter (outer skin) support for a 1/8 buggy, also used some on that same car as a side window in the body.

SAVAGEJIM

Thanks for the compliment and also for the suggestion.

Yeah, I totally agree; having a modded engine and wanting to protect it from fin busting rocks does become a priority for those of us who own them. Though my engine is only about $550 USD (roughly half of your CA G270), I too want to keep my engine safe from those pesky rocks and going strong.

As for taking out your engines and taking the effort to install the guards, I totally know how you feel. I too just want to go out and run and enjoy the power of these modded engines.

As the epoxy, I am going to try some JB weld. I cannot find the U-Knead-It that Mudgy mentioned, so I will have to hit the net to see if I can find some of that. It might look pretty, but the pic above of that U-Knead-It looks like it is very functional and reliable.

For know, until I can get that delivered to me, I am going to proceed with the chicken wire I have and mod it to accommodate the engine mount and secure alum screen door mesh to it with a combination of JB weld and tying it down with one of the alum wires I liberated froim a piece of the mesh I cut up

cuemando

The stuff is called PC-Fahrenheit. Made by PC-Products in PA USA. www.pcepoxy.com

Its heat proof up to 500F with a limited life but can hold 350F all day, everyday, water and fuel proof.

Yes, it's like clay and you kneed it to mix the two parts together. Just like u-kneed-it but heat proof. JB weld is more like a liquid and harder to get to stay where you want it. You can also use super strength or ultra clear arildite as they are heat proof too but these are liquid also unless you let it go off a bit before application. The stainless mesh was $2 for a strip 30" X 4". I got it from my sheetmetal supplier as an off-cut. I cut paper templates the cut the mesh and used some pliers to turn up an 1/8"edge, then my hands and the corner of the bench to form it. The epoxy sticks to alloy like poo to a blanket.

SAVAGEJIM

Thanks so much cuemando, I began to hit the net to see where I can order myself some.

On this Tuesday or Wednesday, I will post up pics of my chicken wire guard with the alum mesh added on. The alum string I used to tie down the mesh is giving me some headache; I am seriously putting off finishing it until I can get some of the PC epoxy of u-kneed-it. I have in mind to use the epoxy to glue the alum mesh to the chicken wire.