Alright, I bought a NEO .16 engine for my Nitro Evader. The first 5 tanks of break-in went by great. The engine has loads of compression, but usually started on the first or second pull. After the 5th tank, things began to turn sour and eventually I heard a little knocking and thought I toasted the rod or something. Closer inspection revealed that the backplate had loosened up far enough that the shaft sticking out of it slid off the crank completely. I looked inside the engine and everything looks great. It's still nice and shiny, and there were no problems cause by the shaft that I could see. I put it back together (with a generous application of thread locker) and it seems like it really has a hard time finding a tune.

It wont start sometimes, and then I richen the low speed needle and it starts. I then rev it up high to clear it all out, and when I let off it dies. Everything is plenty rich, but not overly so, because when I tried to lean it rather than richen it, it wouldn't even give me the chance to rev it up. It has the revving and dying problem with the wheels off the ground as well, so I no it isn't a clutch problem. I don't understand it at all. Could it be just some weird carburetor problem? It makes me so mad because the engine has so much compression and ran so reliably during the first 5 tanks. The temps on it were always fine. I just bought this engine and it has me totally confused. I have went some 3 years without ever having a problem out of a nitro engine that I couldn't fix myself, but this one has me flat out stumped. I need some help bad.

Turn up your idle a little to keep it running, then tune it - then reset the idle. Should help. I had an HPI 18SS that did the same thing, I actually lost the backing plate, found it after an hour of seaching. I actually had to buy lock washers for it to stay on. They actually make some that small?! Never really ran the same afterwards.

Well, I got it lined out, but it sure was tricky. The low speed needle was too lean, but I had richened it countless times, then I started to realize that even though I richened it a ton between runs, it was still in pretty much the same spot as before. The LSN is really easy to turn, and it actually had been self tightening as I drove. I used a small dab of shoe goo between the screw and housing when I found a good setting so it would stay put for the summer.

The truck is now officially sold, so I am off to buy a RC18T in the next few days.

TRAITOR!!!

Haha, yeah, I am. You should seriously drive one of the little boogers though. They are pretty sweet.