Have yet to drive it, but this weekend I'll see how it's tuned... can't wait to hear the big .32 breathe! The fella backed out on including the stock dirt bonz tires, but you guys said they suck anyway. He threw in a set of revo wheels and tires, that should work fine. The original body is now a shelf queen! Our local track was wiped out from all of the rain we had a week back, but I think a bunch of us are getting together to fix it, so that will be great.

Nice man, upload some pictures. Hope you like your Savage. You bought it used I am assuming?

-Josh-

Yes, used. Pics are posted on my gallery, (well only one so far). The body is trashed, and I'm not going to put the original Limited body on, because it's in good shape. What big SUV bodies are you guys running? Thanks.

Get rid of the wheels as soon as you can traxxas wheels arent very good. The stock dirt bones are good tires that why the guy kept them .

Yeah the Dirtbonz are good tires, it's the HPI foam inside of them that sucks. The problem with the LE is that it was an RTR truck and the tires came pre-glued, unlike with the SS models where you assemble them yourself and have the option of using better foam. If you find a good deal on some Dirtbonz then grab them, just don't use the foam that comes with them.

What type of foams you guys recommend?

Link pls

I've heard good things about the tires, they are wide and aggressive. What's wrong with the wheels (other than the chrome peeling away, nothing some black rit dye won't fix)? They look brittle to me, but, our track's jumps aren't super big, will they break easily? Anyway, started it up in the garage yesterday morning after work, just because. This thing sounds like a freakin' 250cc dirt bike! I've been hangin out at the track alot this year, and I have yet to hear anything like it. Going out later to temp and tune.... I think I have a drag race set up with a guy from work with a stock monster gt 4.6, I'm hoping bigger engine + lighter truck + 3 speed tranny = a faster straight line truck, maybe? Time will tell.

Dirt Bonz are good.. Foam-wise I heard the stock sucked too, so asked around, but ordered the Proline unmoulded "extra firm".. They were firmer at the beginning yes, but are ultimately junk, as I recently had to bake a wheel to get the rim off, then put in one of the old stockers to replace it..

So, foam-wise you want moulded. Proline has some I think, and I think I've heard "Trinity 3-stage" somewhere before as being really good... Anyway, look around, and just shoot an email to a shop and say are they right for Dirt Bonz...

Also important is, when you get new rims, make sure they have a 17mm hex.. I have some wide offset Ofna dish rims - dyed black - on Dirt Bonz - and they're great.. Handles great, VERY light(= more speed..), and look good too IMO.. Just not that great for jumping, as the wide offset puts strain on other parts... Proline also makes a less offset dish rim... I didn't used to like dish rims, but they've grown on me - they're light and look good dyed black....

I agree! I've already decided to buy a set of black dish wheels and a set of 40 series pins. I'm buying a new body today, not sure what, but I will paint it with some Dodge Sublime Green I had purchased for my crawler (before I decided to go all black with it). It seems the brighter colors are better at the track, where you don't always have a good view of your rig (the vibrant orange on my Firestorm is proof!). I've always liked the Sublime/ black scheme back to the early Mopar musclcars. BTW... I am wearing Revo wheels, isn't the Revo a 14mm hex? Thanx!

CDM, the main problem with the Revo tires is that they just don't work that great anywhere but on flat high traction surfaces. The Revo wheels also make your track width narrower, which makes the handling kind of twitchy and increases the chance of traction rolling. I'd suggest some slight offsets, they will take it the other way and actually increase the track width an inch or so over stock.... muuuuch better in my opinion.

You'll murder that MGT. A stock LE will out accelerate a stock MGT 4.6, and the top speed is a tick faster too.

As for the foams, I prefer regular firm foam. Molded foams are excellent for a hard packed track or pavement, but the regular foam seems to work better for just ripping around bashing and stuff. Molded might actually be the best choice for the Dirtbonz though since they are so thin and soft.

Thought so, but I've never seen an MGT stretch it's legs. There are a couple at the track that impresssed me so much, I contemplated buying one! Seem to handle great, although I believe they are both far from stock. A good friend of mine is a consistent TQ, in fact the only race he has lost this season was to a, guess what..... MGT! ( Albeit with a fantastic driver) His Savage X runs dish wheels and 40 series pro-line pins, so I'll go that route by the time our local track is repaired. For now, I'll punish the Traxxas Talons!

All and all a good day. Not without it's problems though, I did manage to shell my spur gear after spending quite a bit of time tuning.
Chronic, you were spot-on with your outcome of the race.... murder may be an understatement! We were toying around when he suddenly stopped and waited for me, as if to say "let's get this over with", I pulled about 7-10 truck lengths in about 40 feet! My truck is definately stronger, bottom all the way to the top. However, that was un-necissary as it was easy to see just watching each truck play around, the savage would send the tires into a full speed frenzy at every blip of the throttle, wheras the mgt seemed to have trouble braking traction. The fun was short lived however, as about 10-15 minutes into it the big mill was screaming like it was tied to a tree, and no wheel movement to speak of. I say it was a good day because as I said in my previous thread, I was a bit worried about the engine, but no longer. Any suggestions on uprgrading this?

the 4.6 is a good powerful engine, if youre gonna upgrade i suggest the sts .30 with the sts pipe and clutch shoes, many say u need the pipe as it works better with port timing, some complicated stuff. sts 30 engines haul ass. you will never be dissapointed

I think you may have misunderstood. I LOVE the Sure Fire .32! I simply chewed up the spur gear, but it's replaced now. I run a 3 shoe clutch, and that seems to work well. The pic is blurry, but if you look you can see the spur gear has been demolished. That's what I was asking for a possible upgrade for... not my engine. I switched to a 18t clutch bell, 49t spur gear. It was a 13t clutch bell 47t spur gear. I like it better now! More top end, and the truck will not red line before shifting.

Upgrading to an aluminum clutch will help your spur gear situation a bit, but remember its all dependant on how well you meshed your gears. Also a vented clutchbell. The most likly reason your spur died was beacause your clutchbell overheated from slippage and melted your spur.

Yeah thats what I would suggest, a vented CB and a set of alum clutch shoes. Im running a similar setup on my truck. Hpi alum shoes with gold springs to a 19T vented CB with a 49 plastic spur. With an STS .30 and 702 pipe of course![>:] I finally got my damn engine to fit Im gonna wait on the break in though for some extra parts[&o]

Make sure you stick to plastic spur gears, they can last gallons and gallons if you set yoru mesh correctly and tighten down your engine screws every so 5 tanks. Good luck and have fun with your new Savage!

Yeah, a friend of mine who works at my lhs, and is a fellow savage owner, said the same thing about the plastic gears, so I went with one. He set it up for me as I watched. The aluminum clutch is something to think about, but I'll see how long this one holds up. Thanks!

Honestly, I went through enough aluminum clutch shoes. Stick to the HPI nylon ones. They will run you 8-12 bucks and do a hell of a job. I melted 3 pairs of aluminum shoes on my bigger motors.

uh...what?

plastic clutch shoes suck, you don't put enoguh power to the ground, they heat up the CB and tear up spurs.

Anyone else have an opinion on aluminum vs. nylon shoes? Lets hear 'em!

just turn them the other way around.. the alu ones and they bite better i would go with alu..

I've had the mip clutch kit in mine for over a year now, it wheelies better then ever.

Would it be better to get the aluminum clutch shoes and vented CB, and a polished pipe or stick with stock platic pipe and shoes and buya new engine for not much more?

whatever you do, don't run the stock pipe with any engine IMO. you'd be better off with a pipe, clutch, and clutchbell. you can always upgrade the engine later...and the pipe/clutch will definitely wake your stock engine up