By: Sirace Services
NITRO ENGINE TUNING GUIDE
After a decent season of nitro racing I've been wanting to try to retune by Nitro RS4 to get just a little more performance and better lap times out of it..Not to mention being able to finish all my races..I'm hoping that broken parts and frustrating no-starts are going to be a thing of the past... So when I was contacted by The Pro at Pro Racers Secrets to review his latest article ( The Nitro Engine Tuning Guide) I was thrilled..
The Nitro Engine Tuning Guide starts off describing the basic parts of the engine...We then move on to picking the right engine for the right application..Pretty basic stuff but great for anybody starting out and a nice refresher for the seasoned racers..I find it helps sometimes when you have done a lot of tuning and are still not getting the results you are after, to just start fresh from the beginning...I think that after every season all R/Cers should do this with their engines...Completely tear it down and start fresh..You may just notice a broken part waiting to happen before it does..
From here on things start getting into the details..
Carburetors are examined from the types to the needles to the fine tuning...You will know your carb and what it can do by the time you finish here..
Next we get into Engine Temperatures...Three ways to determine how hot your engine is running and the things you can do to control it..
The Pro also covers the Breaking In of your engine and when it needs to be tuned and why and how..
Ever had your pull-start lock-up??(aka -vapour lock or flooding the engine)..I have...And plenty of times too...When I first started out I was a little green...I figured my engine was the only one on the planet that was doing this...I couldn't get it started at all and figured even the hobby store people wouldn't know what was wrong with my engine..I figured I must have gotten a defective motor..Well..If I had had The Pro Racer Secrets Engine Tuning Guide then, I would have been running in no time instead of ready to chuck the whole lot..Hey!!...Don't laugh...We all have to start somewhere
The Pro goes into detail on the workings of your clutch...Thats great for me 'cause thats one of the upgrades I'm considering for my O.S. .12...Boost bottles...Do you really need one??...Find out the scoop here..You want to Port your engine??...If so, read this article first..
One of the things I enjoyed the most was the introduction to hand signals used by racers to fine tune their engines during a race...To allow them to communicate with their pit guys without having to scream out the instructions over the roar of these nitro beasts..I'll being using these next season for sure..
There is a lot more that the Pro goes into, but I'll leave that up to you to discover for yourself..(how about Simple Set-Ups for Dummies as one of the final sections...Yes..I read it...Twice!!!)
I think that I should mention here that The Pro has been in this hobby since he was 12...He now has many years of racing competitively both locally and South Of The Border as his basis for knowledge..He is currently writing articles for Xtreme R/C Cars magazine and has put all that experience and knowledge into all of his articles he is presenting to you via his website, Pro Racers Secrets
I think I've mentioned in the past that when it comes to The R/C Guy getting questions answered, The Pro is the guy I turn too...His Nitro Tuning Guide is well written and well layed out...I am keeping my Nitro Tuning Guide close at hand...I'll be completely rebuilding my engine with advice directly supplied by The Pro...He can still beat me at the track for now, but wait until my Engine is dialed in using his methods and the methods used by professional racers worldwide...