Antique Aluminum Body 1/8 Nitro Car

[Coelacanth]

I wonder if anybody has used PB Blaster to free up RC motors...it's a fantastic product for full-size cars, for anything you want to unseize. I sprayed it down the spark plug holes in my '70 Charger that sat for 12 years without being started, waited 24 hours, reinstalled the spark plugs and it fired right up (it took a lot of pumping the gas pedal, but turning over was a breeze).

Never tried it on an RC nitro motor, and don't even own (or even WANT to own) a noisy-ass nitro RC, but it would be interesting to know if anyone has tried PB Blaster?

[Basher67]

I've refurbished quite a few nitro rc's over the years. I would pick them up cheap because they had sat so long the motors were "seized" from the nitro fuel drying up and turning hard. I usually just pull the glowplug and drop the whole motor in my ultrasonic cleaner full of gas and run it through a few cycles and let it sit overnight. Works like a charm. This one isn't covered with sludge on the outside and I want to be a little less savage about it, so I'm going to be a little more exact with my approach. The goal isnt to just free it up, its to free it up with out scoring/damaging the piston. Engines this old may have seals, especially around the carb, that are some kind of material that could be destroyed easily. I own a small engine business, so I have a shop equipped to deal with this, I'm just going to do my homework before I start throwing heat and chemicals on it. I'm in no rush and I want it done right. I dont think replacement parts would be readily available.

[Basher67]

I've made the switch back to electric with the brushless power becoming so cheap and powerful, but I was the neighborhood terror for quite some time with my nitro cars/trucks Nitro still has its place. Watch a video of a nitro rc motorcycle race. A dozen nitro rc bikes racing around a track sounds pretty cool and lends to the realism of the race.

[Basher67]

and so it begins...
A couple before and after shots of the front wheels.

[Coelacanth]

Yep...I'd rather look at that than several decades' accumulation of funk & munk.

[Basher67]

yeah, me too. I pulled out the engine. The builder of this car made a nice aluminum engine mounting plate instead of the crappy wood ones. All I'm doing with all these parts is a careful cleaning. The clutches came out like this. They have not been cleaned or anything. It looks like this car was run once around a parking lot and then shelved for all this time. Even the coil inside the glow plug still looks new. The engine had the expected dried gummy nitro residue inside as you can see on the inside of the backing plate. The engine is stuck, not so much from the piston but from the residue binding up the crank bearing. I will try to get that sorted out today. If I have time, I'll try to get to the gearbox. Heading to the track today to get some practice

[Dadio]

I just found this thread , what an awesome car and in such good condition , best of luck with the motor.

[Basher67]

I coudn't leave it alone so I just got to work. There isn't alot of pics or info on these cars so I thought I would share some more pics of the parts and workings of this car. I decided to just hand polish it for now. The engine was unbelievably new on the inside. The cylinder still has the crosshatching. Crazy looking piston. Cleaned the carb thoroughly. The engine turns over silky smooth with excellent compression. Feels like a new engine. Real trick to these it seems, is getting the clutch/engine lined up correctly with transmission/clutch bell. It used thin brass washers to achieve proper alignment and I happen to have a bunch that were identical to the originals so I was able to get a perfect alignment after about 8 attempts. I'm pretty happy with the condition now. I doubt I'll do much more if anything to it.

[Basher67]

Few more Pics

[RC10resto]

Nice clean up - Looks great

[Basher67]

It would be cooler to have the correct radio system for it. I don't imagine those are anymore plentiful than these cars though. I just don't think it would look right with a spektrum in it

[marty slater]

you might look at RcGroups under nitro motors
marty

[Incredible_Serious]

It would be cooler to have the correct radio system for it. I don't imagine those are anymore plentiful than these cars though. I just don't think it would look right with a spektrum in it

What old radio gear would you like to put in it? I have some old OS Cougar gear somewhere, at least a receiver and a couple of servos.... or some even older stuff. If it's just for display, rather than using, it might just do. Not new, of course, but gear that might polish up okay.

Alex

[Basher67]

I hadn't really thought about it until today. I haven't done any research yet to see what would be a "correct" radio. Let me get back to you on that. I haven't decided if I'm going to keep this or not.

[Trass]

WOW

Amazing chassis and wonderfull body... my eyes are crying !!!!

Many thanks for sharring

Jerome