It's been a while

I kinda let the blog stagnate for a while. But I'm giving it a little love now.

As for the Hellfire I dumped alot more money into it. I pulled the stock engine out of it and installed a Racers Edge Surefire32 engine and I am really pleased.

Here is a list of some of the other things.

• Changed out the 13t clutchbell and installed a 16t clutchbell to add a little more top end.
• After adding the new items I ended up chewing up the center differential due to the added torque of the new engine and new clutchbell.
• Replaced the bent shock towers
• Replaced the center diff cup, which was originally plastic, with a machined aluminum one.
• Rebuilt all of the differentials and changed out the diff oils. I went for a 7K, 3K, 10K oil setup.
• Changed the shock oil weight for better handling.
• Airbrushed a new body as the stock body was trashed.

That is all I can think of right now. I will add some more pictures when I get home.

Money into the Hellfire:
$300 for the various parts mentioned above.

Total so far
$940

Hellfire - Bashed

I had the bright idea that I would take my shiny new Hellfire down to the local BMX track, what a blast!!! I had a great time! I ended up beating the shit out of it... but it was so much fun.

I ended up bending the rear shock tower ( note the aluminum piece between the rear tires) I also scratched the body up pretty well, but that always happens when you land upside down!. I finally got the hang of how the Hellfire jumps and was able to get it to fly and land perfectly.

I have started modding the Hellfire, not that it needed it, but that's just what I do. In the picture the exhaust pipe is an aftermarket OFNA jammin JP1, it rules, it adds alot of torque.

Money into the Hellfire:

$40 Jammin exhaust from of EBAY

Total so far

$640

HPI Hellfire

It has been a long time since I have posted to the blog and a lot has happened with regards to my hobby habit. I found myself wanting a little more out of an R/C truck. The Jato was great for it's speed and durability, but I was limited in where I could drive it. I wanted a 4 wheel drive truck and had a ton of choices. Most of the guys that I run with have Traxxas Revo's or HPI Savages. I,being me, wanted something different,so I started my search and to make a long story short I settled on the HPI Hellfire. I love this "Truggy". Yes that's right it is called a Truggy, I guess it is a cross between a truck and a buggy. The RTR version was kind of steep at $600, but I wanted it. Here is a pic in it's pristine state.

Money in the Hellfire pit

$600 Hellfire RTR

Jato - Updates

Well it's been a while since I last posted. I have bought many parts and the Jato has changed quite a bit since the last blog entry. As I mentioned in the last post I bought the Proline Moab tires. I was having a heck of a time keeping the tires glued to the rims, I guess too much torque. Due to the glue problem I bought 2 new Proline rims and two new Moabs for the rears as well as some new tire glue. The tire glue was what did the trick!! My other tire glue sucked! this new tire glue also from Proline came with a really small piece of tubing that fits under the bead of the tire and aids in getting the glue right where you need it, also the fact that the CA is so thin capillary action helps getting the perfect fit. The tires are perfectly glued and not budging now.

I felt it necessary to buy some new "street" tires as well, I think each type of tire has it's purpose and the Moabs are definitely for the dirt. I bought the Proline Agitator rims and the Road Rage II tires. The Agitator rims give me many more choices for tire patterns than the Traxxas rims, with the Traxxas rims you are limited to about four different tread patterns. Anyhoo that is enough about tires.

My stock body has been totally thrashed from all of the jumping and bashing I have been doing so I grabbed a Proline Crowd Pleazer clear lexan body that I had to paint myself. I was really psyched for task of painting the body. I have an airbrush and also had some left over Spazstix paints from my T-Rex canopy painting project. I decided on the red and chrome fade. Spazstix paints are really cool. The paints spray on semi-transparent and require quite a few coats to get the full effect, but after you spray a solid backer over the topcoat the effect is really neat, almost like a candy coating. If you use the chrome as a backer it gives an anodized look.



Broken parts...
I broke the front A-Arm this time and replaced them with the blue RPM parts. I also picked up some shock towers and body mounts knowing that I will break them soon. I also had to replace a broken spur gear and I also grabbed an extra.

The truck was having some steering binding issues so I bought an aluminum drag link that has bearings, this fixed the issue.



I will estimate what I spent on the parts to keep with the theme of this blog and that is wasting money.

4x Proline Road Rage II tires
6X Proline Agitator rims
2x Proline Moab tires
Proline tire glue
$98 from amainhobbies.com

RPM A Arms
$12 from Danbury Hobby Center
Drag link
$16 from Ebay
F and R shock towers
$12 from Ebay
4x glow plugs
$20 from Danbury Hobby Center
1/2 glallon fuel 25%
$22 from Danbury Hobby Center
1 gallon fuel 20%
$36 from Danbury Hobby Center
2x spur gears
$10 from Ebay
Lexan body
$25 from Ebay

Money into the Jato
Sub Total
$226

Total so far:
$892

Jato - New Tires

Here is the Jato with new shoes, as I mentioned in my previous post I got the ProLine Moabs. I was limited to the street as the stock tires were useless on grass due to the horse power this thing puts out, now I am free to go almost anywhere. These shots are from a construction site in my town.

I love this thing! I am going to upgrade a couple of things. First I have buggered up the steering servo so I will be replacing it soon.

I also want a K & N air filter and an aftermarket tuned exaust. I will also be upgrading my suspension and maybe swapping out my A- Arms for CNC'd aluminum.

That's it for now.

JATO- Crash

Ok, so, I have got the JATO all broken in and it's running great. Once again it is fast! I had my first bad crash with a broken part. I destroyed the rear "A" arm. I ran doen to the LHS and grabbed an aftermarket replacement from a company called "RPM" this "A" arm is made of better material than the stock part. The RPM part cost $12 for a pair. The install process was a real pain. I had to remove everything from the motor back to get at the shafts that hold "A" arm to the frame. (see pic) I had to buy more nitro fuel which was pretty pricey $34 a gallon sheesh! I bought an exaust deflector so that the unburnt fuel doesn't blow all over the rear wheel and rear axel, it really gets messy without it. I also orddered a new set of rims and tires. The stock rim for the JATO is a 2.8" rim which looks really good, but we are limited to only a handful of different tires and tread patterns. I opted for a 2.2" rim that allows me to choose from at least 30 different tire patterns. I went with the ProLine agitator rim and the ProLine MOAB tires. The MOAB tires have a more aggressive tread and have a larger total diameter (5") this will give me more clearance and a better traction in grass. One of the tricks of the tire mounting process is to wrap the inside of the tire with duct tape. Wrapping the inside of the tire prevents the tires from "Ballooning" at high RPM. Ballooning is when the centrifugal force stretches the rubber of the tire making it 2x it's original size, it can also cause the tire to explode. I will post more pics when I mount the new tires.





Money In the Jato Pit:

$42 Fuel and exaust deflector from LHS
$50 tires and Rims from amainhobbies.com

Total so far:
$641

More RC

Well I bought something to keep me going while I fix my heli. I bought a Nitro stadium truck and it's sick!! I got the Traxxas Jato 3.3. This truck screams. I does 0-60 in about 4 seconds and tops out at 65 MPH. I am really lovin' this on my lunch break. I had previously tried to fly the T-Rex during lunch at the RC airfield near my work but I found it too windy(near the beach). So now I can rip around the parking lots with the Jato instead. Did I forget to mention that it will do a wheelie @ 40MPH while throwing a rooster tail of dirt. Smokin!




Money into the Jato pit:

$549 for kit batteries fuel and tools @ LHS