My first pleasant surprise was the new Losi 8/8T engine mount, granted its not cheap, but gosh is it lite .. but my real suprise was when i notice .. it SLIDES !!

The way the screws for the engine mounts work, they have a rail that allows them to slide about 5-6MM .. perfect mesh anyone ?

We also got in the new “Low Innercia” bits (for the 8/8T only at the moment) .. again, they are feather weight .. amazing

We are shipping the first pre-orders of those today, so I should get some feedback on how they perform in the upcoming weeks

Last, some people have asked me the difference between the FR50 and FR51 flywheels .. basically the FR51 is slightly longer, great for the older Kyosho engine and those who need a couple extra MM to reach the spur gear

FR50 on the left, FR51 on the right .. the FR50 is the Standard one and used by most cars.

Since George is a bit inexperienced, I suspected perhaps he forgot to put a collet in, I was further sure of that when he seems not to know what a collet is ..

To avoid damaging the engine, I asked him to send it to me and i’d take a look, well, it just arrived today…

Here is the beast, it’s quite a large engine, the Hong Nor RTR’s comes with them by default .. I can only imagine how insane a CR Buggy must be with one of those, anyway, back to the topic on hand.

You can definitely see how tight the flywheel is to the engine, I am at this point 99% sure the collet is missing (or is just way to small), I noticed George had done some superficial damage to the flywheel (some mole grips perhaps) .. I wanted to avoid doing further damage to it, so it was time to pull out the big gun … the piston locker

Now, I am ashamed to say so, but I actually never used one of them before, so I puled one off the shelf, it’s a good toll to have in my pitbox anyway ..

For those who dont know, this is how it works, you screw it into your glowplug socket, the protrusion on it will sit nicely on top of your piston head, preventing it from traveling upwards, therefore locking the piston and allowing you to tight or un-tight a flywheel with no need to use any mole grips or anything else on the flywheel itself, or in this case, since the flywheel had no grip, be able to remove the nut .. period.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy having the piston locker makes the whole ordeal ..

And voila .. once the flywheel was out .. the problem was quite visible .. indeed there was no collet

A whopping £2.99 later, and a nice new Hong Nor Collet (or taper cone as some call it) was in place

And there you have it, the flywheel is safely tight in place, and a nice gap shows between it and the engine, it turns just as it should … the whole repair costed exactly £2.99 and took 15 minutes … no sign of any damage to the engine, and the scrapes George did on the flywheel are just cosmetic .. in a few weeks of using it with the starter box, you wont seem them anymore

What did I learn from this ordeal ?, stop busting your behind with zip ties on the top of the piston or mole grips on the flywheel, definitely get a piston or crankshaft locker .. well worth it.

So I try it on the CB screw .. and sure enough … it fits !!!

I ended up by only using 2 .. but now it’s PERFECT !!! .. it’s ultra-smooth and no more worries of the CB freezing up

now if I could only remember what those shims are …….

Technorati Tags: 8IGHT-T, 8T, Fioroni, RC

Also the CB temperatures go quite high, so I was logging for a vented CB instead.

After allot of reading, I decided to try the Fioroni Turbo sliding clutch .. it just looks so simple and hassle free

So I bought the following:

• FIO-OT-FR51 Fioroni Turbo Sliding Clutch Flywheel + Nut
• FIO-OT-FR52 Fioroni Carbon (Black) Turbo Sliding Clutch + Clutch Shim
• FIO-OT-FR36 Fioroni Replacement Sliding Clutch Springs (6)
• ENA-K6501-13 K Factory 13T HD 1/8th Vented Clutch Bell

Also got a King Headz 8/8T extended motor mount.

So first things first, the CB came undone on the last race, so time to get it out

And a record this time, both bearings are gone, probably when one failed, the CB moved and killed the other one …

I kept the 8T collet, and proceeded to install the flywheel … nothing exciting there, but look how different it looks …

This is how the shoes look, it’s a very simple design, also, extremely easy to install (and quick .. a major plus if one is in a hurry between heats)

I used the 3 springs, so the clutch engages at higher RPM .. which means a faster sprint out of the starting line, I just hope it wont be too much of a push coming out of the corners, but we shall see, it’s uber-easy to remove a spring if I need it anyway

And here it is on the flywheel .. no messing around with clutch tools and funky springs .. Just slide it in and you done.

The large shim goes here

And last, the vented 13T clutchbell … it looks really nice …

Here I an into some problems … the shaft of the V-Spec is not long enough, so it recesses into the front bearing by a little over 1MM, so every time I tighten the CB screw, the whole CB would frozen .. after asking aroudn fro some help, it was evident I needed a shaft extension, the screw that comes with the 8T clutch does have a recessed washer with a small extension, but it was not enough .. I took the whole thing apart and tighten the flywheel as much as I could, that gave me another 1/2 MM or so, which was enough to make the 8T C B screw/washer work .. but I am not yet 100% happy, I am trying to find a shim that is the same size as the shaft to work as an extender.

And yes, I do have the OFNA Clutch/Nut shim kit .. but the shaft extenders there are too big, it would need allot of shimming and probably hit the fuel thank anyway.

But regardless, it works for now, and sure enough it spins nicely.

Last step was to setup the King Headz engine mount

I did set the engine blocks on the reverse, to push the engine forward 2MM .. that was enough to make this CB line up nicely with the spur gear

And that’s it … now I need to clean the engine (yes, it is dirty .. I know) … and I will test the whole setup next week at SpeedWay RC track …

I am really excited over this setup .. I just love the ease of maintenance, I might also try the teflon/glass shoes (FIO-OT-FR53) if the carbon ones prove too aggressive .. we shall see ..

Technorati Tags: 8IGHT-T, 8T, Fioroni, LST2, RC