SLR missle

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Eric Canto

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Jun 21, 2003
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1,278
Although I have been racing boats for over 30 years, I have never owned a gas boat.  I recently purchased an SLR Missle.  What should I expect?  Any tips?   Thanks
 
I just hear rumours from club “ issues “ must use square cable drive than around cable drive because gas motor can abuse on bearing 
 
put gas in it and have fun
Exactly  !! the T-boats  are a super competitive class, always lots of entries, the stock Zen does not need a square drive setup.  Eric you will love the time it takes you to put one away after a day of racing. Will see you in a couple of week s.. Tony J 
 
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A friend of mine has some eye issues and has asked me to drive his boats for him so we work with setup and lap times at our pond. His Missle is a blast to drive and is as fast as anything in its class around here. If you take it to race with the Voo Doo boys you will have to drive it but you can make it to the final but like I said you will have to get it all and make a perfect start to compete with those guys.

Is the boat fast? YES...it's a blast to drive. I can't give out his setup info though. I just drive it.

-Carl 
 
For anyone with little gas experience, the typical 6001 front engine bearing can take the crankshaft thrust from a round collet drive. Of course the squared cables are easier on the entire engine. Square cables do very well on the twin cylinder engines, where the double torque likes to separate the flex from the prop shaft at the weld. Heavy duty, specialty cable systems are available for the twins as well.

I would suggest a high quality synthetic 2 stroke oil, mixed at 8 to 10 oz./gal. with no castor content ( de-gummed or otherwise ). Non ethanol fuel if you can get it, and higher octane will usually not help anything ( depends on engine design ). Automotive pump gas is not consistent, area to area - season to season. But there's good alternatives.
 
First and foremost, only use epoxy 30 minute cure or equivalent.. DO NOT USE ANYTHING ELSE!!!! Square drive is not needed, a good 1/4" shaft with a good strut and you are in business. Keep it is light as you can. Follow all directions and have fun with it. I only use Coleman Camp fuel (White gas) with Honda SP2 synthetic motor oil. Keeps the smell from ruining a good dinner in the house and is easy on the carb parts. It is a little more expensive but look for it on sale. More octane will not do you any good. Pump gas has ethanol in it which wont work good so if Coleman is not an option, try to find a non-ethanol added fuel. If you have an airport near you, you can get 100ll Blue fuel. 100 octane airplane fuel with no ethanol in it. Some swear by it....
 
There is a simple trick to get the ethanol out of the gas by mixing it with water. See how a friend of mine did it:
http://www.xtremercboats.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=28988
Although the text is in Dutch it is pretty straight forward. He mixed about 2,5 liter (2/3 gallon) with 1/6 of a gallon of water with some dye color and then shake well. The ethanol mixes with water and sinks, the rest is pure gasoline and can be pumped out (still have to try it my self).
 
If you have an airport near you, you can get 100ll Blue fuel. 100 octane airplane fuel with no ethanol in it. Some swear by it....

if you think a low-compression chainsaw motor needs 100 octane leaded gas, then I don't give a rat's f*** what you "swear by." just keep your exhaust outlet out of my face, thank you.
 
if you think a low-compression chainsaw motor needs 100 octane leaded gas, then I don't give a rat's f*** what you "swear by." just keep your exhaust outlet out of my face, thank you.
Jim, I dont think I know you and pretty sure you dont know me. Before you take such a rude opinion of me and what I use, you should know the facts. I use only low octane Coleman fuel with Honda HP2 Synthetic in my gas boats. If you re-read my post, you will see that I DO NOT say I use it and I DO NOT SWEAR by it. I said "SOME" swear by it. Read the posts on Jim's RC Boat Dock and I believe there are some here too about the topic of using higher octane fuels in gas boats. In fact, I have had some high performance gas motor builders suggest higher octane for their motors. If you want to talk about octane, Coleman's octane is around 50. Regular pump gas is 87 with ethanol which is not good for our gas motors. To get pump gas without ethanol, you need to get premium at 91 octane or 100ll blue which is also ethanol free. The octane will not really make much of a difference but regardless, with whatever gas you use, you should never get your face into an exhaust outlet of a gas boat!
 
Eric,
quarter inch cable drive with a Zenoah is your best route but leave a 3/8ths to half inch gap between the strut and the drive dog because the cable length will be long on your boat and the large gas props combined with the heavy boat will cause the cable to shrink more than the smaller and lighter nitro boats.
 
It seems there are endless discussions about "gasoline" choices for gas boats.

Most of the gas engines that we use ( read, Zenoah ) don't need high octane for performance or engine protection ( read, detonation ). We also DON'T need ethanol, and pump gas that is inconsistent in its formulation, and "goes bad" in short order, and just plain STINKS in our trailers, cars, shops, and houses.

A lot of guys therefore go for Coleman, 100LL Avgas, VP93, various grades of race gas. All these alternate "gases" are consistent, have no ethanol, are clean, last a long time ( properly stored ), and the smell won't make you puke LOL. The extra octane ( except for Coleman ) does nothing good or bad for these motors, it's just in there.
 
A lot of guys therefore go for Coleman, 100LL Avgas, VP93, various grades of race gas. The extra octane ( except for Coleman ) does nothing good or bad for these motors, it's just in there.

Guys keep this as a note. If you are talking our Quickdraw engines with the high compression head button on it. You need to run either 100LL or C10 from VP which they claim is same as avgas. You need the extra octane to help it from going into detonation. Customers have tried it and said no difference with C10 or avgas and even VP rep said you will not notice any difference because they so close. If are running the lower compression head button than you can run the VP SEF93 fuel but not recommended for the high compression heads.

Todd

Quickdraw
 
"The extra octane ( except for Coleman ) does nothing good or bad for these motors, it's just in there."

Not entirely true. The higher the octane number, the more compression the fuel can withstand before detonating. The octane rating directly relates to the speed of the flame travel when ignited, higher octane also typically allows you to run more advance in your ignition timing which leads to the ability (in most cases) to burn more fuel IF the engine is set up to take advantage of that. Most Zenoahs run better on lower octane (regular vs. "hi test") but the higher compression "custom" motors like QDs and the new CMB 27s perform best on high octane fuel. All depends on application but if you run a Zen you're probably better off with 87 octane "regular" gas even though it does stink up the shop. :(
 
Don, if you are going to dispute my replies, don't quote a small section that's out of context. It does you, or anyone reading the info no favors. I specifically said "Zenoah" in referencing fuel octane. If I was talking about QDs, CMBs, or any other purpose built marine gas engine, I would have addressed those accordingly.

58 years of building high performance
 
Besides the urinating contest posts on fuel so far, reinforce every joint on the hull where it's just plywood-to-plywood joints otherwise it can blow apart. Use some sticks there and probably some carved aileron stock for the nose. I went around and around with Joe on this matter but I'd rather have strength even if I gain a few ounces in the process. I've already heard of the nose separating on some of them.
You're going to have to work on the sponson tops also as the fit is terrible so you're going to have to cut some wedges out of them to get them to fit properly. Wood can't do compound curves well. You'll see what I mean when you get to those steps.
As far as fuel goes, you're going to run a stock Zenoah if you're going to race it so no fancy fuels are needed. I run Coleman camp stove gas with 8 oz. of a good synthetic 2-stoke mix per gallon. I get the fuel at Menard's which has better prices than Wal-mart and Lucas oil.
 
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