running too cold?

[glenng]

Would running an engine too cold harm or prematurily wear a motor? I've been using 2 water pickups on a .65 and the motor never seems to get hot. Should I use one pickup and feed the cyl. head first and route the water to the exhaust manifold? Thank's Glenn

 

[anthony_marquart]

I think running an engine too cold will cause the fit to go away quickly. The P/L fits much tighter when it's cold. I try to get my engines hot as soon as possible.

 

[glenng]

I think running an engine too cold will cause the fit to go away quickly. The P/L fits much tighter when it's cold. I try to get my engines hot as soon as possible.

Thank's Anthony, That's what I was worried about. I only ran the moter about 15 times and when I checked the piston /head clearance I noticed the piston was not trying to push the liner out of the block at T.D.C. Can the sleeve be squeezed to restore the P/L fit? The motor is very clean and no signs of wear or scoring. Is there an ideal way of checking the temperature? Temp. sticks like welders use? Thank's, Glenn

 

[Adam P]

I think running an engine too cold will cause the fit to go away quickly. The P/L fits much tighter when it's cold. I try to get my engines hot as soon as possible.

Thank's Anthony, That's what I was worried about. I only ran the moter about 15 times and when I checked the piston /head clearance I noticed the piston was not trying to push the liner out of the block at T.D.C. Can the sleeve be squeezed to restore the P/L fit? The motor is very clean and no signs of wear or scoring. Is there an ideal way of checking the temperature? Temp. sticks like welders use? Thank's, Glenn

Hey Glen,

The very best tool you can have in your tool box for tuning your Nitro engine is a temp gage. THE only way to truly know if your Nitro engine is ruining at it's peak performance is to know what temp it's ruining. If it's ruining rich it will be cold, if it's ruining lean it will be hot. Every Nitro engine has it's own "SWEET SPOT" or ideal temp on average it will be somewhere between 160 degrees and 180 degrees at full throttle, it will need to be above 150 degrees to even be considered getting warm. Once you have found your engines sweet spot, when ever you go to the pond you can dial it in to that temp and your good to go. Your needle settings will change depending on your ponds conditions from day to day, but the temp your engine runs the best at won't. You change your mixture settings to get your engine to that "SWEET SPOT"!

What I do with my Nitro engines is first start it on the table and let it get to at least 100 degrees,(pointing my temp gage directly at the glow plug) then throw it on the pond, run 1 mid throttle lap to let her warm up then 2 full throttle laps and bring it straight in to my pit man and let him check the temp and adjust my mixture setting from that reading. BUT remember to get it to him as quick as possible after coming off full throttle because the temp will change more the longer it's not at wot, if your cruising up to him at half throttle it will cool off, and the longer it takes him to get to the glow plug to get a reading after you kill the engine, the hotter it will get. The temp will raise about a degree every second or two for the first 10 to 15 seconds so you have to take that into consideration when analyzing your temp reading's .

 

[Eric Bourlet]

Running it too cold will not cause more wear in it's own right. What will happen is, you will end up leaning it down trying to make up for the power that you are loosing from running too cold. The lean burn will cause it to fail early.

 

[Tim Kish]

Would running an engine too cold harm or prematurily wear a motor? I've been using 2 water pickups on a .65 and the motor never seems to get hot. Should I use one pickup and feed the cyl. head first and route the water to the exhaust manifold? Thank's Glenn

Try a smaller stinger dia. on the pipe that should help get the heat up.

Tim K

 

[glenng]

Would running an engine too cold harm or prematurily wear a motor? I've been using 2 water pickups on a .65 and the motor never seems to get hot. Should I use one pickup and feed the cyl. head first and route the water to the exhaust manifold? Thank's Glenn

Try a smaller stinger dia. on the pipe that should help get the heat up.

Tim K

Thank's Adam, Eric and Tim, I'll try one water pickup and a temp guage and go from there and see if thing's improve. thank's, Glenn