Looking After Your RC Car

Remote control car enthusiasts will always want to have a great time and a great experience with their new remote controlled cars and trucks, therefore they are always on the lookout for useful tips.

Most obvious to many people is to toughly go through the owner's manuals to you remote control vehicles. Many people are tempted to skip this step; it's probably the single most important thing someone could do to prepare for a major remote control race. The best way to protect your new investment is to read about all its parts and what it can and can not do.

Painting and prepping the body of the remote controlled car is the next step. The initial break-in of the engine should be done with the shell of the body off the remote control car to insure maximum cooling to all the engine parts. Make sure you place the body far from the engine testing so as to keep it clean and free from dirt or oil. Prepping is easier with a clean body. The color or colors are as individual and unique as each person allows themselves to be. The body of the remote control car is the armor that protects your radio gear and expensive engine during its ride.

Many remote control nitro cars and trucks require the tires to be glued to the wheels and this is a part of the process some people might try to skip, but it is highly recommended that the clean wheels and tires are glued together. Dirty wheels or tires are harder to glue together. Tires should be glued to the wheels with a hobby grade CA – cyanoacrylate glue or superglue which is also a CA grade glue. Local hobby stores or arts and craft shops will carry hobby grade CA glues.

The foam air filters are usually shipped dry to keep everything in the packages clean so they will need to be properly oiled before starting an engine. This will ensure that dirt will stick to the oil and trap in the foam filter element. Running a petrol radio control car without the oil will result in inefficient filtering of the air. Simply place several drops of light-weight oil on the foam filter element and then gently press it down several times to help distribute all the oil throughout the foam element evenly. If you feel there is too much oil, it could be squeezed out by using a paper towel or rag. Make sure you are using light-weight oil because thick oil will plug up the filter and restrict air flow to the engine thereby reducing its power. There are oils specifically designed for air filter use that could be purchased at hobby stores.

Foreign objects and dirt getting into the engine could destroy the engine and the air filter helps to prevent this from happening. At excessive engine speeds of 40,000 RPM, dirt will quickly ruin an engine so every so often, as the foam filter gets filled up with dirt, remove it from the engine and clean it with ordinary household dish washing liquid, Simple Green degreaser or some other degreaser available on the market. Do not use gasoline or other strong solvents for they could damage the filter. 

The owner's manual will give ‘break-in' recommendations that should be followed to the letter. The first time running of a nitro engine will largely determine how much power the engine will produce and how long the engine will last. During the ‘break-in' period, the engine should never be run full throttle, be extra gentle during this period and it will be rewarding with longer engine life and maximum power later.