Completed a new throttle assembly this weekend. Started with a Dubro 4-40 sized throttle cable and an RC Car style ball end assembly. After mounting the ball into the throttle shaft plate, I modified the female portion to shorten it a bit and soldered the threaded end onto the cable.
I fabbed a new throttle bracket out of much thicker aluminum, which also allowed me to move the cable slightly to help with alignment.
The cable ends were purchased from Warehouse Hobbies. They use the fuel tubing to hold the cable housing in place. I added some panduits (zip ties) to ensure that the housing would stay put.
I removed the radio box, added a piece of reinforcing carbon to the exit point, and installed the other cable housing end.
With everything in place, the thottle action is more precise and holds idle much better.
After some testing and breakin, I'll get to work on the tuned pipe.
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
Here is a cell phone video that my neighbor took during my first test run today. Didn't capture much of the full throttle stuff, but the boat ran really well. Hull runs VERY light in the water... but really stable. Initial prop was an ABC 2514/3. Handling was really nice, even in the rather choppy water today.
After the second run, the boat slowed some, and when I got it back home, the spark plug was very loose, so I suspect that was the issue. I'll go over all the carb settings and such just to make sure, but the plug color looked really good.
Can't wait to put some more time on her!
This is a .mpg video, so you'll need Quicktime or the appropriate plugin to play.
HyperSport 48 first run
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
You're slacking off, Darin. That wasn't in my e-mail in-bin this morning. I think I'm going to have to talk to somebody about your team membership
Andy
Spektrum Development Team
Hi Darrin, not sure what type of pipe you are going to fit, bit a Quickdraw Deep Vee Hotpipe would give you very good bang for buck.
Well... I figured out why I experienced a sudden loss of power/speed when I was out testing...
Starting fitting things for the new tuned pipe, and found a little item in the exhaust outlet... That explains it.
Worked out a way to fit a standard racing pipe on here, but it's going to require a 110-degree header, or something similiar, to wrap the pipe back around towards the radio box. Chasing down parts... news at 11:00...
I may look into that QuickDraw DV Hotpipe... Looks like that would be an interesting option...
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
Are you going to GPS it before and after? I would be curious to know the difference. Thanks.
I didn't bother to GPS it before... It was doing like every other big gas RTR does... around 40 or so with an aftermarket prop...
Got the pipe install finished last night. Pretty simple and quick to do. Fabbed some mounting brackets to run off the existing hardware. Drilled them up and layed a little polish/buffing to it, just because I could.
The header pipe is a 7/8" 105-degree Stainless header and No-Leak flange from CC-Racing (http://www.cc-racingengines.com). Pipe is an M&D (http://www.mddracing.com/) with integrated muffler. The extra muffler on the end there is a ProBoat Miss Bud 1/8th muffler. Just put it on to make sure it would fit, but likely won't be running it. Shouldn't need to anyhow.
Just have to finish plugging the factory exhaust hole in the side of the hull, and hook the water lines back up, and she's ready for the lake.
Would have liked to have the exhaust tucked up inside the hull a little nicer, but the cleanest way to do that would have been to purchase a $350.00+ QuickDraw DV QuietPipe, and that's a lot of bread. Plus, it's not as flexible for testing/trying other pipes for tuning, especially once I go to a Mod motor...
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
Here are a couple more shots showing the whole thing...
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
Nice work. I guess it's not a sleeper anymore!! :)
great work!
Made another small update last night...
I added a water exit port to the back of the hull, using a rectangle of plywood and some brass tubing. Drilled a 3/16" hole in deck at the back of the hull, just to the left of the center "hump", and epoxied the brass tubing into a 3/16" hole in the plywood. Then glued the plywood into the hull with the brass extending through the hole in the deck. I put in a pair of stainless screws just for good measure.
I then added a tap to the exit of the muffler and ran the water line up to this tap.
Not sure if this is the way it's "suppose" to be done, but I'll give it a try. At least until some Gas expert comes along and tells me I'm all wet and should have done it another way...
It's already fairly quiet. This should help quiet it a little bit more.
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
I always ran a square drive on all of my nitro boats. I wanted to run square drive again on the electric that I am building, but could not find a square drive "nut" for a 5mm motor shaft.
For anyone trying a square drive system the biggest problem is finding good durable bearings to fit between the prop and the strut (that's where all the load is). Areomarine sells a set that is very good and durable, it is two outer metal washers (infused, I believe, with some sort of lubricant) with a hard plastic washer inbetween. I'm going to run the bearings on my new build even though I have a thrust bearing at the motor.
Alright Guys... Racing Gas is a BLAST! Loved it!
Ran the HyperSport at the NAMBA District 8 Race #1 this weekend, and had a lot of fun.
They didn't offer G1-Mono at this event, so I had to run in Open Gas. Interesting enough, since Brian Buaas was there as well, with his new Grim Reaper Gas Outrigger... HOLY CRAP that's a fast boat!
There were two heats due to the number of boats... Outriggers, a Gas Sport Hydro, Thunderboats, a big Gas Cat... and little 'ol me!
Managed to drive well enough to get a 2nd in the first heat, and a 1st in the second heat... then broke the flex cable on the third heat while on the last lap and in a clear second place... ended my day.
I'm going to replace the cable with a squaredrive setup I think, since this has a captured stub shaft style strut anyhow. The cable broke RIGHT at the compression coupler, likely due to an alignment issue with the motor vs. the stuffing tube.
Might work on getting the pipe installed inside the boat, and also have a few other tweaks that I'm going to consider.
Otherwise, it was pretty much trouble free. In fact, several vetran racers commented that it was one of the best driving/handling RTR gas boats they'd ever seen. That's pretty cool! Needs to be freed up a tad, as it really pics up speed when the water gets churned up.
Jerry Dunlap took some GREAT shots... here are a couple....
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
Agreed, great pics.
I had mine out for it's first run. I agree that it handles phenomenally but is a little too tight. When greasing the flex shaft, I marked the total adjustment of the prop angle with a dremel and left the angle just about neutral. I'm going to give that a bump towards positive and see if it gets the bow up out of the water a little... -Mick
If you have access... try running an ABC 2514/3, or even a 2614/3... I tried a variety of props this weekend, and ended up running the 2614/3 and it worked really well...
I ran the 2514/3 on the bone stock boat, and it's a dramatic improvement over the stock aluminum piece... Might not think the boat is as tight after changing to that prop...
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
I know this is OS"E", but I am going to continue the HyperSport 48 discussion... During my first run my motor overheated. Found that the exhaust pressure was pushing backwards through the water cooling line because the line was blackened on the inside. I removed the line from the exhaust and re tested the boat. I saw that water was now flowing.
I tested the air resistance and don't seem to detect a problem through any component of the system. I guess I'll just mount a water exit in the side.
Unless anybody has any other insight?
Thanks. -Mick
OK Gang... this is going to be my last series of updates to this thread. I've done the mods I wanted to do, raced the boat, and have seen the results.
Since the last update, I've done a few mods.
First, I tore out the original stuffing box, reinforced the hull in that area with a layer of 6oz carbon fiber weave, and installed a new, linerless 5/16" brass stuffing tube. This also included slotting the transom to allow the stuffing tube to be moved up and down, so full strut adjustment was now possible.
I also installed a Killer Bee 3rd channel kill switch. Works great.
I installed a Gizmo GZ-1 top end kit, zero drag seals, and a CC Racing carb isolator plate to the original Zen 260.
I modified the strut by drilling it out to accept the correct brass tubing to support a standard .250 stub shaft assembly, and installed a stubshaft with a bolt-on squaredrive nosepiece. Flexshaft was replaced with a standard flex with squaredrive on the tail end.
Finally, I replaced the M&D steel pipe with a Cooper Quiet pipe.
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
Here are a few more pics of the updates... I also trimmed out an opening in the hatch, which allows me to get to the pull starter and carb, without having to remove the hatch. Race motors need ventalation anyhow, so this will help that too.
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
So, now for the performance report.
After some breakin time on the new motor, I filled the tank, and, running an ABC 2614/3 prop, went out for the first heat of Open Gas... The boat was REALLY FAST. The motor was STRONG... too strong for the hull as it was set-up. It was a handful to drive and quite dicey in the turns.
After making it 5 of the 6-laps, I stalled it after a bad hop.
After running the next heat in Gas Mono and almost flipping the boat, I knew something needed to be done to help settle the boat down. It appeared to me that the CG was too far back for this much power. My solution was simple... Not having any lead available, and seeing that we were racing in a rock quary, I found two nice round ROCKS, and placed one on either side of the tank in the bottom of the hull and secured them in place, surrounding them with pool noodles. Total weight, I found out later, was 2lbs 11oz...
NIGHT AND DAY difference!! I went out and the boat was AWESOME to drive. I was able to run out front and would have won the heat had I not cut a buoy trying to run lane 1/2 while holding off a slightly faster Open Gas boat. Running the boat with the extra weight tightened it up quite a bit, which obviously slowed it down a bit, but as the fuel burned off, it go slowly faster and faster. Taking some of the tab out of it would have helped as well.
Racing was going well, but I noticed that the strut bushings I had made from brass were getting sloppy. The pics below show why. They simply wouldn't hold grease and kept getting dry, tearing them to pieces. Not a great idea, apparently. Something more substantial would have to be done in the future.
One other thing I found was that the bolt-on squaredrive nosepiece was cracked at every apex point of the squaredrive. I'm thinking a soldered version, or one made from stainless, would be a better idea. OR, using squaredrive at both ends maybe.
Overall, it was a great racing experience, and I have little doubt that, at least on a club level, this boat would be able to be competitive in the Gas Mono class, or maybe even Offshore. NOT saying it would be an ultimate front-runner, but I would have no problem keeping it in the hunt.
So, there you have it, my one and final modification and race report for this boat. If anyone got any pics or video from this weekends D8 race, I'll post them, but otherwise, the racing and modding of this boat is completed. You'll see why in the next post...
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
OK, so... Round 3 for Open Gas... I'm one of two boats that hit the start correctly, and was chasing down the leader's big (50"+) Gas Mono into turn 1 of the first lap, when he slid out to lane 3. So, I turned down into lane one and took a bad hop, stalling me right at the exit of turn two. A couple of laps later, the gas hydro was about to pass the leader on the outside, when the leader slid out wide. So, the hydro turned to go inside, and ended up driving THROUGH the side of my dead boat... OUCH. Forced retirement of this poor HS48! Luckily, none of the major components were damaged at all, but the hull is toast.
I think, had it been important, I could have taped it up enough to get through the final rounds, which would have been fun since I think I was leading Gas Mono at the time, but there wasn't anything important on the line, and I didn't want to risk my motor, so I retired it right there.
I was able, however, to recover my ROCKS, so that was a good thing!
So, that's the end of this project. The Gizmo GZ-1 proved to be a real winner, and the mods I made definitely made it a competitive heat racing boat. I enjoyed tinkering on it immensly.
Time now to move on and put the motor into the Delta Force Sniper 45 I have here, and get serious about this!
Thanks for reading and for the help you've provided to get me going. Hope someone got something useful from this project.
I'll try to get some of the race photos from the day, and I think someone also took some video. It's worth seeing in action, because it really was quite impressive for an RTR...
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
Nice report Darin. Sorry to hear of the demise of the Proboat. I'll be running my Sniper in the "stock gas" class at my district race for the first time this weekend. Our stock class is a little different. We allow tuned exhaust and any hull except riggers. We'll see if the Sniper can keep up with the cats and sport hydros.
Darin, this is one great thread, terrific details. But jeez, you can't say the video would have been quite impressive for a "RTR"! :) You modified the motor, exhaust, shaft, hardware, steering... It looks like the only thing left is the original fuel tank!
Can't wait to see the next project.
That will buff out!! Just joking, Darin, always sad to see a hull put to rest, sounds like it was a sweet runner for a RTR hull.
Was wondering if you noticed a drop in power or a change in powerband when you changed from the steel pipe to the stainless? or Aluminum coopers quiet pipe.
I can't really answer that, because I never ran both pipes on the same motor... With the Cooper Quiet Pipe mounted to this new GZ-1 Top-end kit upgrade, the motor was STRONG, and, as a bonus, I was the only boat out of the 4 in Gas Mono that was legal on sound... 88db, vs. 94+ for most of the rest... and that was before I decided to add water injection into the stinger...
Darin E. Jordan - Renton, WA
"Self-proclaimed skill-less leader in the hobby."
Bookmarks