Steve455400

My Feedback: (11)

Hello everyone what is the best t-maxx engine for drag racing cause I plan on building a drag t-maxx for racing right now I have the 3.3 but it don't cut it it's fast and everything but I want something way faster any suggestions?

fabrimacator21

Well if your going drag racing then more power is better. The picco .28 p3 is the top of the heap for bb's unless you want to deal with 300 dollar motors plus bump start conversions.

You'll need a BB kit though and beefed up tranny, diffs, and maybe driveshafts.

Other then that the picco .26 red dot medium block is a good choice if you don't want to buy a bb kit.

cmerritt

you could use an os 18tz with a tm crank and that would give you some serious power. will be a drop-in too. the p3 would be a good choice to as well as the red dot

controlliner

If you want "Gut Wrenching power", Put an OS .37 helicopter engine in it. You'll wear out your tyres in no time with that engine

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXHEX0&P=0

cmerritt

ya i would personally stick with a truck engine...

fabrimacator21

to be honest I don't think that .37 would be much of a step up if any.... most helicopter engines aren't any where near as high performance as the smaller off road racing motors.

Steve455400

My Feedback: (11)

cool so I sould go probley with the picco .28p3 then ok cool thanks guy's

absolutemayhem

dont forget about the LRP .30... its very user friendly...

rcdudegermy10

yea, the new LRP is putting out some serious numbers, plus the price is low too

moe7404

moe in wichita ks do the rules let run two engines? two 3.3s should realy go.

controlliner

Do you realize how much torque it takes to spin the Three foot rotor of a helicopter? An R/C car engine would never work. It has wimpy torque compared to the Helicopter engine.
I had an OS 32 H in a four wheel drive Leopard (by SG racing). It was used in hill climbing and none of the Car engines could touch me. Don't judge these engines until you try them.

fabrimacator21

Tq yes... hp though is a different story.

cmerritt

this is what i was just about to say, plus truck engines will reach almost 50000 rpm whereas heli engines reach what? about 25k. top end will be much better with a truck engine.

plus, what's the use of having all that torque in drag-racing if you cant hook it up, you will just sit at the line spinning your tires.

controlliner

First If he wants to use a T - Maxx in drag racing, It will take lots of torque to get it off the line quicker and maintain this for the whole distance. Second with the helicopter engine you can take advantage of real tall gearing and "smoke " the other one with the "Car engine".
I would really want to see any R/C car engine rated at 50,000 RPM. If it was fact, I would buy it. Most engines are rated from 29,000 - 39,000 RPM. In a drag race I would use the engine with high torque and tall gearing rather than a high RPM engine with no guts on short gearing.

cmerritt

umm... the trx 3.3 is close to 50k but not exactly. it's high 40's. i understand your point but the massive amount of torque would surely spin the tires to no end and then it will have to be geared pretty high to keep up with car engines top speed once it reaches it's max rpm.

it makes sense but there are drawbacks, i'm not an expert but i can say that heli engines aren't used in RC trucks at all except for the occasional tinkerer, not even in speed challenges or any sort of drag races period.

controlliner

The Traxxas 3.3 puts out @ 30,000 RPM.
Traxxas 3.3cc............OS 6.07cc There is no replacement for displacement. Twice the engine.[8D]

fabrimacator21

Tall gearing will help but it won't make up for the hp, powerband, and rpm loss... not to mention the taller your geared the weaker your tranny gets. In a tmaxx with rrp tranny gears, a stock picco .28 is already pushing it on the tranny. Gear it high with alot of tq and your broke before you can say *** happened.

What you need to understand is that the more powerful .28's already have too much tq. (ask me how I know). With a long chassis and a picco .28 I'm able to spin the tires like crazy on semi dirty asphalt and when it does hook, it's instantly on it's lid. Theres just no benefit to have more tq then the .28's because the .28's are already past the point of too much tq for a tmaxx. Not only that but a helictopter motor will make peak power around 20k and then fall off big time where as a .28 will keep pulling until 40k.

The .37 would leave HARD but would get killed after that. The powerband is just too short. Gear it high and you lose alot of that off the line advantage.

Some of the modded .28's are pushing 40-45k rpm. You can throw as much gearing at the .50 as you want but my money is on a healthy .28 every time.

cmerritt

i never said peak power i said top rpm was around 50k as in it is capable to reaching that. peak power for the heli engine is what under or around 20k?

plus it has to do with the engineering of the engine as well. there are smallblock engines that will outrun BB engines, all depends on the build quality.


anyway our discussion is way off-topic from the original question.


lets keep it as heli engines should stay in heli's and truck engines should stay in trucks.

controlliner

The first post didn't indicate he specificaly wanted a "Car" engine. He sounded like he was open to suggestions for something for drag racing with his modified T - Maxx (which is experimental)

bjhe333

Could you easily mount a clutch to a heli motor? The only helicopter I own is a Blade cx2 Just curious. With all that torque you could make a mean nitro crawler. Also are the heli engines dependant on the rotors to keep them cool? I'm a losi guy now but my first nitro was a tmaxx2.5

controlliner

You have to cut the threaded part of the crank shorter, mount the flywheel and use a pilot shaft flywheel nut. I did this with my Leopard and the engine was crazy powerful doing hill climbing. I had to use aluminum clutch shoes because the teflon ones wore out too quick. I had to be smooth on the throttle trigger though because the tyres came unglued a lot if I was too quick on accelleration. This engine was the ringed version and I NEVER had trouble with overheating, even on days when the temperatures were in the 90's. All this performance was with 10% nitro airplane fuel.

gmcman

Nitro heli engines have a fan on the clutch bell to keep them cool. Also, they have a very narrow power range since the rotors spin between 1500-2000 RPM, with 7-9:1 ratio gives roughly 15K RPM give or take, and they are usually set at a given RPM by the pitch and throttle curves in the controller, some even have governors. They are just designed to work in a very narrow power range and makes gobs of power in that range, car/truck engines make power over a much wider range.

bjhe333

Good info. Maybe someday My aftershock will become a crawler

justin_92_92

My Feedback: (2)

Anyone ever hear of the MGT 8.0? I wouldnt say helicopter engines should stay in helicopters...They can def. work! For this purpose though, Im not sure.

bjhe333

I agree a drag racer with a heli motor would be difficult.