Before you invest in any RC Car, you need to know if you will be getting value. Therefore understanding how long your car will last is important. Let’s focus on the most critical component, the engine.
How long will a nitro RC engine last? Some say 4-5 gallons. But, that depends upon your smartness and the steps taken for its maintenance. The performance and life of a nitro RC engine depends upon how fine it is tuned and maintained.
How Does the Fuel Mixture Affect its LifeSpan?
You need to take care of the lean which is the amount of fuel in the mixture. This will make the engine run longer but once the mixture is too lean, the engine will overheat. So you need to lubricate it properly.
A richer mixture with more fuel entering the engine is also damaging. This way the engine will run slowly as the excessive fuel will come out with the exhaust. More lean fuel mixture use can make the things even worst as the engine will run above the design temperature this way.
We hope at this point you have an idea how to safeguard your nitro RC engine from wearing away. The key is the proper tuning of the fuel mixture entering the carburettor.
Overall whether you are a racing car enthusiast, automobile engineer or simply an inquisitive student interested in how speedy machines work your questions about the technology will be answered in this article.
What is the difference between a Nitro & Electric engine?
At some point, while experimenting with RC vehicles, you might be interested in knowing the differences between a nitro and electric engine. To cool off your inquisitiveness on this we have brought a comparison for you between both of them.
The biggest difference which can be noticed between the nitro and the Electric engine are the components which make them function. The eclectic RC engine constitutes of a motor which functions and runs on electricity as its fuel.
Whereas, on the other hand the nitro RC engine uses methanol-based fuel which constitutes of nitro methane. Another difference which can be immediately noticed is the sound which is being produced by both the engines.
A nitro engine produces high levels of sound when being compared to the electric engines which produce minimal sound. Also, another significant difference is turning on the engine between the two types.
You can start an electric engine with a flip of the switch however, in the case of nitro engine there may be a need of additional parts to start the engine.
In the case of Nitro engines, the fine tuning and tweaking can be done at much advanced levels when being compared with that of electric engines.
However, electric cars are easy to handle as they maintain a stable center of gravity without getting affected by fuel sloshing in case of the half-filled tank. This makes the electric cars the best option for the beginners whereas, the nitro RC powered cars for intermediate and advanced level users.
What is the most powerful Nitro Engine?
Nitromethane possesses a much lower energy density than other gaseous fuels such as gasoline and methanol. This is why an engine using nitromethane as fuel is able to produce 2.3 times more power than an engine burning gasoline.
Also, the nitromethane with a high latent heat of vaporization absorbs a good amount of engine heat through vaporisation. On those terms, nitro engines in top fuel dragsters racing cars can be assumed to be the most powerful engines.
They are able to accelerate from a standstill to 100 mph (160 km/h) in just 0.8 seconds.
Roughly how much does a Nitro Engine Cost?
Cost is one thing you’ll always like to compare with others. But the cost involves multiple factors such as compatibility with nitro fuel and compliance with EFRA regulations. You need to look for these two important checks beforehand.
Also, make sure the nitro engine you are going to buy has a crankshaft equipped with an embedded tungsten weight and diamond-like coating. All these features are involved while the pricing of the nitro engine is decided.
This way roughly you are going to get the nitro engine at $500 without the muffler and at $650 with muffler.
How fast can a Nitro Car Go?
The fuel used in a nitro engine is a mixture of nitromethane and methanol. But the speed of the nitro engine equipped car will depend upon how much concentrated the nitromethane is.
NHRA (National Hot Rod Association) is the main licensing authority that controls the amount of concentration of nitromethane. But we want to clear that the there is always a risk of massive explosions when you’ll use higher percentages of nitromethane.
It has been found that modern engine might be able to generate 8000 horsepower approximately. So, this way roughly the cars can go as far as 100mph in around 0.8 seconds so you can yourself analyse how speedy these machines are!.
How are RC engine sizes measured?
The unit used to measure the size of an RC engine is cubic inches. The RC engines are designed in such a way that you get maximum power (performance) at a specific RPM (revolutions per minute) using a particular fuel.
Coming to the exact size, if the RC engine is 2 strokes it can vary from 0.49 to 2.0 cubic inches. For a 4 stroke engine, the size can vary from 0.20 to 3.0 cubic inches.
However, the number of starting propellers and alternate propellers are decided accordingly. We advise you to cross-check the details from another trusted source too.
Related Questions
How can you increase the nitro percentage or increase speed? There are many ways in which the users of nitro engines such as yourself can increase the nitro percentage or increase speed. The first trick in the hat is by changing the spur gear and clutch bell.
By increasing the size of the clutch bell or reducing the size of the spur gear you can improve the top speed performance for your vehicle.
However, there is a shortfall of this method where the response time towards the lower end reduces and more time is taken to reach the top speed.
Another method for the same would be modifying or tweaking the engines fuel efficiency and horse power. By using the largest insert you can get the best RPM and horsepower out of the engine.
Another tweak to increase the top speed of the engine is by increasing the nitro percentage. Other tweaks such as adjusting of shims under the heat sink head to absorb the excess heat accordingly.
You can also tune the tuned pipe to increase the performance of the engine by changing the length of the exhaust system and increasing the distance between the tuned pipe and head longer.
The most common way would be buying a bigger engine if the car can accommodate the bigger engine.
The last way which we would be discussing is by increasing the size of the tires. It is considered that the taller the tires are the higher the speed can be achieved. However, similar to the effect of change of spur gear and clutch bell the time taken to achieve the top speed.
What is a “Big Block” in the context of RC Cars? You can come across 2 types of RC engines – big block and small block. The diameter of the piston in big block engine can be big. It is also taller and thicker than its smaller counterpart.
Thus the heavier and longer stroked big blocks will be able to produce the torque (power) slowly at the same or larger cubic displacement in comparison to the small blocks. You’ll generally find big block engines installed in passenger cars and light trucks.
Enough has been said and known about the RC engines. But with the increasing prices of fuel all over the world, we can’t ignore anything that suggests how you can save fuel. Even when the prices are not increasing it becomes our responsibility to consume natural resources genuinely.
What is a “Tuned Pipe?” You can also call it expansion chamber. It is used to enhance the power output of your two-stroke engine. This was invented to save fuel in two-stroke engines. It is a tuned exhaust system for an internal combustion engine.
Tuned has been used here because the exhaust system has a lot to do with the air-fuel-oil (lubrication) concentration levels. Adequately tuned fuel and lean also means longer life for the engine too. The exhaust system consists of multiple pipes which are used to put away the gases ejected during the controlled combustion inside your RC engine.
