If you want to see a bit of damage, scroll on through my storyline. Photo's at the end.
Just a few photo's of the results from my annoying day. Apparently, when traxxas was designing the jato, they decided having the engine head sticking up above the roll bar and rear tower shouldn't cause any problems.
I beg to differ. This is the second engine I've trashed in this rig the exact same way. The first one was a OS18TM which really sucked to break. The second is a month old TRX 2.5R that was just starting to run really good and consistent.
I ran the crap out of it last weekend and ended the day thinking all was well. Then I rinsed the entire chassis off with a hose (forgot about a non-water proofed servo) and hit it with canned air, then threw it on a shelf.
Took it out today with the new body I just got, get to the bash site, turn everything on, find out my throttle servo is now dead. My fault completely. So, then I broke out the savage, which I banged up pretty good (will go in a savage thread).
Got home, futsed around replacing the servo in the jato, realized my rear tower was also cracked, checked things out a bit, didn't see anything out of the ordinary. So I took it out this afternoon. Got it running and all seemed good, wheelies, smoke, decent idle, then as it warmed up, it started running like crap. I tweaked it, swore at it, threatened it with a hammer... none of my usual stuff worked. I messed with it for over an hour, then I was having erratic loss of receiver power for no reason... Finally I just gave up and went home (didn't take out the savage this time as well).
Give the chassis a once over, check my fuel lines, check all the obvious stuff for tuning problems... didn't see anything. So, I found a new switch and replaced the one on it to try to remedy the power problem. I knew the switch was a bit buggy from the recent past, but today was especially bad.
As I'm sitting there holding it up to route the switch wires, I notice oil running down the chassis... then I look at the engine and realize one whole side is coated with nice clean oil...
Pulled the engine and this is what I got:
So, I take the 2.5 I replaced with this new 2.5R and start tearing it apart to use the crank case. Then I remember, one of the backplate screws is stripped... I'm sure that will cause problems. I made sure to RTV the crap out of it, so hopefully it will run ok and not suck air. Seemed to seal ok.
Then, once I have the engine all back together and installed, I sit there trying to think of a way to avoid busting a 3rd crank case in this truck. Lately, it has been my "go to" truck just when I get the mood to run something. Nice, light, fuel efficient, not too loud... just good all around fun.
(hammer is there to show the line between the tower and roll bar as I was thinking...)
So, knowing that I drive it more than my others, I know I have to figure out something to avoid the head making contact with the ground. Regardless how good I drive, it will inevitably end up on it's roof at some point.
Out comes the hacksaw:
Now I have a bit more room between the head and the line between the tower and roll-bar:
The only reasons I thought to do this is that the original 2.5 had the old cast head on it. Which I believe is shorter than the 2.5R head. I don't have an old head anymore as I used it for the ERP with a trashed 2.5 I had that had seen another owner who stripped out pretty much every screw in it. The other reason is I can't think of a way to mount one of my "one off" roll bars on it to avoid this issue.
Hopefully cutting the head by 3 fins doesn't trash my temps and hopefully it helps avoid yet another busted crank case.
Just a few photo's of the results from my annoying day. Apparently, when traxxas was designing the jato, they decided having the engine head sticking up above the roll bar and rear tower shouldn't cause any problems.
I beg to differ. This is the second engine I've trashed in this rig the exact same way. The first one was a OS18TM which really sucked to break. The second is a month old TRX 2.5R that was just starting to run really good and consistent.
I ran the crap out of it last weekend and ended the day thinking all was well. Then I rinsed the entire chassis off with a hose (forgot about a non-water proofed servo) and hit it with canned air, then threw it on a shelf.
Took it out today with the new body I just got, get to the bash site, turn everything on, find out my throttle servo is now dead. My fault completely. So, then I broke out the savage, which I banged up pretty good (will go in a savage thread).
Got home, futsed around replacing the servo in the jato, realized my rear tower was also cracked, checked things out a bit, didn't see anything out of the ordinary. So I took it out this afternoon. Got it running and all seemed good, wheelies, smoke, decent idle, then as it warmed up, it started running like crap. I tweaked it, swore at it, threatened it with a hammer... none of my usual stuff worked. I messed with it for over an hour, then I was having erratic loss of receiver power for no reason... Finally I just gave up and went home (didn't take out the savage this time as well).
Give the chassis a once over, check my fuel lines, check all the obvious stuff for tuning problems... didn't see anything. So, I found a new switch and replaced the one on it to try to remedy the power problem. I knew the switch was a bit buggy from the recent past, but today was especially bad.
As I'm sitting there holding it up to route the switch wires, I notice oil running down the chassis... then I look at the engine and realize one whole side is coated with nice clean oil...
Pulled the engine and this is what I got:
So, I take the 2.5 I replaced with this new 2.5R and start tearing it apart to use the crank case. Then I remember, one of the backplate screws is stripped... I'm sure that will cause problems. I made sure to RTV the crap out of it, so hopefully it will run ok and not suck air. Seemed to seal ok.
Then, once I have the engine all back together and installed, I sit there trying to think of a way to avoid busting a 3rd crank case in this truck. Lately, it has been my "go to" truck just when I get the mood to run something. Nice, light, fuel efficient, not too loud... just good all around fun.
(hammer is there to show the line between the tower and roll bar as I was thinking...)
So, knowing that I drive it more than my others, I know I have to figure out something to avoid the head making contact with the ground. Regardless how good I drive, it will inevitably end up on it's roof at some point.
Out comes the hacksaw:
Now I have a bit more room between the head and the line between the tower and roll-bar:
The only reasons I thought to do this is that the original 2.5 had the old cast head on it. Which I believe is shorter than the 2.5R head. I don't have an old head anymore as I used it for the ERP with a trashed 2.5 I had that had seen another owner who stripped out pretty much every screw in it. The other reason is I can't think of a way to mount one of my "one off" roll bars on it to avoid this issue.
Hopefully cutting the head by 3 fins doesn't trash my temps and hopefully it helps avoid yet another busted crank case.