Haven't done it to my Losi Nascar yet, but I did do this to a TT02 motor and it made a difference. I taped the motor connectors to a C cell battery. Kept it running slow and smooth.
Hi. I stopped breaking in my motors in water a long time ago after reading an article in a German RC magazine if I remember correctly. It said that liquids tend to penetrate the brushes because they are slightly porous, which reduces their efficiency. Tests were made with several breaking in methods (in water, in alcohol, in oil, in air, at constant or variable speed, in the normal direction or in reverse...) and the one that gave the best results was this one: motor in horizontal position as it will be mounted on the car, a very small drop of oil on the bearings, a power supply between 1.5 V and 2.5 V in the normal direction and let the motor run for between 6 and 9 hours (it's very long). Then we clean it with a suitable product, a new drop of oil on the bearings and the motor is ready. This is the method I use, but I couldn't say if it's the best 😅
I use an old Bachman variable train transformer from a starter set and a 3v or less voltmeter reading .dunk run lube . Cooked a couple of double AA alkaline battery once …no fire but 150deg.
I've raced commercial slot cars for 40 years... water break in on non sealed motors is ok, and you dont need to run them that long, complete disassembly after and cleaning is necessary. Over the last 15 years or so the sealed motors have taken over pretty much all of the classes, except the fastest classes( check out Group 27 wing cars sometime) Everyone was buying bags of motors and breaking them in with all sorts of different ( many times nonsense) techniques. I have an oval that we raced every week in the winter for a decade, with some extremely competitive drivers... best I can say that a dry break-in period of 15 minutes, a spray out and lube is all most ever needed to be a fastest lap time competitor. Most people needed to pay attention to to basic setup and the most import thing, driving... Practice driving is the biggest area of improvement. Raced RC oval in the 90s when we geared for time, not speed. Matched cell nicad packs were no match for todays batteries, anyway, sorry to ramble, I raced a modified motor class and routinely out powered the other drivers by spending.... a sponsored driver was there one week, had a sealed stock motor, to which I pointed out his knife at the gun fight, with a smirk on my face..... he lapped me..... kicked my ass with skill...
all well said. as i have progressed from these rtr into on road and now LTO truck it def comes down to setup and keeping up the car and of course driving:) i dont think there is much in this really but people asked so i showed them and now we can see the data
I've always done this to my brushed motors as well. Doesn't make THAT much of a difference unless you're looking for milliseconds. Thankfully, oval racing IS milliseconds so this can definitely help. For general bashing or longer form racing what does help is just keeping the brushes in the motor clean in general. Washing out a motor like this does wear on the brushes a bit more than normal running but you do see a performance gain and the overall motor life will be a lot longer if you keep the inside clean and the brushes smooth. I have not really ever tried it scientifically, but I have also read that if you break in a motor in reverse, you can seat the brushes "backwards" for advanced timing. I'd be curious to the difference in motor performance by one broke in using the normal forward 50% speed method, vs one with the motor wires flipped and broke in backwards. Advanced timing in the brushless world can make quite a bit of difference, but you're talking larger numbers with end bell movement, where as here you only are only getting a degree or two at most with brush wear angle.
Yeah I’m on board with you. My bigger ty02 motors it does seem to make an impact. This much smaller motor even though it’s a 380 I’m not expecting much. But we will see tonight !
Do you discharge your battery’s after you race and charge them back up in a heating pad? Should do a video on how you do your set up to get the most out of your battery’s
no warmers allowed at our track and the spectrum chargers have no discharge feature. the batts are a smart battery and discharge themselves. really silly i know but thats the way it is. i might setup an adapter for my icharger but its ususally busy with other duty during race nights. i do stuff all my batts and my charger power supply in a lipo bag so i can get some heat into them. if youre track allows warmers then i use the exalt version which is super nice and fits 2 of these batts easily
You can pick up 21 more amps and 33 more watts of power by breaking in the motor in chocolate milk. It's acidic and better for the coms and brushes. Chocolate milk Provides better cleaning and lubrication, whereas white milk will ruin the bearings and rust them out. Trust me...
I actually just use rechargeable AA nimh battery packs and just run my motors in that way. Someone was selling a lid for canning jars that are meant for motor run-in's, I may make one and just use that etc.
My buddies are coming over tomorrow to watch fotball...and wrench on Nascar....and we're gonna go through all 6 cars....great info.....😎👍
Be interesting to know what little bits you find that are not up to par. Enjoy!
Thanks Chad for the information, have a happy Thanksgiving
Same to you!
Haven't done it to my Losi Nascar yet, but I did do this to a TT02 motor and it made a difference. I taped the motor connectors to a C cell battery. Kept it running slow and smooth.
yeah the tamiya motors seem to really take to this but the losi is so hard to judge because of how it handles
Hi. I stopped breaking in my motors in water a long time ago after reading an article in a German RC magazine if I remember correctly. It said that liquids tend to penetrate the brushes because they are slightly porous, which reduces their efficiency. Tests were made with several breaking in methods (in water, in alcohol, in oil, in air, at constant or variable speed, in the normal direction or in reverse...) and the one that gave the best results was this one: motor in horizontal position as it will be mounted on the car, a very small drop of oil on the bearings, a power supply between 1.5 V and 2.5 V in the normal direction and let the motor run for between 6 and 9 hours (it's very long). Then we clean it with a suitable product, a new drop of oil on the bearings and the motor is ready. This is the method I use, but I couldn't say if it's the best 😅
holy cow thats a long time but the euros do things right sometimes :)
I use an old Bachman variable train transformer from a starter set and a 3v or less voltmeter reading .dunk run lube . Cooked a couple of double AA alkaline battery once …no fire but 150deg.
lol..sounds fun
I've raced commercial slot cars for 40 years... water break in on non sealed motors is ok, and you dont need to run them that long, complete disassembly after and cleaning is necessary. Over the last 15 years or so the sealed motors have taken over pretty much all of the classes, except the fastest classes( check out Group 27 wing cars sometime)
Everyone was buying bags of motors and breaking them in with all sorts of different ( many times nonsense) techniques.
I have an oval that we raced every week in the winter for a decade, with some extremely competitive drivers... best I can say that a dry break-in period of 15 minutes, a spray out and lube is all most ever needed to be a fastest lap time competitor. Most people needed to pay attention to to basic setup and the most import thing, driving... Practice driving is the biggest area of improvement.
Raced RC oval in the 90s when we geared for time, not speed. Matched cell nicad packs were no match for todays batteries, anyway, sorry to ramble, I raced a modified motor class and routinely out powered the other drivers by spending.... a sponsored driver was there one week, had a sealed stock motor, to which I pointed out his knife at the gun fight, with a smirk on my face..... he lapped me..... kicked my ass with skill...
all well said. as i have progressed from these rtr into on road and now LTO truck it def comes down to setup and keeping up the car and of course driving:) i dont think there is much in this really but people asked so i showed them and now we can see the data
@Dorkyand40 all good, I have an interest in these Losi cars, Oval racing is addictive.
I've always done this to my brushed motors as well. Doesn't make THAT much of a difference unless you're looking for milliseconds. Thankfully, oval racing IS milliseconds so this can definitely help. For general bashing or longer form racing what does help is just keeping the brushes in the motor clean in general. Washing out a motor like this does wear on the brushes a bit more than normal running but you do see a performance gain and the overall motor life will be a lot longer if you keep the inside clean and the brushes smooth.
I have not really ever tried it scientifically, but I have also read that if you break in a motor in reverse, you can seat the brushes "backwards" for advanced timing. I'd be curious to the difference in motor performance by one broke in using the normal forward 50% speed method, vs one with the motor wires flipped and broke in backwards. Advanced timing in the brushless world can make quite a bit of difference, but you're talking larger numbers with end bell movement, where as here you only are only getting a degree or two at most with brush wear angle.
Yeah I’m on board with you. My bigger ty02 motors it does seem to make an impact. This much smaller motor even though it’s a 380 I’m not expecting much. But we will see tonight !
The commutator will not like being broke in, in reverse.
Do you discharge your battery’s after you race and charge them back up in a heating pad? Should do a video on how you do your set up to get the most out of your battery’s
no warmers allowed at our track and the spectrum chargers have no discharge feature. the batts are a smart battery and discharge themselves. really silly i know but thats the way it is. i might setup an adapter for my icharger but its ususally busy with other duty during race nights. i do stuff all my batts and my charger power supply in a lipo bag so i can get some heat into them. if youre track allows warmers then i use the exalt version which is super nice and fits 2 of these batts easily
You can pick up 21 more amps and 33 more watts of power by breaking in the motor in chocolate milk. It's acidic and better for the coms and brushes. Chocolate milk Provides better cleaning and lubrication, whereas white milk will ruin the bearings and rust them out. Trust me...
Any data to support these claims!
I actually just use rechargeable AA nimh battery packs and just run my motors in that way. Someone was selling a lid for canning jars that are meant for motor run-in's, I may make one and just use that etc.
The lid idea sounds cool!’