Must read gas powered RC car information

The Gas Powered RC Car Explained
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The gas powered RC car

is a very popular form of radio control vehicle. Many people begin their hobby with electric vehicles, then decide to make a jump into the gas powered variety. Both the electric and nitro rc car have their advantages, but many people enjoy the added challenges of a gas-powered vehicle.

If you are thinking of buying a gas powered RC car, here are just a few of the basics youll need to know before you get started:

Fuel

The main part of a fuel powered engine is, well, the fuel. They dont run off of the regular gasoline that our automobiles use. Instead, the fuel used in a gas remote control car is a highly combustible mix of methanol, nitro methane, and castor or synthetic oil.

Nitro fuel is rated by its nitro methane content. A nitro rc car, especially the smaller scale car, works well on a fuel that is 10-20% nitro methane.
Larger, more powerful engines may benefit from a higher content such as 30%, but only if the engine can efficiently handle such a mixture. Otherwise, the higher mixture will just be burned away while the engines power sees no increase.

If you have a question about what mixture to run in your nitro rc car, you can experiment with different ratios or ask someone with more experience what they have found to work best in a particular engine.

Lubricants are contained in the fuel to help keep your engine running smoothly through normal wear and tear. The two stroke engine in your gas powered RC car benefits from the fact that lubricants can be added directly to the fuel.

The fuel travels through and past all of the moving parts in the engine on the way to the combustion chamber. The lubricants cling to the metal of the moving parts on the way past, and any remainder is burned off in the combustion process or released in the engines exhaust. Having just a little blue smoke coming from your gas powered RC car exhaust is a good indicator that you have enough lubricants in your fuel to do the job.

Glow plug and igniter

Once the fuel gets down into the combustion chamber, there needs to be sufficient heat to maintain the desired combustion. A nitro car contains a glow plug system for this purpose.

The glow plug itself is a stationary coil of wire that glows red or white hot when coupled with the glow plug igniter. This igniter is a 1.5-volt, battery-operated component that starts the heating process. What the igniter does is provide the initial spark necessary to heat the glow plug and begin the combustion process, much like the spark plugs in your car.

Once enough heat is generated in the combustion chamber, the heat feeds the glow plug, which keeps the chamber hot, and a cycle is created. As long as there are oxygen and fuel available, the igniter is no longer necessary to maintain the heat of combustion.

While these are only a couple of the components of a gas powered RC car, they are the heart of the nitro-powered engine. Once you get an understanding of these parts, you are well on your way to nitro fun.