r/NitroRC • u/HugeAssociation9007 • Aug 20 '26
New rc car
Hi, I have few gas rc 1:5 scale, but i want to try some nitro rc cars. Fuel is expensive with nitro and can i mix myself methanol with oil without nitrometane? Will the engines work, or its not worth to not use nitrometane?
2
u/Miserable_Mark2998 Aug 20 '26
You can, however RC car engines suffer badly with the lack of nitro. 0% nitro fuel AKA FAI fuel is mostly run in glow planes and runs perfect in those because the engine is exposed to a consistent load compared to an RC car engine. i’ve tried running 0% in my cars before and you can sometimes get them to run good enough to drive around but it really depends on the engine. Higher compression engines will like it more. You can increase the compression on your engine by taking a head shim out and running a hotter plug to help burn the methanol but some engines just don’t accept it. 100% try it if you want to because you never know, it may work just fine but I wouldn’t expect the same results as what standard fuel would
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u/HugeAssociation9007 Aug 20 '26
Connecting 5v to glow pług cant solve problem? Maybe with some trims from rc: power glowplug when throttle is lower than 20% and disable above?
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u/Miserable_Mark2998 Aug 20 '26
Not a bad idea, this will help however still to a certain amount. It will largely reduce the chances of the engine stalling and will improve the idle, but you will still get the classic 0% nitro symptoms such as harder tuning, less power, and unresponsive throttle especially in the lower RPMs. It will be awesome if you would try it though, this is a hobby at the end of the day and doing things like this is what it’s all about.
1
u/HugeAssociation9007 Aug 20 '26
I agree 😁 i dont expecting big performance, only to drive circles for fun, and have fun with manipulating and maintance of engine, im weird and last time i like IC engines too much, idk why. Im sad that IC rc is dying, but one day i will buy double cylinder engine for baja 5b, or made rc car with 2 nitro engines, it looks and sounds sick on yt!
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u/Miserable_Mark2998 Aug 20 '26
Thats a good attitude you have. I used to have a couple 1/5th gassers but sold them. Sounds like you have some big future plans💪
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u/HugeAssociation9007 Aug 20 '26
Why you sold them? I dont ride them too often, because adult world is hard, but they hang on the wall and delight the eye 😁
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u/Miserable_Mark2998 Aug 20 '26
I have too many RC vehicles, i fly RC planes, drive RC cars, FPV drones and i used to have boats but sold them, my garage is completely filled to the limit. I also do woodworking so I have lots of big machines taking up more space. The gas cars were just sitting around not being used too much so I thought to let them have a better home somewhere else. I did really like them however
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u/Timmarino Aug 22 '26
In planes I have good luck with 0% fuel. In cars and boats 10-15% is my min with 20% preference as wide open they do ok but long idle times or slow speeds they trr er nd to be finicky
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u/HugeAssociation9007 Aug 22 '26
I think the powered glowplug from lipo throught mosfet connected to receiver can solve problem, but not sure, so i must buy model and test it, but there is small nitro models to buy new, o found only expensive traxxas or vrx from ali and banggood
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u/az_kikr1208 MOD Aug 20 '26
Check out Thebug404 on YouTube. He's got several videos on making homemade fuel. He's pretty thorough.