New Jato

[YumaJato]

So I'm new to the forums and new to nitro cars. I have previous experiance with some electric cars in the past when I was younger. started out with a Grasshopper. I ened up crashing and wrecking that when I put a 540 motor in it which made it a lot quicker then the stock 380. So I ended up breaking it up from turning when it was going so fast and flipping it a million times lol. After that I bought a Super Blankfoot truck. That was ok but just to slow, also had a Traxxas Hawk. Anyways enough about that.

I'm pretty excited I just bought a Jato 3.3, received it from UPS today. Stopped up at the LHS and bought some juice, fuel bottle, battery, and charger. Got everything charged up and ready to go for tomorrow. I have to admit I'm a little nervous with this being my first gas powered car. One thing I was going to pick up and forgot was a failsafe, I think that's what they are called.I just wont drive to far away from myself tomorrow. Gonna drop the ol lady off at work and hit the parking lot next door to break in the motor. I have quickly learned this is going to be an expensive hobby. Maybe not so much now after having everything. So far I think I'm up to around $550 invested.

How long does a tank of gas last? Just curious how much time Im gonna be spending breaking it in and fighting myself to not give it full throttle lol.

[Desert JATO]

welcome around
me too, my 1st nitro and still is a jato.. you'll never leave it unless you
find it difficult to control due to it's high speed off road.

answering your Q, the tank will last from 10-14 min depending on your speed
and tune, so if you run with rich carb setting it will last for around 14 min.

[TheRack]

Sweet Pic! My first r/c experience was with "the frog" and then later i bought a futaba fx-10. I actually kept it up until about a month ago when i bought my jato.

[redmacjetti]

Welcome to the Jato club. I think you will enjoy owning a nitro. If you catch on with the tuning everything else is is a breeze. When I broke my Jato in I took my sweet time cuz I new a proper break in would effect the way the engine ran from that point on. It took me about 2 hours , but like I said I really took my time and didn't rush anything. It was well worth it though. My jato has been very reliable and has been very easy to tune ever since. Some tools you might like to help you keep it running good is an IR temp gun to keep tabs on the engine temps. I use Odonnell's temp gun and it works great.http://cgi.ebay.com/ODONNELL-TGX1-TE...3A1%7C294%3A50 You dont want it to get up to 300 deg. ,thats very bad for the engine and will quickly wear out the internals. I have found that my Jato works best around 240 - 270 depending on the environment but I have had it up to 285 deg with no problems also , so there is no magic number . Another thing I recomend is proper maintainance after each run. The Traxxas manual covers that pretty good so read it. I always use after run oil and make sure my air filter is clean. As far as the failsafe goes I think they work great and highly recomend them. The Jato has a return spring on the carb that pulls the carb shut in case of a runaway but your truck will still keep rolling. The fail safe I have actually applies the brakes and stops the truck complety. I have the Ofna micro failsafe and it has saved my truck a few times. You can get them on ebay pretty cheap. http://cgi.ebay.com/Ofna-Micro-Fail-...3A1%7C294%3A50
Hobby shops sell them for $30.00 or more! I love ebay!
The aftermarket is loaded with Jato upgrades and the possibilities are endless when it comes to personalizing your Jato. As things break ..and they will.. replace the parts with better ones. You can find great stuff from RPM ,TRAXXAS , NEW ERA , and even some from INTEGY and HOT RACING wich both have excellent brake upgrades that will greatly improve stopping power wich is something the stock brakes lack. http://cgi.ebay.com/Traxxas-Jato-Int...3286.m20.l1116
http://cgi.ebay.com/Traxxas-Jato-HIG...3A1%7C294%3A50
http://cgi.ebay.com/Traxxas-Jato-RAC...3A1%7C294%3A50
Check out the Jato gallery in this forum and see what everyone else has for set ups , you'll find alot of good ideas. The threads are full of alot of usefull info too. I have had my Jato for about 3 years and I still love it. I'm in the process of building a show and go Jato at this moment. Have a look.
http://monster.traxxas.com/showthread.php?t=459791
http://monster.traxxas.com/showthrea...96#post3570996
http://www.rcuniverse.com/gallery/ga...26title%3Djato
http://s226.photobucket.com/albums/dd56/redmacjetti/

[m3andak]

a full tank last about 10-15 min. also, if you want some speed increase get a pull start. if you dont get a pull start, at least get a glow plug ignitor.

another thing that you might want are some spare glow plugs, turnbuckles, and a-arms.

i dont know how much you know about the gas, but keep it in a room temp place out of sunlight. never put fuel from your bottle thingy back into the jug of gas. and if you are having trouble placing the body on while the car is on, stand on the opposite end of the exhaust

oh, and make sure you clean your air filter!!!

[YumaJato]

Thanks guys and thanks redmacjetti for all the info and links!!

Break in went pretty good except on tank 3 when it said to put the top on it wanted to stall with the top on so I kept it off which I learned at the end of the night not a good thing to do as everything on the exhaust side of the car got caked up so it took me a while to clean everything lol. When i got to tank 5 I couldn't get it started so I ran over to the LHS and the guy there said it was the glow plug so I picked up a couple of those but then once I got back to my spot I figured out it wasn't the glow plug but it was just running to rich (Had fuel coming out the exhaust. So had a pretty fun time with it yesterday.

There was a little grass hill in the distance and I didnt notice there was a curb there and smacked in to it, popped one of the front rods out of the screw hole but I was able to screw it back in, also busted the plastic near one of the screw holes on the chassis top plate, how it did that I have no idea. That would of been one of the last places I would to expect something to break.

I got a question about the after run maintenance. The guy at the LHS said not to put any WD40 or anything in the engine unless I plan on storing it for over 2 months. Should I do this after each run?

[redmacjetti]

During the break in the engine is set very rich to maintain good lubrication but the down side is its very messy. Once the break in is done and you find a good tune it won't be as bad. Either way nitro cars always get messy eventually so get use to it. I have had great results with denatured alcohol , compressed air, and wd-40. I remove the wheels , wrap the air filter with plastic and a rubber band and blow the whole thing down with compressed air. This gets rid of all the loose stuff pretty quick. Next I spray everything down with denatured alcohol.( Wal-Mart sells it in the paint section for $6 ) This stuff is safe on electronics so don't worry about it getting on the servos and such. While everything is good and wet with alcohol start to blow it off with compressed air from one end to another. I like to start by holding it by its front bumper and starting at the front end while slowly making my way to the back end. This will take care of 90% of the mess. Sometimes the alcohol will leave a white film on the plastic but don't worry the next step takes care of that. When everything is blown off and dry spray everything down with WD-40. This stuff is also safe on electronics. Try to find the new smart straw can http://www.wd40.com/pop/smart_straw.html
( also at Wal-Mart )
the mist spray works much better in this application. When everything is nice and wet blow it off again the same way you did before with the alcohol. When your done the plastic will look as good as new and the wd-40 will leave an invisable film on the plastic that works almost like teflon making it easier to clean next time. After doing this on mine all I had to do was blow it off the next time it got dirty and it was as good as new again.

I have had screws pulled out of the holes too but even though they screw back in they never have the same strength. Put a small drop of medium CA glue on the tip of the screw before screwing it in. The glue ends up coating the rest of the screw on the way in and fills in small gaps in the plastic.

Alot of people seem to have trouble with top plates breaking at the front screws where it meets the front bulkhead. It has never happened to me but I guess I never hit anything hard enough. New Era makes two parts to reinforce the front end and they seem to work great.
http://www.neweramodels.com/item.cgi...n&part_id=7416
http://www.neweramodels.com/item.cgi...n&part_id=2734

As far as the after run maintenance I just do it by the book . This method has been good to me and my engine has always been very reliable and easy to tune. When your done running for the day make sure to run the engine out of gas. When the engine dies on its own restart it a couple of times and it will run for a few more seconds. This will get all the fuel out of the system and prevent things from gumming up.

Sorry so long winded... hope this helps.

[YumaJato]

Awesome, again thanks redmacjetti for providing a wealth of information

[YumaJato]

I haven't been able to find denatured alcohol. Everywhere I ask no ones heard of it. I did spray it down with WD40 and spray it down using my 1 gallon portable air compressor. I must say it looks good. Definitely shines it up making it look new again. I sprayed some WD40 in the engine and cranked it over for 10 seconds, did that twice. I have not started it up since then. I was going to take it out yesterday but I spent time cleaning it and adjusting my front end because the wheels looked like they were pointing out. Today.. its just to dark out by the time I got home

Thumbs up with the WD40. Still gonna look for that Denatured Alcohol tonight at a different store. What is the purpose of that stuff? Would I find it in the auto section, grocery, or where at in Wal-Mart?

[redmacjetti]

I found it in the paint section at Wal-Mart , but I guess not all Wal-Marts are created equal....lol. Most hardware stores carry it too but it might cost a few more bucks.This is the brand I use and it works great.
http://www.wmbarr.com/product.aspx?catid=21&prodid=101 When you do find it buy yourself a small spray bottle to put it in. I hear alot of good things about Simple Green cleaner too if you wanna give that a shot. Just not sure how it is on electronics.

[redck1979]

I haven't been able to find denatured alcohol.

you can pick it up at any hardware/home improvement store or anywhere that sells paint (ei: home depot, lowes, sears, sherwin williams, etc.)...

[redmacjetti]

I had to get a money order at Wal-Mart today so I took a look to see if they still sell the stuff and they do. I found it in the paint section under a sign that says SOLVENTS , and its cheaper than I thought. I took a pic with my cell for ya.

[RC-Crazy]

So, how this work? Simple Green mix w/ Denatured Alcohol?

[redmacjetti]

No mix....just put it in a spray bottle and use it. I have heard of people mixing Simple Green with WD-40 and having good results. It was actually mentioned in Car Action mag once. I read about the cleaning process I use in a mag too and it works so good I didn't find the need to try something new.

[YumaJato]

lol awesome, I found it in Wal-Mart. Thanks for the cell phone pics haha. Its funny how many people that work in stores you can ask about this stuff and they are like "huh? whats that?" I asked one guy in wal-mart if they carry it and he just flat out said "no" so then i asked him if he knew what it was, he said "no" LOL how can you say no if you don't even know what it is.

Anyways I found it, bought a little spray bottle for it so I'll be giving it a shot probably tonight, if i can snap out of my laziness and go find a spot to race around.