XRAY - Model racing cars

Hey guys here are some pics and a rundown of my XB8EC I just converted to Brushless/Lipo power. I chose to keep it simple and efficient so I chose to use a 3s 11.1v pack instead of the popular 4s 14.8v packs so everything would stay cooler and it would just be easier to work with and I can always upgrade to 4s lipos in the future. for the motor I used a Feigao 9XL mounted on a RC-Monster motor mount and to keep it cool a RC monster Heat sink. And a Mamba Max ESC with a fan on its heat sink to keep it cool. I have only driven it one time and that was yesterday and I realy liked the way it drove, I have never driven driven a XB8 as a nitro but I liked it as an electric. It had all the bottom end in the world and got going realy fast but the top end realy lacked from what Nitro engines can do, so I am going to go up probably 2 teeth on the pinion and hopefuly that will put me into the nitro range for top end. Here are some pics of what it looks like.

Nice work man!

A guy at my track runs a lipo Losi and the thing rips.

Electric isnt my thing but its sure would be nice to not have to tune, worry about pipes/headers, filters, ect.

You have to admire some good jiffy riggin and when it comes out looking proffesional that is a hob well done.

Whats the bottom end look like on how you bolted that stuff up to the chassis?

GREAT WORK JUSTIN!!!!

Yea these things have a lot of potential and can go very fast, the more volts you have the faster it will go and soon enough Castle Creations will be coming out with a ESC that can handle more volts than we can control and I would imagine these conversions will realy boom then.

I am not much of a Electric guy myself either but from what I have experienced so far electric is much easier to work with, just like you said. The only reason I went electric is because I am moving and at my new house I have room for a good size track but I do have neighbors and I dont want to have to worry about bothering them so I decided to give electric a try. But my MBX5T will remain nitro for as long as it lives, then when I finaly retire the MBX5T I will get a XT8 and it will start and live its life as Nitro.

Here is a pick of the bottom of the chassis if that is what you wanted

Thanks Brian, you going to be at the race tomorrow?

You mean tonight?

I didnt realize it was you man, hows it going.




So you didnt have to mill anything under the chassis? I didnt realize it all bolted up like that.

I wont be racing tomorrow in SB. Have fun and tell everyone I said hello.

Okay, well I was talking to Brian M is your name also Brian?

Nope the bottom of the chassis is exaclty as it was, if you look closely at the picture from the back you can see that the motor mount is simply the center diff mount but it extends over to the side where the motor mounts onto it, the motor mount is incorporated directly into the standard layout, it screws into the bottom of the chassis where the center diff mount always mounts and the top plate mounts onto it, very simple yet sturdy design. Then the ESC and Reciever are mounted with servo tape of velcro. Then the Battery tray, some people use battery trays that they make of buy that may or may not require drilling new holes in the chassis but for mine I just used some very strong velcro, the battery does wiggle around a little with the velcro but it is a pita to get the battery off because the velcro is so strong. Originaly I was going to use battery cups from another car that I got and was going to drill holes in the chassis and mount but I ended up just using velcro. in the pic it is only velcro on the bottom but I plan on making it so it goes over the top too and just securing it better

LOL, yeah wrong guy.

The velcro thing wont hold up very long offroad from my experience and that was on something as light as a Rx so a heavy battery I doubt will stay on there.

Well the velcro lasted perfectly for my testing yesterday, and I plan on making it better as soon as I have time to sit down with all the tools and properly securing everything.

What are you using for a spur and pinion? That looks like a plastic spur to me. Also where did you get the gears from? By the way, great job on the conversion, its really nice and clean!

It is a kyosho plastic spur and a Century Mod 1 13t pinion. The spur is not a perfect fit though, and I am not sure if I will be able to continue to use it, it fit a little weird but I chose to give it a try anyways and from my testing yesterday it didnt form a perfect seal against the cup, so I will play with it for a little and see if it ends up working but I have a feeling I might need to go back to the steel. The Spur came from RCmonster and the pinion from Tower Hobbies, but the pinion is to small for my setup, I didnt have much to go with for that stuff because most run the 14.8v batterys and have to use 11 or 13t pinions to keep from thermaling so I just got both of those but I have to go up a few teeth to pick up some speed so I can hang with nitros down the straight. I am going to give 16t and 15t pinions a try.

Why not use a hardened pinion from RC-Monster?

This is the first XRay mount from RC-Monster, Mike and me worked on it together, using the same pinion since day one... pinion still looks like new.

thats what I am going to have to do, I am trying 15 and 16t pinions and Century dosnt make them so I am going to have to make another order from rc-monster soon and get those gears, and if the plastic spur dosnt work I will just put the steel back on

I replaced my 13t pinion with a 16t and it is much faster, I will not be able to compare it to nitro buggys till sunday but I think it will be just as fast, it is much much faster without loosing any bottom end, but now I am going to have to watch my temps and possibly add a fan to the motor because the motor might get to hot with this size of a pinion. I cant wait to get it out to the track and give it a try.

Nice work guys - especially Dafni. If you guys haven't seen his full conversion that photo doesn't do it justice. The dude is dialed. Go to RC-Monster to check it out in full:

http://www.rc-monster.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7993

I will be finishing my conversion of my XT8 over the winter depending on the new products that come out. My last conversion was a CRT and it was silly. I was the first in my area (Boise, Id.) to do it but now there's two other brushless truggies - both Losi 8ight-T's. One of them is the prototype that Tekin is testing their new setup in. This is a great time for brushless 1:8. If any of you want more info, the best place is RC-Monster. Class act in every way and full of great info.

Nice conversions guys!! My hats off to you!