Taazz
2006.02.03, 10:12 PM
I couldn't resist buying another Ford GT Iwaver when Tower put one up in their Scratch and Dent for $40. Only thing wrong is that the antenna wire had come loose from the board.
Soldered the antenna on and ran it with the stock motor. Yup, it is as slow as I remember. Would make a great entry level car for someone just learning, but will never keep up with anything else.
Put in an Istock motor. This appears to be the 30K motor with the X cut out of the case. Car ran, the board didn't fry and the car didn't lose range. What I did discover is that you don't want to oil this motor. I did and after a couple of runs it kind of siezed up. Second thing I discovered is don't use motor cleaner on an Istock motor with a clear plastic endbell. It did free the motor back up, but I think it weakened the endbell because it started cracking. The car ran for a bit and siezed up again. Cleaned it again and it siezed up again. Put in a second Istock motor and didn't oil it or clean it. No problems. These motors seem to run a bit hot without heat sinks, but as long as you don't oil them or try to clean them they work fine. I broke open the crapped out motor and discoverd that they don't even use brushes, just metal prongs that appear to ride in grooves on the commutator. Pretty cheaply made.
About half way through the night I did notice a loss of range on the car. Thought it might be the transmitter batteries so I replaced them. Nope, I think the range was affected when the first Istock motor siezed up and ran a bit too hot. The boards seem to be very sensitive to losing range if the motor gets too hot. I ended up with about 15 to 20 feet of range. Enough to run on the RCP track we had set up. I switched to a stock Kyosho motor (the Japanese version with the metal bearings) and ran several 5 minute heats with no further deterioration. Switched back to the second Istock motor that I did not oil and ran another two packs of batteries without any further deterioation.
So, the newest stock boards will handle a stock Kyosho motor and the Istock motor. The problems I had with my first two cars appear to have been just bad boards. You have to make sure everything is running very free and make every effort to run the motor as cool as possible or you may suffer reduced range.
I am not sure the Iwaver will beat or even keep up with a Mini Z. The Iwaver was a full second slower than my Enzo. Maybe I need to tweak and tune the Iwaver more, but I am not sure it is in the same class as a Mini Z. It is however a smooth, fun car to drive and beats the Xmod Evolution hands down.
Soldered the antenna on and ran it with the stock motor. Yup, it is as slow as I remember. Would make a great entry level car for someone just learning, but will never keep up with anything else.
Put in an Istock motor. This appears to be the 30K motor with the X cut out of the case. Car ran, the board didn't fry and the car didn't lose range. What I did discover is that you don't want to oil this motor. I did and after a couple of runs it kind of siezed up. Second thing I discovered is don't use motor cleaner on an Istock motor with a clear plastic endbell. It did free the motor back up, but I think it weakened the endbell because it started cracking. The car ran for a bit and siezed up again. Cleaned it again and it siezed up again. Put in a second Istock motor and didn't oil it or clean it. No problems. These motors seem to run a bit hot without heat sinks, but as long as you don't oil them or try to clean them they work fine. I broke open the crapped out motor and discoverd that they don't even use brushes, just metal prongs that appear to ride in grooves on the commutator. Pretty cheaply made.
About half way through the night I did notice a loss of range on the car. Thought it might be the transmitter batteries so I replaced them. Nope, I think the range was affected when the first Istock motor siezed up and ran a bit too hot. The boards seem to be very sensitive to losing range if the motor gets too hot. I ended up with about 15 to 20 feet of range. Enough to run on the RCP track we had set up. I switched to a stock Kyosho motor (the Japanese version with the metal bearings) and ran several 5 minute heats with no further deterioration. Switched back to the second Istock motor that I did not oil and ran another two packs of batteries without any further deterioation.
So, the newest stock boards will handle a stock Kyosho motor and the Istock motor. The problems I had with my first two cars appear to have been just bad boards. You have to make sure everything is running very free and make every effort to run the motor as cool as possible or you may suffer reduced range.
I am not sure the Iwaver will beat or even keep up with a Mini Z. The Iwaver was a full second slower than my Enzo. Maybe I need to tweak and tune the Iwaver more, but I am not sure it is in the same class as a Mini Z. It is however a smooth, fun car to drive and beats the Xmod Evolution hands down.