Thursday, October 22, 2009

Gas Powered RC Cars: Parts

If you break a jigsaw puzzle, you can always put the pieces back together, but you could never re-assemble a broken glass back to the way it was before. The sum of all of the pieces does not always make a whole. This is especially true in dynamic systems like Gas RC cars! A worn out part, bad maintenance, or faulty installation can ruin the whole car. You need to learn the essential skills and put effort into maintaining the parts. So, let's face it, you have to learn about the Gas RC Car parts!

Like any complex system, the Gas RC car has many parts. Knowing them well also helps with better selection, great racing, good maintenance, correct upgrading, or assembling of a Gas RC car. The Gas RC car has the following main parts:

Internal Combustion Engine: This is either a two or four stroke engine that runs on special Nitro Gas fuel, which is custom made for Gas RC cars. Comprehensive maintenance at the predetermined intervals is crucial to its health. The car's essential parts are the cylinder, piston, piston sleeves, piston rings, cranks, and valves in addition to these accessories:

1. Air filter: Prevents the entry of dirt and dust into engine.
2. Carburetor: Controls the flow of oil into engine. It has a 'Low End Adjustment Screw', which makes the engine fuel leaner or richer in order to control the speed, and an 'Idle Adjustment Screw', which increases or decreases the idling speed.
3. Gears: A clutch operated gear transmission system transfers power from the engine to the drive train of the Gas RC car.
4. Heat Sink: The fins on the engine cylinder are air cooled by a cooling fan.
5. Flywheel: Conserves momentum, similar to a real car.
6. Pull-start cord: Starts the engine. An optional separate engine starter box is also available.
7. Glow Plug: Functions like a spark plug in that it contains a little coil whose heat ignites the fuel in a Gas RC car engine.

Air filter: The Gas RC car's air breathing engine needs a fully functional miniature air filter that keeps the air entering the engine free of dust. This frequently needs cleaning, especially after a race.

Fuel lines: Even a good engine fails if the fuel lines are not clean. It pays to check them often and before important races. Blockages due to the accumulation of dirt and grit in the lines need to be removed.

Fuel Filter: Though the commercially available fuel is mostly clean and free from grit, the engine still needs a fuel filter that will prevent any thing solid, foreign, or tiny from reaching the engine cylinder.

Exhaust pipe: The unique fine-tuned exhaust system helps increase the performance of Gas RC cars.

Radio transmitter and receiver: The brain of a Gas RC car is its radio control unit. Good quality, reliable electronics are very important in the harsh internal environment of a Gas RC car.

Servo: This physically takes charge of speed control, acceleration, and turning.

Steering System: It is necessary that the car can take turns freely and proportionately without affecting the wheel alignment.

Drive subsystems: This includes good quality differentials, drive trains, cooling systems, and engine subsystems.

Batteries: The car also needs a pack of batteries to power its electronics and ignite the engine.

For all of the popular brands of Gas RC cars, most of these parts are widely available. Whether it is for assembling a new car, maintenance, or upgrades, you should always choose genuine parts.