Electric RC to Nitro RC conversion

Added: 2026-05-23

[00:00:10]Well, I'm Chris and this is my converting an electric RC car to nitro.

[00:00:15]So, this is a Tamiya TT-02. This is the most popular electric RC car, I believe.

[00:00:21]They sell this chassis with all kinds of different bodies and have for many, many, many years. But, it is downgraded like most beginner models. So, you have to upgrade the center drive shaft for sure. The shocks, they're just friction dampers. They don't have no oil or anything in them. The tires don't have foams, they're not glued. So, there's a lot of little things that you have to do to get this car to go fast. So, this video is going to be more about planning the project out. We're going to try to get the engine mounted in there with the spur gear connected, but there's some major issues when going from electric to nitro is the brake is the most serious one. So, I know some smart guy with a 3D printer and we're trying to figure things out that we can make and sell that people will buy. Honestly, I did not know that they can take a picture of this spur gear and that will put it into the little file CAD file so that they can 3D print it or however they do it. I didn't know until the other day. So, this Kyosho gear is the magic piece that we need to convert this electric to nitro. There's no clutch bell with the teeth as fine as these right here. So, just to get an idea, that's the difference we're talking about. Quite a bit different.

[00:01:35]The 0.6 modular. The other issue is that if we can't find the right thread pitch, it's going to have too many teeth on it.

[00:01:43]Cuz the diameter has to be so big, if that makes any sense. So, we'll probably end up with like a So, this is 20 right here. So, we're probably going to end up with a 25 or something and that may be too much and just turn this into a turd where it lunges so hard because the gear ratio is so high. I hate gear ratios that are high. I can't stand them. So, that's why we have to go with a bigger teeth to get our gear ratio right. So, this is off of a Kyosho, of course, from the '90s, but that was on a car on a nitro car.

[00:02:15]So, let's go ahead and start taking this thing apart. We got to get the drive shaft out first.

[00:02:20]If you work on Tamiyas, I highly recommend you find a Tamiya screwdriver kit. This thing changed my life. Gets these screws out so good.

[00:02:28]So, we need to get the drive shaft out.

[00:02:31]And this is one of the most random crazy things that happened to me ever in RC was I just walked up to it. I said, "Wow, that's really nice right there. It just needs to fit." And I really don't want to shave this down cuz like I said, we're going to try to get these 3D printed. We do have bearings for it right here.

[00:02:48]We're just fitting everything together right now. Hey, even the diff has bushings in there. That's weird. I never even paid attention to that.

[00:02:55]May have to notch out a little bit. It's not hitting, but it it it's real close.

[00:03:00]See?

[00:03:03]So, that was like the craziest thing ever to work out. And then we're able to put the cover back on it.

[00:03:09]And it bolts down or screws down completely.

[00:03:13]No issues at all. We're going to use a Traxxas T-Maxx mount. So, in this case, this is one that stripped out at the bottom. So, we're going to grind off one side of it and we're going to cut the side off on this side.

[00:03:26]So, that it'll fit in there. And this is a 14 or 15 tooth. I forgot off a Revo or a Slayer. So, you can see that it meshes perfectly with the spur gear right here.

[00:03:38]So, as you look in there, we're going to have to kind of notch out with a Dremel a little bit of space and possibly what some might say are structural. But, what's neat about this is that once we put this top plate on there, we're going to secure it all back down.

[00:03:52]So, the tricky part about this is we have to mount a servo for the throttle and a brake that we do not have yet.

[00:03:59]I've been working on this for about 4 or 5 hours. We got everything figured out now. The most tricky was getting a brake on there, and you can see how that's a piece of aluminum.

[00:04:08]When the accelerator is being pushed, it just does nothing. And then whenever the brake is being pushed, it grabs it.

[00:04:17]So, the motor mount we had to chop one end off, and you notice we're using the screws through the engine to go all the way through. So, let's go ahead and drill that out.

[00:04:29]So, the screws we're going to be using, we're going to have to cut these down.

[00:04:31]These came as the shock screws on a Savage HPI Savage. So, this was a pipe.

[00:04:37]I did not paint that. It came on a hot rod Jada that I bought. So, whenever you do this kind of work, you got to look at it from all angles. You got to get far back. Make sure it looks parallel with the drive shaft or in line, and it does.

[00:04:53]All right, I just kind of elongated them just a little bit.

[00:04:59]So, as far as reinforcing this plastic chassis, we don't have a reason to just yet, but yeah, if we're running it and it's getting loose or acting weird, we're going to have to do something, which is going to be simple, just metal strips or washers. So, we're just going to kind of mock everything up so you get the idea because this thing needs to be cleaned. I over-greased a lot of stuff.

[00:05:18]This was one of my first RC cars, and I was just I didn't know what was going on really. So, the only bad thing about this conversion, and which I'm perfectly fine with, is we have to run a hatchback. So, in real life, I love my V8 muscle cars, but in nitro RC, I don't because the engine sound doesn't match the car. I have a Honda Civic hatch.

[00:05:40]I have a Volkswagen hatch. We're probably going to run the Volkswagen because the way we're running this exhaust, let's just check it out. This is all I could come up with. So, we're trying to re-engineer this on the fly, but with parts that we have. And that's what these videos are about, in case you want to do this.

[00:05:57]So, we're running a 2.5 on this. And we have Okay, we got two pistons and sleeves that we could use at a resize.

[00:06:04]The tank is from a Fortec or a Nitro Sport. They're the same tank. And it has screws.

[00:06:11]Put some short screws in there. It's going to go right there.

[00:06:14]So, the carburetor has been swapped 180°. And it We changed the inlet right here.

[00:06:20]And then we had to move the little arm.

[00:06:22]So, we have to get the Slash Nitro Slash linkage. I have it in a bag right there.

[00:06:28]We're going to do it last.

[00:06:29]We have to have a spring on this throttle.

[00:06:32]So, we can see our carburetor is going to open like that. And then our brake.

[00:06:40]So, we got to get a little spring on there. So, on the 2.5, the cylinder head only goes on there one way.

[00:06:45]So, just match the screws up to the fins.

[00:06:48]So, the exhaust is off of a Nitro Sport with a Pro 15 or a Fortec with a Pro 15.

[00:06:53]You can still buy the muffler and this pipe right here. It's $8. I don't know what the hell this is off of. But the Traxxas one, the bends on it wrong. And then I custom made that bracket out of aluminum. So, you see how all that works? It elevates the pipe up just a little bit. And then this little stinger piece.

[00:07:11]That's why I said we're going to have to use a foreign car because it is exhaust is going to come out the center. But some guy's trying to trade me a Porsche Boxster, a real car.

[00:07:24]For my Volkswagen Beetles.

[00:07:27]All right. And then it looks like on this one, we are going to be able to fit a roto start.

[00:07:34]Yeah, it it's it should go on there.

[00:07:37]So, then all we need is a body to fit on it and we'll be ready to put it together.