Went hog wild on EvoVIII, now it ROCKS!
 

I just got done finishing a 2x3 FET stack on my EvoVIII...Which I did after doing the 6cell Mod...Which I did after doing the AWD upgrade (with metal bearings, of course!) :D

Awwwww yeah! I thought she was actually pretty quick/fast right out of the box...But now she's a SCREAMER! :eek:

I thought the ultra-tiny solder work on the FET stacking and mounting to the PCB was gonna be more of a big deal that it actually was...I give a lot of the credit for that to having good equipment/tools to work with. In case anyone else is looking to "go to the next level" with soldering...I HIGHLY recommend reading THIS thread about Solder Stations

Forecast for tomorrow ain't so great, but I'm hoping for at least a little clearing...Just give me enough to run the car outside man!! I NEEEEEED to see it in full action!

Man I've really done it now...Now I'll have to swap out at least the drivetrain with alloys (with all the extra power, the plastic ain't gonna last long)...Then I'm gonna need a faster/punchier motor vs. the stock.

Very interesting post on solder stations. Lots of good info in there. I'm gonna have to get one of those units myself. Excellent workstation for the price.

For the price, it's an excellent deal. I've been absolutely happy with mine.

...And I've already put the free tool set that comes with it to use by using the Flat Nose pliers to straighten the legs on a few FETs in prep for stacking.

Jeesh... I could really use one of those setups.

I'm still using a 40watt cheap-o from RS. The tip is much bigger than I like, but I manage. I was stacking FETs with that and no flux or desoldering braid.

I finally broke down and bought some flux, that helped a lot. For the legs on the FETs, I don't straigten any, but I bend them down a little with my thumb. I still get good connections.

The more I do, the better I've gotten. With a cheap soldering iron, some helping hands, and a steady hand, you can get by with pretty little.

As for the alloys.... I've built some pretty strong beasts and have yet to require metal parts.

My truck, which I'll hopefully get pics up soon, has some pretty big lipos on it. Even with all the weight I've put a good amount of driving time on it without any problems yet. My limit is actually my motor, which I put another big heatsink on. That thing still gets super hot.

The truck is a lot of fun to drive though... (it was the free one from RS too!!!)

OH, I also see that your FETs came in. I'm glad everything worked out.

Those were still the best deal around.... I might have to get some more now that i've gotten into the mini-z realm :)

The FETs upgrade on the Evo8 went without a hitch, so I went head and upgraded my Hummer...With the 6 cell mod and FET stack (2x3 as well).

The hummer is my Alloy'ed up beast, I'm using 2 GPM Ball Diffs and 1 of them needs some SERIOUS break in...Right now it's VERY rigid and not very smooth at all. I finally figured out that was why I had such back steering...Because that rigid diff was in the front. So I swapped it to the rear and it's all good now.

...Well, NOT all good actually. With the stage-2 motor, 6 cell and FETs upgrade this thing HAULS!!! But I lost reverse and it's stuttering like crazy. Now I've got to go back in there and systematically check everything until I find the problem.

Anybody know off hand which one of the 2 FETs controls reverse? That would help with diagnosing.

Thanks.

Man, when you talk about all these alloy upgrades, it sounds like you are building a serious machine there. Makes me want to go get an Xmod.
Actually, it makes me want similar quality in a 1/64 scale vehicle. Don't guess thats gonna happen soon though. You are tempting me with all these upgrades. No, I can't. I'll go crazy and buy to much and the ole lady will cut me off forever. And there ain't NO Xmod worth that, lol.

See if this helps dissuade you a little from the GPM Alloys (at least on the Evo Trucks)...

- The Front shafts/cups have a LOT of slop (when using the Metal Bearings)! I need to find a way to cut my own shims to take up the slack (But GPM includes some shims for the Rear Shafts though, what's up with that??).
- On the Evo Truck chassis, the rear shock mount also acts as a Gearbox cover...The GPM Rear Shock mount is only about 1/2 the width of the stock mount...Leaving a nice size gap into the gearbox
- As I was stating, I bought 2 GPM Ball Diffs...1 is working decently (still needs some more break-in) but the other one is really stiff, almost to the point of binding the AWD. But with a few runs it should clear that up
- GPM only offers stock/low height alloys for the Evo Trucks, if you want to go lifted you'll have to switch back to stock plastic.
- The Rear Gearbox, Rear Cover (where the Motor is mounted) is quite different from the stock parts...In that you no longer use motor spacers and the engine is VERY snug fit! In order for me to get the engine in there and properly seated I had to pull the pinion off and put the motor in and then put the pinion back on from the side...Depending on your point-of-view, this could be a feature or a shortcoming.
- Once you slap all the Alloys on there and realize the dough you just laid out, you're a little less gung-ho about running 'er outside and a little more given to just putting 'er on display.

Does that help? :) ;)

I noticed that the screws back out of the alloy bits pretty easily. I've lost one screw that I seriously doubt I will be able to replace without buying new rear arms for $15. The little allen cap screw is missing. So I might suggest a little compound on there to prevent this from happening.

Excellent point Rez,

Unlike screwing into the composite/plastic stock parts that inherently provides "bite" to hold the screws in (I've stripped the free/cruddy phillips head screwdriver that comes with the Xmods in no time from removing the stock screws because they're in there so nice and snug!)...

The metal-to-metal screws on the Alloys doesn't provide much grip/bite, and you don't want to overtighten for fear of marring the finish or stripping the threads.

I'm going to have to pull out the loctite m'self now.

That seems to be the case with all extensive modding. For me anyways. The more work you put in and the better it comes out, the less you want to use it and scuff it up.
And, it is mainly cost that keeps me away from larger scales. That, and a lack of ample space to run them.

I have an Xmod with two Li-ion and a Team Orion 180 motor, awd with a carbon fiber shaft. I've had to replace some of the plastic parts with alloy because the plastic doesn't stand up to the punishment. The alloy, so far, has. If anything breaks, it's going to be the cheap plastic bits, which are easily replaced, so I'm not afraid of running it.

The car is so stupid fast that I don't run it on much except a large area of smooth concrete, which just happens to be at Nekocon. We ran em around in the extra space at the dealer's room last year.

I'm thinking twice about getting a rear gear cover now. The motor might be hard to set in the right position with aolly parts.

I think I'll stick with plastic to get the adjustablility with the plastic cover.

Actually, now that I've had the alloys for a bit and have taken the motor out a couple of time...It's no problem with keeping the pinion on to insert/remove the motor now. I guess it just needed to "break-in" a little.

The Alloy gearboxes look NICE, don't let a little break-in necessity deter you from it!

any pics of that alloy truck?

Any pics? Pffffft, you don't know who you're talking to do ya? ;)

http://static.flickr.com/72/188602362_7ee2c80f18.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/74/188602279_339cd36325.jpg

http://static.flickr.com/59/188602222_19b7a5dcd5.jpg

Try to ignore that last piece of stock plastic (the orange). I've recently gotten the black alloy replacement for it and need to re-shoot some pics.

wow, the all black is really nice!

why the silver gearbox? where do you get your alloy parts? are you using gpm knuckles? is it 4WD? got the gpm diffs?

too bad for me, gpm doesn't make alloy lift parts.

I just ordered a rear gear box cover and heat sink in silver.

I don't NEED any other parts alloy parts for my F150 yet.

The motor gets hot and the rear gear case starts to crack at the top screw hole after changing out motors enough.

To answer your questions...

Silver gearbox because because I had no choice. I wanted ALL BLACK alloy and it took a while to hunt down the other pieces...But for the Gearbox Covers are just impossible to find (in ANY color), so when one of my sources did finally get it...Even though it was silver, I took it...I think it turned out nicely with the black.

- The Diffs I got from CJ (cjshobbies.net)
- The Black alloys I got from PDQ Mods ebay store
- The Silver gearbox covers I got from GPMDepot (gpmdepot.ecrater.com)

Every alloy part you see is GPM, including the Knuckles.

Yes, it's AWD/4WD.

I agree that it's a bummer GPM doesn't offer the Alloys in the Lifted config.

Well, get ready to WAIT for that Gearbox Cover. Unless GPM finally kicked out a few batches, they are VERY hard to come by right now.

The silver heat sink and gear box cover is coming from a US seller via first class. It should get here next week.

I didn't see the gear box cover at gpmdepot.ecrater.com

My custom motors don't fit the al gear boxes without machining. Its extra work.

I didn't need spacers with a st2 and lowest gearing for the truck.

newbitowner can u plz send me some pics of ur truck er show waht u did to it thx my email harr4340@gmail.com