Holy smokes!

[VenturaAlfa]

I keep tellin' ya it's not a problem, it's they way they are supposed to run. Every British car owner knows that to be true. :mrgreen:

Only the fast ones do that and I think they were designed that way. :D

Ventura Alfa

[waaytoomuchintothis]

You are a very sick man, Alfa... Sick, sick, sick. On the other hand, Lucas...

[jcis4me]

In my past experience with SCX motors, The commutator is not attatched very well and brush dust builds up and clogs the space between each comm tab. Frequently the ring that is placed above the area where the wires are attatched to the comm comes loose, and rubs on the brush hood and arcs out. If that happens it is junk! Sleeze bay has alot of replacement motors, mostly short shafts, it takes a bit of searching but you can find the longer shafts out there,Pendle slots may be? As for the "stock" brushes throw them away and replace with Koford or what ever brand of "soft" are available, carefully sand them square, Ive found them to work better. SCX brushes are square and the After market are rectangle. Change out the springs with medium to light tension. Make sure the brush hoods are perpendicular to the arm shaft, Center the arm in the magnetic field by moving the magnets, and when you do super glue the magnets so they wont move. Make sure the can bushing is true then glue it too.
I have found that the glowing most of the time is a build up of brush dust, and the brushes are about to give up!
:auto-checkeredflag: Happy Racing :auto-checkeredflag:

[dreinecke]

I use 91% alcohol with nary an issue as well. I do ensure the motor is submerged, but only so I don't end up wearing it when applying power. I also use a cheap clothespin to clip the wires to my side of the jar I use to ensure the motor doesn't walk around or become disengaged from the power leads.

[urbanwarrior]

I have always heard about this method but never tried it. So today I figured I'd give it a try. I have 3 Slot it orange bell motors with various levels of decreased performance and they all smoke. So I put them in a small jar of 91% isopropyl alcohol and applied 6v for about a minute. Afterwards I ran them outside of the alcohol to clean them out and they all started rough and in a few seconds ran like they were new. I put a drop of oil on the can end bearing and away they went. This is a great tip and it surely got me a bunch more life out of these and I'm sure other motors.
I didn't blow up or set the house on fire either!!

[waaytoomuchintothis]

The most common alcohol for burning is denatured alcohol, and is used in alcohol lamps for a heat source in many applications. I used alcohol lamps when I worked as a luthier and as a band instrument repairman in an old downtown basement shop in old Memphis. Denatured alcohol is extremely flammable, and provides a great deal of heat in burning per volume. Of course, anyone who has seen a waiter set brandy afire for a fancy dessert knows that form of alcohol burns quite well.

That said, there is no better way to burn off condensation in your gas tank than dumping 91% isopropyl into the tank and swirling it around. When you crank the engine, the alcohol which has bound up the water will readily burn and blow steam from the exhaust, cleaning the tank. I always put it in my oldest tractor at the end of winter. Its a 1950 Farmall Super A, so it does collect some condensation over winter. Blows a nice white smoke ring straight up when it fires up about this time of year.

As far as the conditions that may cause a motor to fire off alcohol, there is a lot more to it than just which alcohol and the other things mentioned here. The temperature, humidity, freshness of the alcohol, water content, surface area, how strong the electrical current is and how conductive the leads are, what kind of brushes are in the motor, all kinds of stuff. Just be safe and submerge before turning on the juice and all will be well.

[Xr4ti]

I saw a friend of mine use 91% alcohol in an Rx bottle with a twist cap. He ran the lead wires out through a small hole in the cap. The motor was totally submerged and after about a minute of running, turned it off and blew it out with compressed air to get it dry.

[smithspeedway]

Forgive the odd question, but is there a relatively non-destructive way to make a motor smoke on purpose? We run Bombers in a very well ventilated area and some of the guys think this would be really cool.

Steve

[RichD]

In order to have a fire you need three things, fuel, oxygen and an ignition source. If you use a flammable solvent you will have fuel, if the motor is running you will have an ignition source because the brushes spark. If you dunk your motor while it is off, then turn on the power you will be OK because there is no oxygen available under the liquid surface. There is bound to be some flammable vapors just above the surface, so if you pull the motor out while it is still running there is a good chance that you will have a fire.

[TuscoTodd]

For "smoke" from your Bombers - you could always look at robbing the smoke units out of some model trains. They can put out a pretty good amount of smoke and won't result in burning anything down in the process. ;)

[smithspeedway]

Great idea! Thanks.

[DixonJohn]

I hate to say it cause somebody will say I'm Crazy BUT I had an H&R Hawk That was smoking and stinking to hi heaven over at Harry's one night. We took the body off the car and hooked a power supply to it while holding the chassis over a plastic catch pan. Turned the power on so the motor was spinning while still in the chassis held in the open air. Started squirting 91% alcohol over the running motor. No fire, No Explosion. Cleared it right up. Still have that motor and is still a strong running motor.That was almost three years ago. It was the motor that went into my Maverick for the proxyand it made through that and it going in my Modified Wars Proxy car

[waaytoomuchintothis]

About the model train method... There are two systems, a tablet (which I have no idea where to find), and the liquid drops, which I think is more available. I expect the tablets were crunched in Lionel trains, but there are folks who know more than I do about that.

[chappyman66]

To get combustion, you need fuel, oxidizer, and ignition............BUT:
The fuel and oxygen need to be in the proper proportion as well. I believe the technical term is stoichiometry. This is also affected by pressure (and hence temperature as well) which is at least partly why the power stroke of an engine is ignited on compression.

If you throw a match into a bucket of gasoline, it will go out, just like water. You might get combustion of the fumes above the surface, and because the gas has a low vapor pressure it will continue to evaporate and the vapors will burn.
Point being: when you dunk the motor, and it's submerged you don't have the right proportions of the elements to actually start a fire.
Now, I suppose it's technically possible to start a fire after pulling out a soaking a motor, but the stoichiometry for alcohol isn't right and it's highly unlikely to be a problem unless you are trying to dry it out with an open flame........soldering burns are more likely.

[RichD]

I was aware of the flammable concentration thing. I worked in the lab for 42 years and have had extensive training in handling flammable solvents and in putting out all sorts of fires. The fire extinguisher training that I had included putting out fairly large flammable chemical fires. If you pick the wrong extinguisher you can actually make the fire much worse. As I mentioned earlier it is the vapors above the liquid surface that are the problem. If you are lucky the concentration will not be in the right range and you will be OK, if you are not there will be a fire and there is a chance that the liquid portion will get spilled and catch fire as well. If you are using a plastic container that could burn up as well. I am a firm believer in Murphy's Law, so why take chances. Contact cleaner is made specifically for that purpose, why not use it?