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alvinlwh

3Racing M4 (no longer mystery BOX 2 but Suzuki Swift Supersport 1600)

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This will be my second 3Racing build after being quite impressed with the MG Evo. Always wanting a 4WD MTC sized chassis and try out belt drive, this is a perfect match for what I am wanting to build at this time. For £99 delivered from SpeedRC, it is a steal (for reference, it is over £150 direct from 3R). Having finished a M-06 recently, I have a spare NSU body that I used for testing that chassis (more crash friendly). Now that that chassis had been proven to work OK without overturning all the time, it's proper Ghia shell can go on thus freeing up the NSU shell. As the NSU is a 239mm WB, there are only a few chassis that can be that length OOB, and the MG Evo is one of those. So it is converted and the mystery BOX (bB) shell is freed up and will go on this M4 chassis. 

Enough background, now onto the kit. 

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Typical 3Racing box which does not tell much about what is inside. Particularly concerning is a sticker with QR codes and a not saying that there will be no manual in the interest of the environment. 🤮

Opening up the box, there is a printed manual, and in planet unfriendly plastic coated glossy paper, unlike the MG Evo's photocopied A4 sheets with a binder. 

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As usual, the parts are packed into bags according to the steps and element on the chassis. 

A brief run through of what is OOB. 

All bearings 

FRP (fiberglass) decks (chassis) 

CVA dampers

Universals

Roll bars

Oil diff

Hex machine screws

Super hard plastic 

NO electrics 

I will probably run this on a silver can first to try it out before switching for a brushless. I got a 17.5T and a 2700kv on hand, likely put the 17.5T into the MG and use the 2700kv on this. 

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A brief rundown of the bags/parts. 

Nicely printed instruction BOOK. 

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Bag of DIY tool?!?! I know MST does this so this is a surprise. 

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Bag 1 - Oil diff and spool, #2000 oil and bearings included. 

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Bag 2 - FRP lower deck and suspension arms.

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Bag 3 - Drive belts, motor and drive mounts.

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Bag 4 - FRP upper deck and shock mounts. 

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Bag 5 - Turnbuckles and anti roll bars. 

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Bag 6 - Front and rear hubs, bearings included. 

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Bag 7 - CVA shocks with #350 oil. 

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Bag 8 - Electrics mounting bits. 

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Bag 9 - Wheels, bumper and body mounting posts. 

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So got to start on the tool bag first. 

Tools required to, well, build these tools. 

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Done up. 

Clockwise - pliers (probably for shocks?), ball screw tool, turnbuckle tool, 4.0 & 4.5 box wrench and 5.5 & 7.0 box wrench. 

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Something different from the usual "t" wrench. 

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Step 9 - Oil Damper Assembly 

So to try out the pliers, I started with the shocks first. 

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The turnbuckle tool has an end for the shocks too. The pliers don't work well though. Back to the usual paper towel and needle nose pliers. 

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Completed. 

Fronts - Tamiya #400 "yellow" oil and green 5.25T springs

Rear - Kit #350 oil and yellow 5.75T springs

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Nice little kit these, I built one a little while ago (part way down page 13 of my project thread) mine has a 17.5 brushless fitted, bombs along well

 

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1 hour ago, mtbkym01 said:

Nice little kit these, I built one a little while ago (part way down page 13 of my project thread) mine has a 17.5 brushless fitted, bombs along well

 

Any tips or pitfalls I should be aware of?

Maybe I am stupid (and definitely colorblind), but I cannot seem to get my TBLE-04S to work with a BL. I have a 17.5T bought for cheap from 3R that should be a perfect fit to the MG but it comes with a no reverse ESC and I have no luck getting the Tamiya one to work so have to order another ESC. BL is getting too expensive for me and I will be sticking with brushed in the future. 

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@alvinlwh I don’t actually remember, think it was a pretty straight forward build. Is the BL motor you’ve got a sensored motor? I believe the Tamiya ESC’s will only work with a sensored motor

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12 minutes ago, mtbkym01 said:

@alvinlwh I don’t actually remember, think it was a pretty straight forward build. Is the BL motor you’ve got a sensored motor? I believe the Tamiya ESC’s will only work with a sensored motor

Yes, sensored. With all the flashing lights looking the same to me, I may not have set it correctly though. Anyways BL is getting expensive and troublesome for not a lot of gain, I will probably stick with brushed in the future. 

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1 hour ago, alvinlwh said:

Yes, sensored. With all the flashing lights looking the same to me, I may not have set it correctly though. Anyways BL is getting expensive and troublesome for not a lot of gain, I will probably stick with brushed in the future. 

Yeah that certainly wouldn’t help, they definitely can be fiddly ESC’s too, where you do the same thing and it works after not working. BL is definitely far more maintenance friendly in the long run, but the old brushed motors still hold a lot of nostalgia for me

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8 minutes ago, mtbkym01 said:

BL is definitely far more maintenance friendly in the long run, but the old brushed motors still hold a lot of nostalgia for me

I heard that one before, but the way I see it is, I have X number of cars, but only Y number of times to run them in a year. For my location, Y is not big, say 52 times a year. So I have 10 cars now, and can run each an average of around 5 times a year, a brushed motor will last for years before any maintenance. And the number of times I run a car will go down as my collection grows. Maintenance of motor is never going to be a huge problem for me (probably). 

Having said that, I really do feel that these 3R chassis with all their rather "Pro" materials and build (I am looking at the setup sheet for this M4 and my head is spinning), they deserved a BL and so I dipped my toes in by getting a clearance setup from 3R. And that is when I got bitten by the ESC problem. 

Anyway, I persisted and got a "2 in 1" system where the ESC is built into the motor and that one will work. Now just to decide which BL to go into which chassis. 

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Fun cars, they are.  The plastics are a bit brittle; I suggest purchasing parts SAK-M4P17 and SAK-M4P18.  If it will be driven outdoors on asphalt, it would also benefit you to look for the softest damper springs you can find to increase traction.

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37 minutes ago, SupraChrgd82 said:
Fun cars, they are.  The plastics are a bit brittle; I suggest purchasing parts SAK-M4P17 and SAK-M4P18.  If it will be driven outdoors on asphalt, it would also benefit you to look for the softest damper springs you can find to increase traction.

Thanks for the tip. I just completed an order with them 2 days ago! If I had known, I will not need to pay for postage again. I guess I will delay the suggested parts till when I order a S64. 

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Step 1 - Gear Differential Assembly 

The car has oil diff for the rear and spool for the front. 

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Starting with the gear diff, plastic bevel gears. 

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Getting that pin in deep in the diff body is rather tricky. 

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Half filled with #2000 oil. 

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More plastic gears and even the gear shaft is plastic. This is very different from Tamiya's, hope they are as strong as I think they are. 

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Gears in and topped up with more diff oil. 

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Gasket in and feels a little tight. Hope it will not leak. 

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Done with included bearings on and a drop or two of bearing oil in them. 

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Step 2 - Centre Gear Adapter & Solid Axle Assembly 

Starting off with the spool (solid axle) first.

The instructions for is wrong. It will be impossible to build it with the orientation of the Solid Axle Body as shown. It should be flipped the other way. 

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Completed. 

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Next is the spur gear. Supplied is a 80T one. The M2x5 screws strip out easily in the Centre Pulley, I think I stripped one hole out. 

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Otherwise done up with the supplied bearings. No bushings to be seen anywhere here. 

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Spool the front, diff the rear.  And be very gentle with the tiny bolts that hold the bearing carriers, hey are easy to strip.

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44 minutes ago, SupraChrgd82 said:

Spool the front, diff the rear.  And be very gentle with the tiny bolts that hold the bearing carriers, hey are easy to strip.

Opps, thanks for the correction. Editing now. 

Will probably need a new carrier, I think I stripped one, or maybe superglue can fix it. Or do you know if SAK-U420 (or the other number of teeth ones) will work? 

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17 hours ago, alvinlwh said:

Opps, thanks for the correction. Editing now. 

Will probably need a new carrier, I think I stripped one, or maybe superglue can fix it. Or do you know if SAK-U420 (or the other number of teeth ones) will work? 

I believe SAK-U421/V3 is the direct aluminum replacement for the center pulleys, as they are the parts used on the M4 Pro model.  I couldn't say if the change to alloy over plastic is worth the increase of rotating weight.

Regarding the stripped carrier, you may be able to  add a thin coat of epoxy to add material back to the hole.  There's no load on the screw, so it's not too critical that it snugs up tight; it just has to prevent the carrier from rotating.  That's one component I was waiting for in alloy.  About a year ago they had their parts page with a "coming soon" description for aluminum carriers for one of the Sakura cars that would also fit our M4's. 

I just noticed that 3racing updated their website.  Cross-referencing parts will be more challenging now.  From what I had found, they have roughly 3-4 designs used in the touring cars, with different combinations of those designs used in various models.  If you need other part interchangeability info, I can reference my ebay purchases for P/N's. 

 

 

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@SupraChrgd82thanks for the info, real helpful. Yeah, they seem to dump all parts together with no description at all. Even filters don't work correctly. I know their cars are kind of "mix and match special", so really had to find parts, especially the upgrade parts.

 

 

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On 1/21/2022 at 12:04 AM, SupraChrgd82 said:

Spool the front, diff the rear.  And be very gentle with the tiny bolts that hold the bearing carriers, hey are easy to strip.

I find the smaller screws seem to strip really easily here. I think I might have stripped the hole in one of the front roll bar holder with the M1.6 screw. Maybe I am just used to the mostly (all?) M3 screws when I built the MG Evo which don't strip and comes to a hard stop. 

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Bag 2 now. 

Step 3 - Front and rear suspension Assembly 

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Front first. 

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Using a Tamiya 2mm spacer to set the droop screw. 

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Done. I may use Tamiya spacers to replace the plastic spacers, but the blue may spoil the slick black look. 

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Rear done, but the instructions are for the 225mm WB and things will need changing later on. 

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Next up, mounting the arms to the lovely FRP chassis. 

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Instructions calls for the individual mounts to be fitted first. 

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Front lower mount fitted. 

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Problem with the rear arms. The set screw is on the wrong side. 

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Rear toe default at +2.5 degrees. 

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And that is Bag 2 done. 

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Bag 3 now.. 

Step 4 - Front and Rear Bulkhead Assembly 

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Not sure why are they called bulkhead, they are just the supports for the rollers. 

First up, the steering linkage. All bearing included and very smooth. 

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Done. 

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Next, fitting the steering to the supports. 

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Done. It is quite obvious that this is a mix and match kit as there is "Advance" marked on the steering cross member showing that it is in fact from their Sakura Advance range. 

Next up, mounting the front supports to the chassis. The front belt is also installed at this time. 

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Done, the belt is installed between the steering cross bar and the twist bar. The instructions is not too clear on this. 

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Next up the motor mount. Nice alum piece with infinite pinion spur mesh settings. 

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The front spool followed by the spur are the next to go in, along with the rear belt. 

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Front belt is hooked onto the spur pulley and rear is put in place. 

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Next is the rear diff. 

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That is the transmission done. The belts felt rather loose at this point as the top deck is not in yet. 

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Bag 4 next. 

Step 6 - Front and Rear Shock Tower Assembly 

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Nice thick FRP show towers as standard. 

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Completed the front one first. Done with the suggested top position

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. Rear next, again same nice and thick FRP tower. 

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Also done with the recommended shock mounting points. 

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Really love the nice thick FPR parts. 

Next is installing the shock towers and installing the top deck. 

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Done and the belts became tighter with the top deck forcing the car apart. 

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Just looked on Asiatees and saw that the TCR-FF I was eying sold out over the weekend. Not seeing any TCRs anywhere else (I am a chassis collector), I quickly grabbed a TCR-M out of whatever remaining stock they have. As the TCR can only be made up to 210mm WB OOB, I will use the mystery BOX shell on that one and use a spare M-05 Suzuki Swift Supersport 1600 shell that I have lying around on this instead. That is a 225mm WB and this chassis can be built to that which is great. 

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So first job of the day, to convert from 210mm WB to 225mm.

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To this. Luckily I decided the change at this point which makes things easier. It is also easier than to change the MG Evo from 210mm to 238mm. Also decided to use Tamiya 2mm spacers instead of the plastic spacers. 

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Moving on, Bag 5.

Step 6 - Front and Rear Stabilizer Assembly 

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The parts required, bearings included as standard. 

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Installed. The instructions is quite poor here as it did not state how much, if any of the bar should stick out. Also, it says to screw the holders lightly but the whole thing just falls apart if I do that. 

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The rear is very similar. 

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Using the included turnbuckle eyelet tool. 

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The rear installed, instructions still sucks here. 

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TBH, I cannot say if I had done them up right or not. 

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