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MT410 BIG BLOCK BUILD - RC_User

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RC_User

Well-known member
TF Excellence Award
Messages
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269
Location
Seattle Area
Tekno RC's
  1. SCT410
Driving Style
Racer
Hiya everyone. Woodie was kind to invite me here so I'll share build details on my current rig, the MT410. I was very active on the URC forums (RIP) where I had multiple build threads, unfortunately they were also posted on photobucket and I angrily closed my account with them before I discovered there was a way around their new free image hosting limitation so I lost all of my past images too. So I'll start over with the MT410 here!

I was into RCs as a kid way back in the late 80s. Had a Kyosho Maxxum, a front wheel drive off road bugging. very rare! of course I wished I had kept it now! Last rig recently as a Tamiya Lunchbox, but I let her go shortly after building it because I didn't want a shelf queen but I also knew if I had kept it I'd have destroyed it quickly.
I actually got out of RC a couple years ago before my new daughter was born she was born because I knew I'd have very little time to RC, but the release of the MT410 convinced me to give it one more try. I picked up the MT410 way back in November 2016. The crazy thing is that it's still like new, I have had very little time to RC, but I still try to sneak in some wrenching time when I can and enjoy working on the thing as much as driving it. Hoping now that the kid is 2 she'll be able to go with me to the park and let this thing rip.

Proline Trencher 3.8 (40 Series) All Terrain Tires Mounted Tech 5 - Pro116013
Castle Monster X ESC
Castle 6.5mm battery and ESC Connectors
SMC 6700mah 4s
Protek 130T servo (0.080sec, 355oz @ 7.4v)
Castle 1717 1650kv Black can motor,
Tekin T8 G2 2000KV truggy motor ... AND (see below)
Futaba 3PL radio
Proline Ford Raptor body (1st gen)
DE Racing XD Rear Skid Plate
Tekno 5262 Cnc Split Center Diff Mount
Tekno 6015 Aluminum Shock Cartridge Cap Set x2
Tekno 6003B Alloy Shock Caps Non-Vented x2 (Not installed yet)
Tekno 5211 Aluminum Motor Mount Insert (the old style with 3mm and 4mm mount holes)
M2C 6905 Tekno MT410 Aluminum Solid Center Brace (just installed yesterday)

mt410_4.png


The #1 reason I bought this rig is because it's the only rig of this type (1/8 competition truggy class) I know of that has the suspension travel to bottom out a 7" tire. I've had a couple of other truggies and most of them are engineered to use standard 1/8 truggy size wheels/tires, which is understandable, as they are primarily for competition where you're bound to the kind of tire/wheel you run. For some reason Tekno designed these things to have far more suspension travel than a normal 1/8 competition rig. I wanted something that I could run huge tires and just drive up over curbs if I need to, yet be a 1/8 comp style vehicle. I had a monster truck in the past and while it was great, it was very heavy and used a lot of weird parts and aftermarket support was almost zero.

Things no longer: I used to have a set of belted Sweep Terrain tires. They were cool because they had ZERO ballooning, but the tread was hard and they had laughable lack of traction on anything other than the road. For a street run they were really good but the second I hit grass I could barely get through it, the tires would just spin. So I decided to sell them off to fund other goodies.

Let's cut to the chase. The little Tekin T8 Gen2 2000kv Truggy motor was never designed to push these HUGE heavy 7inch wheels/tires. They are like triple the weight of a 1/8 Truggy wheel/tire. This motor gets warm very quickly. So it's time to upgrade.

20180408_202344.jpg


Tekin T8 g2 2000kv Truggy motor vs Castle 1717 pull from a Traxxas XO-1.

Luckily the Tekno factory motor mount can support this beast. I've done this same upgrade on an old RC8Te (with an aftermarket motor mount needed), and AE Rival (had to modify the factory mount and add additional motor support) and the Rival weighed a lot more and still this motor never got over around 135 degrees on 4s and did around 45mph. Needless to say this is my favorite motor! Never worry about temps again. There are quite a few people who upgrade to the longer can motors like the TP series, those are also great from what I've read. I just wanted to stick with Castle and not have to relocate my ESC (but did have to flip it on its side to fit.)

Two cons to changing to this motor:
1. The Castle isn't sensored, which is really nice for going SLOW and crawl over stuff, otherwise, no real-world difference for a basher.
2. The motor can size being larger means I can't move it close enough to the center to run smaller than around a 21T pinion (I have a 22T), that means 55mph speeds even on 4s, which is a little faster than I need. Shooting for 50. The motor doesn't get hot (you can rest your hand on it!) but the ESC gets warm real quick.

To "fix" the space/gearing problem I just recently grabbed the m2c center brace.

20180408_190323.jpg


Reasoning behind this, I hoped it was a little more 'slim' and would give me a millimeter or two of extra space to move the motor in closer so that I could fit a smaller pinion. After installing it I know I can go down one tooth to a 21T but I think that will be it, so I'll order one up to try to reduce the temps on the MonsterX. I'm not sure if the factory braces were the same space limitation, I forgot to check it before I took it out (I've got a 22T.) Another possibility is just removing the front center brace completely. Tekno is the only 1/8 brand I've seen that has those center braces, I'm not really sure why they are there, I guess there must be more chassis flex there due to the "lightened" areas where they cut away. I'm thinking alloy top plates would stiffen it up enough so that we wouldn't even need those center braces. If i remove it then i could easily fit around a 19T pinion, which is what I was running with the Tekin 2000kv motor.



Mounted to the old style (non-lightened) mount insert - the new "lightened" insert only has 3mm holes and this motor only has 4mm holes, the old mount insert has both.

20180405_224219.jpg


mt410_2.png


20180408_190331.jpg



Future goodies are the Tang alloy plates and possibly the alloy rear chassis brace, not sure on that one yet.
 
Awesome build and history @RC_User! You and I have a lot in common when it comes to our history. I too got started in RC in the 80's, and with the addition of my two kids I haven't done a ton of RC'ing lately. Most of my RC fun comes not from managing a controller, but tinkering in the garage and running RC forums. My oldest is about to turn 5 late this year, I'm looking forward to getting back into driving RC's with him!

Great looking MT410 and that center chassis brace from M2C looks very clean!
 
Sweet looking build. Those electrics are crammed in. It's the one thing I wish was better on the MT410, the space for electrics is a bit small.

I have the same body but made from that unbreakable material.
 
Sweet looking build. Those electrics are crammed in. It's the one thing I wish was better on the MT410, the space for electrics is a bit small.

I have the same body but made from that unbreakable material.

completely agree, i don't care for how tight the space is, but they designed it for competition and running a specific sized motor, so it makes sense. it's really crazy looking on the truggy chassis, there's so much wasted space !

I'm not familiar with "the unbreakable material", what is it?
 
Man, that is SWEET! Thanks for the great pictures! I hear you about URC (rest in pieces). I lost some great tutorials there that I had not backed up anywhere else. Live and learn.
 
thats nuts dude hahaha, not so sure about the ESC positioning though? is it worth repositioning it down to the rear LHS of the truck instead? be really interested to see how it goes mate, will be ballistic hahaha
 
thats nuts dude hahaha, not so sure about the ESC positioning though? is it worth repositioning it down to the rear LHS of the truck instead? be really interested to see how it goes mate, will be ballistic hahaha

It seems to work fine, it's held in by a big ty-wrap and tape at the bottom, there isn't much space between it and the motor though so that might contribute to why the ESC runs a bit warm... it definitely isn't ideal but i'm not sure I want to put in the effort to make something custom since I already have another motor that will fit properly. I've been eyeballing that new Castle sensored for a while but not sure if there is any real benefit over the Tekin.

I'm only running on 4s so it's not like crazy 6s fast. I just wanted something that would run cool no matter the condition. i can push the huge heavy 7in tires through grass and don't need to worry about the motor temp and still go 50mph. Anything faster than that and it's pretty uncontrollable anyway so for me right around 50mph is the perfect top speed I'd like to shoot for. as it stands it goes a little faster than that so i've got a 21T pinion on the way, smallest that will fit unless I replace or remove the center brace.

Man, that is SWEET! Thanks for the great pictures! I hear you about URC (rest in pieces). I lost some great tutorials there that I had not backed up anywhere else. Live and learn.

Yeah I'm wondering if he'll get URC back up. It's been so long now I wonder if it's even worth it any more. Since all I have now is the MT410 I don't know if I would even bother going back to it now that we have this forum. rctech is OK but it just seems like most of the people there are clueless, and 200 page threads? cmon.. it's ridiculous. There is no much repeated stuff and missed info because the threads are just too long. The classifieds there are great, that's the only thing I like about that forum. I already like this one more.
 
Awesome build!! How does that super low kv (1580 I believe?) do on 4s in terms of punch/torque with 19 to 21t pinions? One of my favorite things about the MT - in the 3 packs I've actually run through it - is how easy it is to manipulate and induce end-over-end rotation. I would love to do to a big motor for the reason mentioned...there is never a concern about heat. I am just concerned about what I happen to enjoy most and what I was looking for when I built this thing in the first place.
 
Awesome build!! How does that super low kv (1580 I believe?) do on 4s in terms of punch/torque with 19 to 21t pinions? One of my favorite things about the MT - in the 3 packs I've actually run through it - is how easy it is to manipulate and induce end-over-end rotation. I would love to do to a big motor for the reason mentioned...there is never a concern about heat. I am just concerned about what I happen to enjoy most and what I was looking for when I built this thing in the first place.

This is the genuine 2nd gen 1717 which is 1650 kv. the 1580kv is the first generation like all of the Chinese knockoffs on ebay. Castle says that all of those on ebay out of china are fakes, however they never shut them down selling for some reason... It is debatable on how genuine they are, I guess it was decided that they are sold by a factory in China that used to make them for Castle, so they are using the the older version Castle specs (1580 vs 1650kv), but who knows what kind of material they use since they aren't QC'ed by Castle (anymore)... so I paid a little more to get the genuine article. is there really any difference? There are videos on YT of people testing the fake Castles - some have great luck with them, some don't...

As far as the power goes on 4s, i have the ESC punch control at maximum, and 500k diff fluid. so i'm actually trying to be nice to the truck ha ha. If i turned punch control off and locked the center diff ( probably wouldn't even need to do that) I think it would easily flip end over end. The gearing issue is only an "issue" because of my super tall tires which I believe Proline says are like 6.9inches high. If i went down to something around 6-6.5 inches then my top speed would be right around 50mph. I have a 22T pinion in it now and a 21T on the way, that is the smallest that will fit since the motor can's increased size won't let me slide it in further, i'd have to remove the center brace.

i would definitely look into a bigger motor! best upgrade ever not having to worry about temps, and having some more torque. with the tekno it's a space issue unfortunately, but anyone who wanted to do it badly enough found a way to re-mount the ESC. I'd take a look at the TP motors. if I hadn't gone with the Castle I'd have probably tried one of those. not the huge TP4070 but I'd have probably gone with like a TP4260 which spec-wise would probably out perform the Castle but also uses a lot more amps kv vs kv...
 
Nice build. Can you tell me why the 1717? Are you going to run 8s? I run mine on 6s with a 1512/1800kv 18t pinion and can't imagine it running much faster or stronger. Just wondering what the benefits are. Please lmk and maybe I will do it too. I already have all the upgrades done and more. Thanks. Nice work. Oh, why didn't you use the longer ET chassis?
 
Nice build. Can you tell me why the 1717? Are you going to run 8s? I run mine on 6s with a 1512/1800kv 18t pinion and can't imagine it running much faster or stronger. Just wondering what the benefits are. Please lmk and maybe I will do it too. I already have all the upgrades done and more. Thanks. Nice work. Oh, why didn't you use the longer ET chassis?

I went with this motor just so I'd never worry about temperatures. I ran this same motor on a monster truck that was much heavier and I was impressed how cool it ran. I can run in grass with these huge heavy tires no problem. I didn't really do it for a performance upgrade, I'm only running 4s and don't plan on more, it's plenty fast for me. Really it was mostly for a fun "why not" mod.

I may convert to the longer chassis. I want to, I just don't really have need, and then I'll have to find a body... used to run savage xl bodies and an SC8 body, those worked well on other 1/8 monster truggies I had. SC8 was my fav, giant short course monster truck.
 
Great upgrade! I love this motor and put it in a Kraton but I didnt like how it sat on the chassi. Almost to the point to where it tipped forward when tightened down. I tried to use some shims then I destroyed center diff bearings. Weight wise that motor will drive that thing up a tree!
 
Great upgrade! I love this motor and put it in a Kraton but I didnt like how it sat on the chassi. Almost to the point to where it tipped forward when tightened down. I tried to use some shims then I destroyed center diff bearings. Weight wise that motor will drive that thing up a tree!

The Kraton looks like it has a decent motor mount, I'm surprised you had issues. It is a crapshoot whether or not it'll mount up nicely though, that is for sure. I had one mounted on an AE Rival, it wasn't perfectly straight either, and I had to use an extra motor clamp (from a savage) custom drilled into the chassis to keep it from flexing the stock motor mount which was much thinner than a 1/8 scale mount. Once that was done it was bomb proof, much nicer than just two screws holding it on from the front because the motor was completely clamped down on the back end.
 
Nice build @RC_User, Have you ran it on 6s? I bet it would howl!!

TT
 
Nice build @RC_User, Have you ran it on 6s? I bet it would howl!!

TT

Nope no 6s so far. even on 4s it'll do 60mph which is more than I need to keep it under control and be out sight in 5 seconds ha ha.
I wouldn't mind trying 6s for the heck of it, i've seen how crazy fast these are on 6s, it would be fun to see, but i'd have to spend $120 on a new battery... who knows maybe this summer i'll give it a shot. 90mph here i come!
 
Yeah you'd need front spoiler and rear wing just to keep it on the ground probably!!

TT
 
Yeah you'd need front spoiler and rear wing just to keep it on the ground probably!!

TT

so true that's why i really have little desire to do it. in my experience anything over around 50mph and it just becomes unusable for anything except high speed straight runs, especially a heavy tall rig like this. i usually shoot for a top speed of around 45mph and it's perfect for me. once in a while it is fun to do a top speed run on a big field though, for that 6s would be awesome. i would have to run smaller tires and/or lower KV to even get below 75mph on 6s on this thing. i have always wanted to build a high speed car though. thinking an EB with an ET chassis (short arm ET) for speed runs.
 
Yeah, that 22T pinion and the 7" wheels makes that thing cover some ground quickly I imagine. Good too hear that your esc/motor combo, runs so cool with that setup as well.

TT
 
Yeah, that 22T pinion and the 7" wheels makes that thing cover some ground quickly I imagine. Good too hear that your esc/motor combo, runs so cool with that setup as well.

TT

Yeah, it moves great, a little more than I need, but still not at crazy 6s accelleration. i should have a 21T arriving today or tomorrow, I think that is as small as can fit without the motor hitting the brace.
But that annoying brace doesn't exist on any other 1/8 scale rig, so i may just cut the front half off of that brace off or grind it down a bit to eliminate the motor clearance issue.
I think that center brace was only designed to be there if you have the plastic center diff mounts because I can easily flex the chassis and see it compress between the center diff mounts. With the added alum steering and diff plates (if they ever arrive) then there will really be no need for it I believe...
 

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