My Auqua Jets here

[water dog]

I finnaly got it .The manual doesnt explain alot.Do the decals go on easy?.I am not sure abiut fuel .It says its ok to use car fuel .It also says 18% min iol content then says 12-18 in the next paragraph :confused: .It says car fuel will give better performance,easier tuning and longer run times.what fuel do i use?.The hull looks pretty air tight .Dont these things need to breathe ?.I think i need to make some holes and add some air scoops.The manual doesnt even list needle settings ,so I am going to set it at 3 turns out and go from there.It says break in should be 3-5 tanks .

[Chris LaPanse]

I would definitely reccomend boat fuel, 30-35% nitro if you want the best performance. Also, I have never seen car fuel with more than 13% oil. An air scoop would definitely help performance, although the hull probably isn't as air tight as you would think. Decals should stick right on. As far as needle settings, I'm as clueless as you. Anyone out there have an Aqua Jet? :D

[MikDee]

Break in needle settings should be factory preset.

[water dog]

One guy I talked to says he uses trinity (12% castor 20% nitro) and another guy says he uses Odonnel (18% castor 15% nitro).I havent heard of anyone using 35% nitro .I think that is too high and will wear out your motor faster.I have been hearing alot of guys use 10-20% nitro .The castor oil content runs around 12-18 % also.

[Ron Olson]

I've tipped the can and have run 50% in my Grey Thunder but that's me. Look for Helicopter fuel, it has a higher oil content in it.
Use water with a few drops of dish soap in it when applying the decals then squeegee it out once you have them set in place.
The needle is kind of pre-set at the Factory but weather, altitude and other factors will come in depending on where you live. The engine will run rough until it's broken in then smooth right out.
My posting on "Boat Review Coming" got dumped when the site got upgraded so look back at the previous posting that you made when you ordered it.
Get some air to the motor. I drilled some holes in my cowling towards the rear but a more forward location would help out more.

[Chris LaPanse]

I havent heard of anyone using 35% nitro .I think that is too high and will wear out your motor faster.
I never claimed it would give you the longest wear. I just said it would give the best performance :D
Definitely use fuel with 18-20% oil, though. Any less, and your engine will wear out very quickly. Also, what altitude do you live at? That can affect the tuning of the engine because of the density of the air

[water dog]

Ok.Thanks for the great info guys.Wow !.50% ,I bet that motor wasscreaming!.I think I will go with 20% ,and look for about 18% castor .I have made some holes.I drilled a hole above the carb and put a motor saver filter and extension up thru the canopy .It looks cool .Hopefully i wont get alot of water in it .I am adding foam in the back of the hull .Thats where all the weight is anyway.I also bagged the electrics board ,so its protected from water.I have traxxas 20% caster/synthetic blen 18% nitro ,but it says not to run in boats .I would think it would be ok .Offshore electrics says they use trinity 20% .I am not sure of the castor content of trinity .Thanks alot guys.

[Chris LaPanse]

My friend races .21 nitro monos, and he consistently uses fuel with 65% nitro :eek: and 20% oil. Barely any room left for methanol (lol). However, that was in a racing engine. For your application, 20% is a good choice. Trinity Monster Brew is probably what they use.Monster Brew - The 'Monster Brew" is a fuel developed for the RTR Monster Truck, Buggy and Cars that are on the market today. It has a 16% blend of oil to keep engine wear to a minimum and helps save costly parts like pistons and sleeves from premature wear from mis-tuning. If you are a hard core "basher" and like to take your vehicle to the extreme, then this is the fuel for you. Great power and wear protection in one bottle. (from Trinity's website, www.teamtrinity.com) They also have other fuels, but they have 10-12% oil for cars only. Good luck with your boat :D

[Hydro Junkie]

What's up with 15% and 20% :eek: I was at a race today where I don't think anyone used under 50% :D The fact these guys were racing 1/8th scale hydros with 11cc engines might make a difference. What some of the guys did was get 60% fuel and top the bottle off with a blend of synthetic and castor oils BEFORE taking any fuel out of the bottle. It gave them more lubricant without sacrificing any meth or nitro content :) One of the guys finished first in three of four prelims and second in the final. That must say something :D

[Chris LaPanse]

It is not the engine size, it is the fact that those guys cared more about performance than long wear and ease of tuning. 15-30% nitro will give you better wear and reliability, and make the engine easier to tune. This is especially important to beginners and sport runners (like water dog). By the way, that extra oil does sacrifice a little meth and nitro content. Think about it. There is the same total amount (not percent) of meth and nitro before and after it is topped off with oil, but, afterward, there is more total fuel. Therefore, the meth and nitro do go down, although not significantly. Now lets get back on topic ;)

[water dog]

Hey guys I was looking at trinity platinum blend ,and it says it is used in boats .Maybe that would be better than the monster blend .BTW will this fuel eat my hull up if I spill a little and dont clean it up fast?.I also have been using a oil additive called nitro blast in my rtr truck that cuts down wear .I also found a great additive called GREASED LIGHTINING .It has PTFE ,which is a great anti wear lubricant .I guy I know has been using it for a while ,and swears by it .It costs 6.00 for about 8oz,and 1oz treats a gallon of fuel ,so for about .75cents you can treat 1gallon of fuel and lower your poerating temps and wear.Its alot cheaper than nitro blast too.

[Chris LaPanse]

Don't know about the addative. About the Trinity Platinum fuel:Platinum Blend - The "Platinum Blend" is for the more experienced racer and has a more aggressive blend of 10% oil. This produces the maximum power but is not as forgiving as the Monster Horsepower Blend or Monster Brew for tuning This does not sound better for a boat, as it is a car racing fuel, and therefore has only 10% oil :eek:. It also says it is less forgiving to tune, which is not a good thing. Overall, the new Monster Brew sounds like the best stuff for a boat, although the Monster Horsepower should be good too. My friend swears by the Monster Horsepower in his nitro cars, and it works great, but overall, the Monster Brew looks like a better fuel for boats. Hope this helps :D

[BoatDoc]

i was running monster horsepower 30% for a while. it seemed to work quite well in both my.15 inboard and my .21 outboard. the engines never showed signs of lack of lubrication.

[water dog]

Thanks for the help guys.I think i may give the monster H.P a try and add a little of my oil additive to give it a little extra lube .

[550racer]

theres alot of hop ups for this boat too like myne i put a sullivan 4oz tank for longer runs i put trim tabs and a auto bailer and a prather 215 prop im goin to take off the air plane pipe and put a tuned pipe from cen on it i run myne on 20% 18% oil..it runs ok im goin to put a lil highter nitro in myne like 30%

[water dog]

I cant get this thing to start.I put some trinity MP20% ,some larger cooling lines and some extra floatation in it.I have a good glow plug in it.I set the hsn at 3turns and the lsn at flush.I think it may be getting a bit too much fuel .It just looks like there may be too much in there when I pull the glow plug and look in side the cylinder .I cant even get it to pop.Maybe I will warm it up with a hair dryer first ,to make it turn over easier.My other engines were alot easier to start when they were new.

[water dog]

I am up and running !.I put a hair dryer on it and warmed it up and left the glow plug heater on it a little longer.I ran it in a small tub for about 3/4 of a tank .It ran without stalling once.Next ,i take off for my local pond with my fishing pole ( I hope I wont need it) .I will post back here in afew days. :p

[water dog]

Does this boat need anything else but a good prop to perform well ?.I know that the stock prop isnt very good .How much will a tuned exhaust really help ?.The stock exhaust is very quiet compared to my nitro trucks with mip pipes and my associated tuned pipe .

[water dog]

OK! .I have been bit by the water bug .My boat runs great .The only problem is I get 6min run time .I pushed it to 6.5 and it got stuck in the middle of a big pond .Lot of casting and 1hr later I got her back.The engine runs great .I am now ordering a CF prop and tuned exhaust cause I am a speed freak. I am going to burn up the water. :D I am thinking of getting a cheap chase boat.

[water dog]

I have about 1/2 a quart of fuel thru her now and addaed a tuned pipe and carbon fiber prop and it really moves out now.It is a very good running engine.

[Ron Olson]

They're great running motors! Usually on mine in the Grey Thunder takes 1 or 2 pulls to fire it up. I put a starter belt on it but don't use it, it seems to fire up better without it.

[550racer]

They're great running motors! Usually on mine in the Grey Thunder takes 1 or 2 pulls to fire it up. I put a starter belt on it but don't use it, it seems to fire up better without it.


im the other way around i cant get it started with the pull start so i use the belt and it fire right up..im goin to get that tiger drive tho that should be even better not belt layin around and no big pull starter at the end

[Ron Olson]

Those Tiger Drives are nice. I picked one up at the Sullivan booth at the Toledo show for my sons truck. Get a cordless drill that can crank up enough RPM to fire the boat up. You can use a 7/32" cut off allen wrench in the drill to save some money over buying their tool.

[550racer]

i was hopin to use there tool and hook it up to my starter i used for the belt? would that work the same?

[Ron Olson]

You can but then it would be a pain in the butt to swap back and forth if you want to use the starter on something else.

[550racer]

i got 2 starters ron lol one for my outboard and one for my cen so ill jus convert the cen one and use the one for the outboard for everything else sence i can swap the leads on that one to reverse the motor easyer

[water dog]

Does the driveline need to be greased and if so how do you do it?.

[Ron Olson]

Yes. It has bushings on each end yet it still needs a lubricant in there. One way would be to patially remove the shaft and squirt some oil in from the motor end. You can also remove the shaft and insert grease or oil up the shaft while holding the shaft tube level. The shaft tube will hold a lot of lube so you won't have to do this too often.

[water dog]

Thanks RON.I havent done that yet.Where do you set the rudder?.I have good steering to the left ,but to the right ,not so good.I have it pushed out all the way jst to see what happens ,and it spins out real easy when i turn ,and the control is very differant.I may up my nitro to 30% from 20%.Will i notice a change or should I not bother for the extra 2.00 per quart ?.Thanks for all the great tips. :o

[Ron Olson]

Check the dual-rate on the transmitter. It's that 3rd knob below the trims. Some people didn't know what that was for. You can turn it down to take some of the rudder throw out of it, I did.
The 30% ought to make a difference. Seeing how you are buying it by the quart, use it up if you don't like it then go back to 20%.

[water dog]

I greased up the shaft real well .There was a tiny bit of scratch es on both ends so i smoothed them out before I greased it up.The motor responded well to some mild port work also.My only problem is the stupid decals are wearing off .

[550racer]

rip the decals off and paint sumthing on it

[water dog]

I am not a good painter .Are there cetain cans of spray paint that are good for the plastic hull ?.Do I need primer?.

[Ron Olson]

Sure, use Top Flite's LusterKote or Formula-U by Testors/Midwest. I used the Formula-U on my Grey Thunder. Really nice shine but it has to be laid on light! No primer needed.

[water dog]

Hey Ron?.What type of glow plug do you use?.I am running the stock one right now but I think I can run hotter if its better, due to the engine isnt real hot.I run a mcoy mc9 for cold and a mc59 for hot in my nitro trucks .They work pretty good for me.Do you use a clear coat to protect the paint ?.I am thinking of maybe leaving the bottum of the hull alone and paint the top.Can I get decals off easy enough?.

[Ron Olson]

I've been running an MC-9. No clear coat and I didn't paint the bottom either. Their decals stick pretty well so have fun getting them off.

[550racer]

i run mc 9 as well in both my cen and tunnel hull

[water dog]

Great !!.I have two new ones in my tool box.Thats a cold plug ,I think.

[550racer]

mc is for low nitro mc 59 is for high nitro

[water dog]

I noticed that your fuel tank seems alot longer than the stock one.Does that cause alot of sloshing and can you run the tank pretty low before it quits?.

[Ron Olson]

These are the same tanks that we run in the larger boats, just smaller. The Dumas Hawk boats use 2 of these side-by-side and I use larger ones of course in my race boats. You have to know where to place the fuel pick-up at though. On flat turning boats like Cats, tunnels and 'riggers I put them on the left rear side. For mono hulled boats, on the right rear.

[550racer]

no sloshing at all and i can run it farly low before im out its alot more better then the flip top one with the primer pump