BL Conversion - Traxxas Villain

[Unsullied_Spy]

I've posted this up on a few other locations, figured I should put it up on the home of the BL Conversion

I bought a used 7.2V Villain about a year back and it was just too slow for me. The ducks at the local ponds don't even run from the thing it's so slow. It's relaxing to drive, but very boring. There is a lot of talk about how they cannot handle BL power but I cannot find a brushed motor that fits the bill, so I am modifying mine to BL power. I'm starting off with these Turnigy 60A Marine ESCs and some 30mm 3200KV motors with Graupner U-Joints, Traxxas 3/16th shafts, and OSE 51mm CF props.

Here it is as I got it, note the damaged prop in the last pic (hadn't figured out the macro mode on my camera at the time of these pics).






Those nylon drive gears had me concerned, so they were the first thing to go. I checked the diameter of the driveshafts with a digital caliper and they came out to 3.93mm. I ordered 2 28T 32P 5mm bore hardened steel pinion gears from Kershaw Designs and 2 14T 32p 5mm bore hardened steel pinions gears and 5mm -> 4mm bore reducers from RC-Monster to handle the power better. I will run stock gearing (14/28) for now, until I figure out how to gear my motors and probably replace them with higher-grade motors (I'm hoping to get the new ~3,000KV CM36 motors from Castle Creations). I'm waiting on the OSE Turn Fins to come back in stock, as I'm sure this thing will chine walk horribly.

The powerplant:



Size comparison of the ESC and motor against a TRX 2.5 engine:


I'm trying to keep it mostly Villain, no direct drive or single motor/single prop configurations.