1:10 or 1:12 scale project wanted...

[BrianG]

It only becomes difficult to convert if you try to use a plastic spur instead of the steel one.

However, I've done about half hour of hard running with a steel spur and hardened pinion on my Hyper 8 and have no evidence of any metal-on-metal issues. It's a little early to tell, but it seems that if you have a rock solid mesh (no motor mount flex), you shouldn't have to worry about using metal on metal gears.

Since the CRT is much smaller/lighter, and will therefore use a less powerful motor, a hardened steel pinion on the stock spur should work fine. Again, it's about having a very solid mesh with no flexing. I am going to go this route for now and see how things go. But, a replacement center diff mount I ordered was supposed to be in today, but the order got messed up so it will be early next week at the earliest before I get mine done to tell for sure.

Any brand or type of pinion that are better than others?

A friend of mine is a CNC operator. He'll help me out with the motor mount. Should be able to make something that's designed to have as little flex as possible.