Gas Hydro vs Nitro Hydro

[GOTTI]

Questions. Are gas hydro easier to tune then a nitro hydro? Are gas hydros more reliable than a nitro hydro?

 

[lohring]

It depends what gas hydro class you are talking about and the level of competition. Classic Thunderboats with their stock Zenoah engines are much more reliable and easier to tune than any other engine class. The GX engine classes become at least as fussy as any nitro class if you are trying for the most power and rpm possible as in SAW competition. The G class engines fall in between.

All the hulls have their setup tricks. There are still huge differences between the speeds and cornering of different hulls. Eric Bourlet had the third fastest heat time of all boats at the 2007 NAMBA Nationals with his G1 Gas Sport Hydro. There was nothing special about its straight line speed, but it was much faster in the corners.

Lohring Miller

 

[piper_chuck]

In support of what Lohring said, the closer you are to stock, the easier it is to tune the engine. This goes for both nitro and gas. I've seen nitro and gas heats where all boats came in running. I've also seen heats of both where only 1 boat came in running. From what I've seen, getting a stock gas engine to run is a bit easier than getting a stock nitro engine to run. I think this is largely due to the extra torque of the gas engine combined with the more sophisticated carb that the gas engines have. Getting the most out of said stock setup, optimum engine performance combined with optimum boat setup, is probably about the same for both.

Careful attention to detail, and learning how to tune should make it so you will be fast and not end up with a DNF due to engine outage. After that, it's all in the driving.