I completed the upgrades to my Mini-Titan e325 radio controlled helicopter this week, they came in on Wednesday and I had them done and/or installed by Thursday.  The parts I ordered can be seen in this previous post “I’ve Ordered Some Upgrade Parts for the Thunder Tiger Mini-Titan e325 Helicopter”

The HK-2221-8 from Scorpion Motors was easy to install, it comes with some proprietary pin-type connector for the motor.  You can either desolder these and put your own on or use the included female connectors that are often included with electronic speed controllers.   These connectors seem to be decent quality.  The female connectors have a spring around the fingers to pull them tight onto the male pins, keeping everything secure.  They solder on just like your standard ‘bullet’ type connectors.

I mounted the pinion onto the motors output shaft using blue Loctite paste.  The Loctite paste comes in a tube, sort of like school glue, and it is a lot cleaner to deal with. You should make sure to push it into the threads of the screw or nut as it’s not a free flowing liquid and isn’t of too much use if it just sits on the surface.   I know that a lot of people are fond of the red Loctite for this task, but I really hate having to heat the motor shaft to pull a pinion, and the blue has worked out well for me.  I lined the pinion up relative to the old pinion’s position on the stock motor shaft and then cranked the grub screw down nice and tight.

The small size of the electronic speed controller from Castle Creations was a bit of a surprise for me.  I had forgotten how efficient they are with the size of their products.   The stock 40 Amp ESC that came with the Mini-Titan is at least twice the size of the new CC Phoenix 45 Amp speed control.   Prep was pretty much the same as any brushless motor speed control.  Trim the wires to fit your setup.  (Hint: Estimate the length you need, then add 1/2 to 1 inch to allow for bends, etc) solder on the deans and female pin connectors and we’re off!

I had ordered the metal washout block, fly bar control arms,  and the metal mixing levers to install.  Unfortunately I was not able into install the mixing levers because the stock ACE plastic flybar cage interferes with the metal levers (or the other way around).   This means I would need to order a new metal fly bar cage but  I’m going to hold off on that for now.  I want to leave some plastic components in the head as ‘break points’ so the expensive metal bits have less chance of being destroyed in a crash.

The washout and the fly bar control arms were very easy to install.  I already had a metal headblock installed.   I disconnected all the links and removed the head block from the main shaft, then I installed the washout block/control arm assembly down onto the shaft and reinstalled the headblock securely.   Pretty easy!

Bryn was kind enough to take some pictures for me of my slightly upgraded Minit-Titan e325 you can see some additional ones below 🙂

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