Nitro advice needed

[HOTSHOT III]

A neighbour has just bought a Hong Nor RTR nitro buggy (with a Force .25 engine) with a view to eventually coming racing.

Does anyone know of an online guide to starting the engine for the 1st time and running in/tuning it? I said i'd help but I can't remember very much about this, it's a long time since I played with nitro.

[Hpi_guy]

Been a while since I was running nitro but from what I remember I used to do this, put all engine needles back to factory position which is flat to the carb, then put the car on a tabs so that the wheels are off the ground then start the engine and let it idle on its own for 2 tanks, then keeping the wheels off the ground run a third tank but giving it half throttle occasionally, then for the final 2 runs put it on the ground and run with half throttle with the occasional blip of full throttle and that should be it, if I'm wrong feel free to correct me, but also for tuning I found this

[HOTSHOT III]

Most helpful, btw which model of zx-5 do you have?

[Hpi_guy]

Just the original zx-5 but lots of nice carbon and aluminium

[HOTSHOT III]

In some ways I think that's the best zx-5 to get, mine's the SP (not the FS2SP, the old SP as in the last one they made with a stick pack chassis).
It's a great car to drive but some bits are getting hard to find because the driveshafts/wishbones are unique to that particular model.
I'm just trying to keep it going for as long as I can-it's cheaper to stockpile spares for this than it is to upgrade to the FS2SP because then i'd need to get saddle pack lipos as well (which then wouldn't fit in my 1/8th electric buggy).

[Hpi_guy]

I've only had mine about a month but I haven't ran it yet my local track has been closed due to waterlogged carpark but the carbon chassis and top deck make it a lot stiffer