OK, so I'm new to the whole brushless thing...just some thoughts, opinions, etc...

What's the difference between:

Sintered/non-sintered rotors? What performance advantage is one over the other?

Sensored/non-sensored? Same question as above.

What tuning options are available for brushless? I'm fairly familiar with brushed motors, having different spring rates, hard/medium/soft brushes, cut brushes, cutting the comm, etc. What do you do to tune a brushless motor?

I saw something about different rotors. Purple, orange, etc...what's the difference in these? Do these provide the same tuning parameters as hard/soft brushes/springs, etc.?

What mAh batteries do these things operate best with?

What's the brushless equivalent of a 27T stock motor? 19T?

Thanks for all the inputs ;)

OK, so I'm new to the whole brushless thing...just some thoughts, opinions, etc...

What's the difference between:

Sintered/non-sintered rotors? What performance advantage is one over the other?

The sintered rotor makes the motor run cooler and allows you to gear higher. Ultimately they are faster and are the standard.

Sensored/non-sensored? Same question as above.

It doesn't really matter. There isn't yet a sensorless system that will reliably run our motors on 4 cells.

What tuning options are available for brushless? I'm fairly familiar with brushed motors, having different spring rates, hard/medium/soft brushes, cut brushes, cutting the comm, etc. What do you do to tune a brushless motor?.

You can change the timing. All that really does in my opinion is alter the gearing your motor will prefer.

I saw something about different rotors. Purple, orange, etc...what's the difference in these? Do these provide the same tuning parameters as hard/soft brushes/springs, etc.?.

There are no rotors with fancy colors. There are two sintered rotor offered by Novak. The newest is the 13mm rotor, it has a 13mm diameter. It is slower in oval racing and not legal anywhere. Basically there is only one rotor option and that is the one that already comes with the Novak "Pro" motors.

What mAh batteries do these things operate best with?

Just like brushed racing they run the best with the best battery you can put in. Right now there are a couple battery options, EP4200, EP/EnerG4600 or IB4600. They are all about equal in on track performance. The EP/EnerG cells will be more durable than the IBs.

What's the brushless equivalent of a 27T stock motor? 19T??

A 17.5 is similar to a 27T stock. 13.5 is a bit slower than 19T and 10.5 is a bit faster than 19T.

pmsimkins, the color thing may be that Novak began color coding their motors, with balck, orange, purple thin ring( about 1/8 thin) near the end of the motor where the wires are attached. That was to make it easy to tell which wind stator the motor is. Do not confuse this with the purple metal band about +1" in around the center of the "can".

pmsimkins, the color thing may be that Novak began color coding their motors, with balck, orange, purple thin ring( about 1/8 thin) near the end of the motor where the wires are attached. That was to make it easy to tell which wind stator the motor is. Do not confuse this with the purple metal band about +1" in around the center of the "can".

We call the things timing rings. I think the colors are: black, blue and orange.

Does it make the motor any faster or more efficient moving the timing ring or is it better toleave it as it comes from the factory?

Does it make the motor any faster or more efficient moving the timing ring or is it better toleave it as it comes from the factory?


Some always turn it all the way up. Personally I think it is pretty much a wash no matter where you put it. Turn up the timing and you have to gear down, turn down the timing and you'll have to gear up, in the end though the lap times are about the same.

It's extremely easy to change it, so just try it out and see what works for you. Just make sure to mark the starting point.

...so far I've never tried adjusting the timing on any of the B/L motors I've run...

Looking at the back endbell, which way do you move the ring to increase timing...Clock or Counter Clock?

Counter Clockwise

It takes a little bit of force to get it moving, but once it is maxed out you don't want to force it either. Sometimes they come from the factory turned all the way up, so I always turn it down first then turn it back up that way I know I'm not trying force it if it is already maxed out.