RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Hello!

I've got my first tank a few days ago and its a Heng Long KV-1 Smoke and Sound. Problem is, I added way to much smoke oil into the exhaust pipe to the point it was spilling back out! Now there is no smoke at all. I've read somewhere that it should start working again if you leave the smoker running, but I've left it on for over 30 mins now and only the piston is moving. I can, however smell the smoke near the exhaust, just no smoke. After opening the tank up, it seems the heating element is still warm which means its working. I have a spear smoking unit but I really have no idea how to install it and don't want to until I'm 100% sure that its busted. So will the excess oil eventually dry up and create smoke again? I can see the cotton piece inside the smoker is pretty soaked in oil.

Please help and thank you

Big Mistake over filling the smoke unit... I did the same thing with my first S&S ... the best thing to do...is to first take the unit out... drain the tank best that you can...DO NOT TOUCH THE WICK OR HEATER ELEMENT.... set that part of the unit on a paper towel to drain the wick....get it as dry as you can without touching any of the parts connected... I made the mistake of trying to squeeze the excess fluid out... and broke the solder joint to the heat element ...cost me a few bucks to replace it... but ever since ... I don't over load the smoker with the fluid


Good Luck

ALPHA

Can I leave the cover with the cotton open and hope that it will dry out? I really don't want to take the unit out.... I'm afraid ill break a wire because I have nothing and no experience here that will be able to solder the wire together again

Try just tipping the tank to drain the fluid out & then run it dry

The fluid is actually absorbed into the cotton.....theres no oil in the little container it's in.

EDIT: Just stuck a stick of tissue in there an absorbed few drops of oil

Jaso444 wrote:Can I leave the cover with the cotton open and hope that it will dry out? I really don't want to take the unit out.... I'm afraid ill break a wire because I have nothing and no experience here that will be able to solder the wire together again

No.. that won't work... taking out the unit is pretty easy...there are three screws on the underside of the tank...the only wire you need to worry about is plugged into your control box or RX18...so all you do is unplug it ...you might have to cut a zip tie ...but that's not a big deal either......once you've done that... unscrew the four screws on the top of the fill tank... and carefully lift off the top dump out the fluid in the tank... in a clean container if you want to save it... stuff the holding tank with a paper towel or toilet paper to clean out the residual

place the rest of the unit on a folded paper towel and let sit overnight if you can...it should be long enough to draw out the fluid on the wick... reverse the removal process to reinstall....once everything is together..restart your tank...make sure your battery is fully charged... run the smoker and see how she does...if all went well it should start smoking again... the smoke won't be in a great volume...but just let it burn out for awhile... once you get a good flow of smoke...shut down and add two...exactly two drops through the exhaust tube ....as recommended... and you should be good to go

Just remember not to alter the wick or play with the element...it's very fragile

Good luck

ALPHA

Jaso444 wrote:The fluid is actually absorbed into the cotton.....theres no oil in the little container it's in.

EDIT: Just stuck a stick of tissue in there an absorbed few drops of oil

The wick is too wet still... allowing the fluid to absorb in another source will help a lot.. hopefully you didn't burn the element...as it will try to heat..get cooled by the fluid till it cracks...that's what kills the smoker

Again Good Luck Jaso

ALPHA

So I left the cotton piece on the tissue for a day and the cotton seems a lot dryer, however, the part wrapping around the black wire (which I'm guessing is the heating element) is still a bit damp. After trying it out, there still is no smoke. So my question now is. So I leave it to dry completely, or drop a few drops of oil into the exhaust pipe?


Thanks!

Jaso, given as to how much trouble smokers are, many of us unscrew them and replace them with a better smoker ( if you look on the Forum you will find details) or of course you could get shot of the thing and use the space more usefully, A properly serviced Tank in the real world does not smoke, or at least not as much as Heng Long would have us believe. shaun

As of now, is it possible to buy custom smokers from any R/C shop? I know people make their own modifications, but I simply do not have the tools nor experience to do so. So, again, any shops which sells custom smokers ready to install? I know there were some few years back which I read somewhere but Google isn't showing anything that is current.

Thanks!