I wish you the best of luck with that.... I've recently done almost exactly the same thing - bought in a Strike, with plans to fix it up for running locally. Mine needed new dog bones and a new gear cover... and got some upgrades as well (alloy lower suspension parts). Then once finished, I fired it up with the brushed 12T / 550 Losi combo that came with it.... and it was garbage!
In went a transplanted sensorless brushless unit from one of my HPI Firestorms.... performance is better, but it seems to cog like anything. Put in a smaller pinion, no luck... was like the radio gear was cutting out. Put in a Stutter Stopper (large capacitor), tried again.... same cogging / stuttering on acceleration... only this time, I also had a runaway about 20m away! Apologies to the people who own the house that the truck slammed into......
Needless to say, truck is back in the pile, waiting for me to replace the radio gear (Losi tx with Kyosho rx) and try again... not sure exactly when I'll feel like it, though....
Good luck with yours though.... there's no reason why I should have had all the troubles that I'm having.... so you'll most likely end up with a great beater truck! I will be watching....
Alex
Osiris is the key.
"The world looks so much better through beer goggles... except Farmer in his underwear" - Ken
Look out for Todd K. - he's a convicted serial killer!!!