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It has been awhile since I have been on this forum but it is great to be back, have missed it. This is my first non-Yokomo project outside of the occasional RC10T & GT but after finding this poorly listed Kyosho Burns on the bay, I shot the seller off an offer and was surprised at their acceptance.

30 years ago I was living in Asia and purchased a Burns DX 4WD brand new in the box but it was a little beyond my 14 year old skill set. I assembled it, purchased the OS Max RF separately and then it sat collecting dust. Forward on 10 years I moved back to Canada and sold it to a gentleman in Toronto via Craigslist...unused, never ran for $100 ugggg (so if anyone here has a burns with a light fluorescent pink body, let me know )

It is my intention to complete strip and rebuild this back to a base model burns, attempt a box art paint job...and then retire it to the shelf.

Are old gas 1/8 cars supposed to be this dirty???

I look forward to your build thread. The OG Burns is very iconic.

Sucks to hear about selling your unused Burns. Whoever got it sure did score.

I have rebuilt a few Turbo Burns and Turbo Inferno buggies. I have links to those builds in my gallery link below.

I recently bought a nice Kyosho USA1 that I am planning a full rebuild on. Something about the Burns/Inferno series is so iconic.

If you have any questions, post them here and I'm sure someone will be able to help you out. Good luck!

Hey Lavigna, appreciate the kind words and will definitely be using your builds as a reference point but also appreciate any insights from those checking out these posts.

Made minor progress getting the chassis scrubbed down with soap and water and managed to get the diff cleaned and reassembled. It is binding a little and I think the right mount is warped possibly, assume due to heat under rotation? It seems to stick a little when I am rotating it.

Scrubbed down the fuel tank as best I could, got a little too aggressive and broke one of the rubber fuel lines trying to get the grime off but no matter, turned out pretty good all things considered.

A little more progress made today, managed to lose a couple eclips into the void, either flying into the air or dropping into the carpet (the wife is letting us do craft night in the living room, she had no idea I was busting this bad boy out, she is not impressed lol).

The more I tear this car down the better shape it appears to be in, very little scuffs, a couple minor bent hinge pins but all in all the front diff teeth showed very little wear, underside of the arms are in great shape. The dog bones do have some rust and are soaking in some wd-40...has anyone ever sanded them down and sprayed them before or should I just well enough alone?

Hi, will be following this build with interest.
Looks like your Burns isn’t in bad shape at all.
Looking good already, liked your working in the house comments, struck a chord with me, the mrs defo wouldn’t allow me to be stripping rc cars in the living room, banished to the garage.
I’ve rebuilt a Turbo Burns, pictures on my showroom, and the drive shafts had some surface rust. I polished them up on a bench grinder with a wire brush wheel on it, then sprayed them with semi gloss black smooth hamerite paint, gave a nice finish.
Only for the shelf, not sure how long it would last on a runner.

Hey hoseman50, my wife is seriously unimpressed but perhaps this is my justification on getting a better garage

Definitely will be checking out your TB build as well as a reference point, with the wing setup I was actually a little concerned it was a TB but the lack of sway bars, having bushings instead of bearings and the wheels lead me to believe it is just a Burns, what do you think?

A little more accomplished yesterday evening, really enjoying this one as the results of cleaning it up are really satisfying

Looks really good there, you’re moving along quickly.
When you’re on a roll, you just want to keep cleaning and rebuilding.
Yours is definitely a Burns, the chassis is straight at the rear, where as the turbo Burns has the triangular tabs sticking out.

Ahhh yes that makes sense, thank you hoseman50...with confirmation that this is definitely a Burns I thought this might be of interest to Dimitri and Lavigna...

...in Lavigna’s TB build Dimitri had mentioned some unusual round tabs on either side of the rear diff housing, that didn’t have any function on the Burns (one large round hole on the left and two smaller tabs on the right) I can confirm they are on this one as well, see pic, so it does appear they were on the Burns after all.

Minor update with the rear diff disassembled, inspected, cleaned and reassembled. Absolutely love how this one is coming together...

Stumbled across the first major issue with this project this past weekend, the engine is completely seized as far as I can tell. Not a big issue for something that will likely become decoration or a fancy paperweight but presents a challenge along with a learning opportunity I look forward to tackling. Going to read up on this more but have heard a heat gun might help...more to come. In the meantime more progress:

Progressing nicely there.
What engine do you have, looking at the first photograph it looks like an early OS model, but can’t tell.
If it’s seized, try removing the heat sink (head) and the back plate if you can. Spray some release oil in, it’s probably the bearings that are the problem.
Try rocking the flywheel back and forwards, after a while, little by little you should start to get movement.
Eventually it should free off, keep applying release oil and the bearings should free up. If it’s just for a shelf queen, then you may be happy to leave it at that. Or you could look at replacing the bearings if feel you would prefer to.
I’ve just done this with an OS Max 21 EX, and it worked out pretty well.

Did you get the engine free'd up?


You posted that today

Hello all, the engine wouldn’t budge and I didn’t want to force it with the flywheel too hard so I put it aside for a bit and tackled the electronics...

Buttttt I couldn’t help myself and I started tearing the engine down, starting with whatever would come off easily...essentially it is locked up with what I can only imagine is super old fuel, super sticky globs of brown goo everywhere, in everything and it does not wipe off/away easily...

Once it was opened up and the heat sink was off I discovered the cylinder sleeve was loose enough to remove...slowly...but the piston had zero play and was seemingly locked in place. Removing the back cover and taking a look inside where the crankshaft connects to the connecting rod was in bad shape, almost like it was rusted/rusty, the whole round circular plate was in bad shape. The one bearing that was in view also looked to be in poor shape HOWEVER once the piston/connecting rod were out it slowly started to budge.

The engine is stamped with OS Max RF on it, was this one of the first .21 buggy engines they produced?