MSJ Products Fridge Head

Installation

As I mentioned earlier, replacing a motor head is a fairly easy task. All it involves is a few bolts, and a couple of swapped parts. You should be able to make the swap in 5-10 minutes.

The first thing you'll need to do is to remove the blue glow plug wire, then clean around the glow plug and then remove the glow plug.

Next you'll remove the black head protector ring that sits on the top of the stock motor head. All you'll need to do is to simply pull it straight up and it should pull right off.

Once you have removed the head protector, you can access the 5 bolts that secure the motor head. Using a 2.5 mm hex wrench, loosen the bolts by turning them counter-clockwise.

When the bolts have been fully loosened you can simply lift the motor head off of the engine block and what should be left is shown below.

Now you'll need to transfer the copper shim from the old head to the new head. The shim is shown in the picture below. Slide your fingernail under it and lift it off.

Once it's off you may want to clean it before reinstalling it on your new head. Keep track of which side of the shim was facing the head when it was removed, as you should reinstall the shim in the same direction as it was on the old head.

This picture shows the shim installed on the new head. A small coating of after-run oil, on the head side of the shim, will help hold it in place while you lower it into position on the motor.

Place the head on your motor block and then run the bolts down, but don't tighten them down.

When tightening the bolts down, you'll want to tighten them down using the following sequence shown in the figure to the right. Simply put, all you're doing is once a bolt is tightened, move to the bolt directly across from the one you just finished. You'll want the bolts to be snug, but you don't want to over tighten them and risk stripping the threads in the engine block. If you have a torque wrench that measures in/lbs. of torque, Traxxas recommends each bolt be tightened down to 9.7 in/lbs. of torque.

The MSJ Products Fridge head uses an anodized aluminum plate that performs the same function as the stock 2.5 head protector does. If you wish you can still place a few zip ties around the top cooling fins of the head to help protect the plate from damage should your truck ever turn over. However as the MSJ head plate is tough and replaceable, ties are most certainly not a necessity.

Once the head bolts have been reinstalled, all you need to do is to reinstall the glow plug and glow plug wire. Once that's done you're finished.

Part One:	Introduction
Part Two:	Installation
Part Three:	Testing and Final Thoughts