Diagnosis: motor murder

[Brushless55]

That kind of temp is not a result of insufficient water cooling, the OP is an experienced member, as i said before, regardless of the arrangement on the lines, something else was causing the heat. Look at the picture carefully: the hi-temp silicone wire insulation is discolored as if it is showing the wire strands inside, I have soldered many wires before and one of my amazements was how much heat can these insulation materials take, never seen anything like this. The temp is higher than my soldering iron to say the least.

Yes Yes Yes
I had a cooling line come off all together during a race and had a motor get to 180*+ and the T180 esc did thermal and nothing desoldered!

and at the same time I had a race when one of my motor wires desoldered with motor temps of only 105*

[lenny]

Can you post some pictures of the transom and hardware ?
Also what prop were you using when this happened and do you have any idea of the pond temp that day ?

[Basstronics]

OK after closer look I see the error in the water jacket. It wasnt the best it could of been. Stupid me... I put the motor in one night next night just slapped lines on it- didnt think to check yesterdays work

Im going to make a new boat check list before running so I dont have this issue again.

She got so hot it melted the plastic at the motor where the wires goes in. The discoloration on the shrink wrap is partly the amount of heat but also the fact the bullets arced on the one set. It must of been damned hot. There was solder splashed around...

Going to get another motor and try again... lol

[tlandauer]

I did confuse the insulation on these Leopard motor with the ones on Castle Neu though, they are TOTALLY DIFFERENT, the latter is the same insulation one finds on high grade wire used on batteries where as the Leopard is more like a special Heat Shrink Tube. They will not melt but gets sticky to the touch when heated. I suppose the reason Leopard uses this kind of material is because the wires coming out of the motor are part of the windings on the stator where as Castle NEU use wires that can be shortened.
Just want to be correct on this issue.

[Rocstar]

That kind of temp is not a result of insufficient water cooling, the OP is an experienced member, as i said before, regardless of the arrangement on the lines, something else was causing the heat. Look at the picture carefully: the hi-temp silicone wire insulation is discolored as if it is showing the wire strands inside, I have soldered many wires before and one of my amazements was how much heat can these insulation materials take, never seen anything like this. The temp is higher than my soldering iron to say the least.

Agreed. Bass, have you pulled the rotor out for inspection?

[tlandauer]

That kind of temp is not a result of insufficient water cooling, the OP is an experienced member, as i said before, regardless of the arrangement on the lines, something else was causing the heat. Look at the picture carefully: the hi-temp silicone wire insulation is discolored as if it is showing the wire strands inside, I have soldered many wires before and one of my amazements was how much heat can these insulation materials take, never seen anything like this. The temp is higher than my soldering iron to say the least.

[Rumdog]

You're all assuming the flow rate isn't high enough to fill the jacket before gravity can let it drain. I highly doubt that's the case. It's water pressure from the flow and constantly full jacket forcing the water out.

[SloHD]

I understand what you mean now, with the angle of the motor. But IMO I serious doubt that makes a significant difference. We're talking about 3-4mm of water flow. We're not filling up pipe/PVC ect. I think some are thinking about it way too much. That little amount of water is pushed in there so hard that any air bubbles come out with it.

[iop65]

the jacket is not filling with water all the way
as i said before he has to rotate it so the outlet is on top!
otherwise air will stay in
he created the perfect conditions for a hotspot in his motor ,even has he said water was flowing

[SirBudman32]

Think about it, air will rise to the top. So if the water is coming in the top and there is a air bubble stuck in it the water will flow out but the jacket WILL NOT fill up as it should. with the exit point at the highest point of the jacket the air can get out but with the exit at the lowest point the air will rise to the top and be trapped there and the jacket can not fill and do its job to the best of it abilities. being that cooling the motor where the wire come into the motor is most important if there is a air bubble there and it cant cool you get what you have here.

[Rumdog]

Even if the lines were/are backward, it wouldn't lead to this failure on its own. I mean, the jacket is definitely still filling with water and is doing so continuously as water exits. Think about it.. youre forcing water in at whatever rate of speed the boat is traveling. do you think its merely puddling into the jacket and trickling out the lowest hole? No.. it's filling that sucker up, and fast!

[lenny]

That is a very good point to.

I did not play out in my head,
How a air bubble or air lock in the jacket would add to this melt down.

I was just looking at the basics of a normal setup for FE boats.

[SirBudman32]

Lenny is right, you have the lines on the motor backwards. Should go in the bottom of cooler and out the top. I'd bet you had a air bubble stuck in the cooling jacket on the motor.
After seeing the problems last year with it and now this, Looks like one for the swap shop. Just saying. As for the 180 cooling mod, if you stop by this week I'll show you what I did to both of mine.

[iop65]

Lenny is right ,this was never cooling properly , this was an accident waiting to happen

buy 4-7 mm cooling tube,could be wrong this seems to me like 3 mm inner diameter
make them as short as possible!
rotate the motor cooling jacket out is on top , at the back ( again :lenny is correct)
do not get all you wires bundeld up

prop down on a hot day , when water is warm
saves money

[Basstronics]

The water lines were correct. I also did see water exiting the hull. Due to speed it was not a big stream but it was blowing apart. When boat stopped it died and it took me a bit to get back to shore so no temps. I did put my thumb on the motor and it was to hot to hold- this is after at least 10 minutes trying to retrieve. There was a "white area" on the can where the water level was. All water boiled out of the system.

I know the motor is toast. Its already in the garbage. The ESC had that wimpy additional ESC bank. I threw that out now and the middle 1000 cap is now bulged.

Im going to make a new water block for the T180. Im also going to run an external coolant line just for the motor. So two pickup-s, two exits.

In the end I think the water flow might of been restricted or became plugged. First few laps I seen the water exit. Now the question is what else is fried? lol