WL TOys 104001 Big Brushless Upgrade and Installation Guide

The WL Toys 104001 is an all new 1/10 scale 4WD offroad RC Buggy that was released in 2021 and you can find my full review of the 104001 here. I found this to be a great handling car but felt a little on the slow side. I was able to get some more speed out of it for very little money by increasing the size of the pinion gear here but performance is still a little on the lack-lustre side. Clearly this car is crying out for a brushless upgrade so it's my pleasure to present the one I have put together and have been testing over the last few months and I'll call the 104001 big brushless upgrade. 

Before you increase the power of the car, make sure it is well setup and tuned first. Follow this guide for the full detail: WL TOYS 104001 BEGINNERS GUIDE: 4 THINGS YOU MUST DO

I've specified, tested and written about no less than 5 brushless upgrades for the 144001/124019 spec of cars and these have been a great success, bringing drivers more speed and acceleration but importantly better handling and battery life as well. So it's fair to say I am fairly well experienced in this area. Being larger with better gearing options makes the 104001 less bound by the constraints of the smaller cars so on my first brushless upgrade on this car, I have decided to go BIG.

The stock electronics of the 104001 are based on a brushed ESC that is integrated with the receiver and sends signals to a 5-wire servo, much like the smaller 144001 and 124019. Because all of these components are only compatible with one another, all need to be replaced. I'll these one by one - some of the options available that I like and also which I've chosen for this car (and why). It's worth bearing in mind that I'll always save a buck where I can but spend where it's of most use. So the systems I will cover are:

• ESC
• Motor
• Servo
• Radio
• Battery

If you are looking for a cheaper upgrade option then check out my 104001 budget brushless upgrade here

ESC

As I've learnt from more recent builds, the best place to spend your money is your ESC. This is because you want the piece of mind that it is made to the rated spec accurately and will be reliable plus it is able to run the right cell count for your application.

I knew that from the outset that I wanted to be able to run 4S in this car for a number of reasons:

1. More cells = more voltage = less current (amps) required for a given power output. This means less stress on electrical components and more overhead if you want to go crazy on power. Read this article if you want to understand more.
2. This is a basher, not a racer so cell count is not limited 2s as it is for race spec cars
3. 4s batteries are cheap as this is a common quadcopter size and this car has the space to fit them
4. 4s capability is more common on the higher rated ESCs 

Although I've had success with cheap ESCs like this one and this one in the past, I've seen many others that haven't and so have decided to go with the bashers' ESC of choice: Hobbywing. I wanted something that would last so I settled on the EZRUN MAX10 SCT model. This unit is 2s-4s capable and is rated for a rather large 120A. Interesting fact: 120A on 4s is about 2.5hp. This is one of the newer line of waterproof Hobbywing models but do also consider the older SC8 RTR 120A 4s ESC which is also good but a little cheaper. As a reference point the SC8 RTR ESC powers my large 1/8 scale JLB Cheetah monster truck on 4s so the ESC I've chosen for this car will have a very easy ride - I'm expecting it to run extremely cool.

EZRUN Max10 SCT ESC

SC8 RTR ESC

Max 10 SCT specs (Click to enlarge)

The ESC itself ships in a nice box with full instructions and plenty of wire. Mine shipped with the large XT90 connector but I changed this for an XT60 when I trimmed the wires to length. The ESC accepts 4.0mm bullet connectors for the motor so you can plug the motor in directly or with the included extension wires/connectors. See further down for the installation, I've had a few goes at to get the spot that suits me best.

Motor

3650 is the right motor size for this 1/10 scale car that should provide a good balance of power and weight. From my experience with other builds I've found that 4500kv with a 2s battery and the right gearing gives a good mix of acceleration, power, efficiency (battery life) and heat control. This is scalable to other battery cell counts as well i.e.

• 4500kV x 2s/3s is equivalent to 3000kV on 3s
• 4500kv x 2s/4s is equivalent to 2250kv on 4s

The 104001 is substantially bigger than the 124018 and 144001 shown here. This means it is a lot less twitchy and speed and why the 3650 motor is a more appropriate size.

Although you need to spend money on an ESC if you want reliability, the same is NOT true with motors; even cheap units have powered speed run cars from WL Toys to world records in excess of 100mph. One series of low price motors that have proven themselves to be reliable are the Surpass / Racerstar range (Racerstar is a rebranded surpass motor). I've used several different sizes in my brushless upgrade builds and they have yet to let me down. The Racerstar 3650 and Surpass 3650 motors are available in a lot of kV options : 2050kV, 2300kV, 3100kV, 3900kV, 4300kV, 5200kV and 5900kV. I've chosen to go with 2300kV on 4s for this build. This is because the higher the voltage (i.e. cell count) the lower the current needed to achieve the same power. In short, less demand and stress on the entire electrical system. If you want to see a further explanation on low voltage high kv vs high voltage, have a read of this article: RC CAR THEORY: 2S VS. 3S, HIGH KV VS. LOW KV

As an aside I've also bought a 3100kv to try on 3s and a 4300kv for 2s later on down the track. Just a quick note that there is also a Surpass 3660 motor with 10mm longer stator but still with the 3.2mm shaft available from Surpass if you want a little more power and some different kV options. Note it is pretty rare to find a 3660 motor with 3.2mm shaft, they usually jump up to 5mm. 

Racerstar 3650 Brushless motor

Surpass 3650 Brushless motor

Surpass 3660 Brushless motor

Servo

As mentioned above a servo change is mandatory here since the stock 5 wire servo is incompatible with regular receivers which require a 3-wire unit. On the smaller 144001 / 124019 cars we were limited to 3 or 4  17g sized servos which actually made it easy to choose but on this larger car we have a plethora of options available since the servo is recognised as a regular 1/10 servo. In order to keep things simple I've chosen to again go with Racerstar as they have some well priced options available that perform well and all are made with metal gears. I've bought a servo from each of their tiers as I'll by using one for this car, one to upgrade my JLB Cheetah and one for my big ZD Racing EX-07, namely:

Regular servo: ​Racerstar DS6209MG 9.35KG Metal Gear Digital Servo

Coreless Servo: Racerstar DS6114MG 120° 13.83KG Coreless Digital Servo

Brushless Servo: ​Racerstar BLS7032HV 180° 32KG Brushless Digital Servo

I've immediately ruled the brushless servo for the 104001 out as it's just too expensive plus it is more about torque than speed; the opposite of what we need for this car with the small buggy wheels. For this reason I've saved the brushless servo to help turn the massive heavy wheels on my JLB Cheetah instead.

The choice is then between the regular servo and the coreless servo. Since I went big on the ESC I decided to go for the regular servo because it is cheap and still an significant upgrade over the stock unit. If I had my choice again though I'd have gone for the coreless servo in the 104001 as well because it is not THAT much more expensive and it is ridiculously fast - check the video to the right with the coreless servo turning the massive wheels of the EX07.

Installation of the servo is simply a case of one out, one in and it mates up perfectly to the stock bracket. It's really easy to install but picture are below in the install section if needed.

Radio Gear

You will of course need a transmitter and receiver as part of the brushless upgrade. You can use any aftermarket gear here. If you have a favourite use that but if you are yet to decide there are two fairly clear options for me.

​Dumbo X6 with gyro is the best value for money - decent build quality, excellent range and basic features. Speaking of features check out my guide on understanding all of the available DumboRC models because it can be confusing

1. Flysky FS-GT5 is my favourite radio that I use to control my favourite cars. The multi model memory and great depth of programming options (especially for the gyro) make this a superior radio but it is more expensive than the DumboRC. Since I already had this remove I just bought an extra non-gyro FS-A3 receiver which are $5-10 only

Battery

You can't go to a 4s system without getting a 4s battery. I've chosen to go with a 4s 1500mah battery as it is what I have left from my quads but if buying new I'd recommend a 4s 1800mah or 2200mah which should fit in the stock battery tray. Remember a 4s 1500 mah has the same amount of electrical energy as a 2s 3000mah pack and 4s 2200mah has the same energy as a 2s 4400mah pack - you get the picture.

I recommend buying ChinaHobbyLine batteries straight from the source. They have free shipping for orders over $80 but most importantly that make great, inexpensive batteries and have good support. If these aren't available to you, try these ones from Banggood as an alternative. See below for battery tray dimensions to make sure you get something in the correct size

Installation

Compared with the smaller WL cars there is a lot more room for installation and so you have options for where you place ESC and receiver. I've had a couple of attempts and ended up with the ESC in the front, opposite the servo. Although the motor wires are less convinient the weight balance is much better.

I like to have all my parts ready before I start but so I know how it will all fit.

First you'll want to remove the old brushed motor and put your new brushless motor in. You want to choose you pinion first (see gearing section below)

I use the Racerstar 3650 motors, they are inexpensive and have performed really well for me in past. Pictured is 3100kv used on 3s but presently running 2300kv on 4s

Remove these screws to take the old 5-wire servo out.

All 3 of the servos mentioned above fit directly in to the mount and the stock servo horn goes straight on too

Servo in place - a direct bolt up

I've chosen XT60 connectors for this build. If your ESC doesn't come with one you'll need to solder them on yourself. Tin the connectors first

Pop the sheath or heatshrink down the wires after tinning them

Solder your XT60. If you need soldering tips the check out my soldering guide for noobs

Pop all components roughly in place and check were wire routing would go before you cut or fix anything. Don't forget to test fit the body too.

This was my first setup with the ESC in the rear but I've since change it to have the ESC in the front and iprove weight balance

ESC signal wire needs to go past the centreline with the 4wd shaft is. You need to make certain that these cannot come in contact. I like to run under and existing structure as above

Signal wires are kept away from the drive shaft

Usually I trim servo and ESC signal wires but got lazy here and just cable tied them but either way make sure the are secure and kept out of the way of moving parts.

Larger pinion on this motor as you can see, more on that below

Motor wires are too short so I removed the heatshrink and desoldered 4mm bullet connectors

Then put the bullet connectors on some 14AWG wire and put heatshrink around the joint (not shown here)

Wire with bullet connectors in the ESC so I can trim to the right length, solder join to the motor wires and heatshrink.

I cable tied the motor wires down to keep them away from moving parts. All this securing is crucial for a basher

I've since put the gear cover back on to better protect battery wires from the spinning spur gear of death

This is what it looks like with the 4s 2200mah battery in

LESSGO!

Gearing

Before I talk more about performance I really must address gearing. Like other hobby grade cars (and unlike the 124019 / 144001) we have a lot of gearing options due to the more common M0.6 gear pitch used here. I've gotten knee deep in the maths below with gear ratios compared to my optimum setups in other cars to give you a conservative start point for gearing in order to help you choose the right pinion gear kit. FYI I recommend these pinion gear packs: Surpass Hobby M0.6 Metal Gear 13-33T 3.175 Inner Hole . They are well made and great value for money.

This Surpass Hobby M0.6 pinion gear set is cheap and high quality.

My favourite setup was the 144001 running a 4500kv motor with 17t pinion gear on stock 72mm wheels as I wrote about in the Ultimate 144001 brushless upgrade guide here. Key details for gearing on that car are:
17t pinion, 44t spur, 12t bevel pinion to 30t diff crown gear, 72mm diameter wheels. All of this combined means that the car will move 35mm forward for every turn of the motor.

Now, the 104001 uses as similar motor peak RPM but uses a 22t pinion on a 70t spur gear with a 14t bevel pinion on a 40t diff crown gear with 80mm diameter wheels. This will make it travel 27mm with each turn of the motor. In order to achieve the same distance travelled per turn of the motor, I need to multiply the stock pinion x 35mm/27mm = 28.5. So, in this case I need a 28 or 29t pinion gear. This is just a start point, keeping an eye on speed, motor and ESC temp will all need to be considered when testing.

Performance

The difference in performance is night and day, this car simply must be experienced with a brushless power train. Clearly the stock car is completely under powered which is really exaggerated because of the great handling. This more powerful system makes much better use of the handling and in my opinion how it always should have been. It's no surprise that the stock brushed system was only chosen to keep this car at a price point. 

I'm really happy with this gearing using the 28t pinion as a start point. The car feels quick but not uncontrollably so and just feels powerful due no doubt the the acceleration this setup offers. The 1500mah 4s pack lasts for about 15 minutes before I noticed a drop off in power as the voltage drops. After running the motor is warm only and the ESC barely lukewarm although bear in mind it is winter where I am and about 12 degrees C. It does feel like you could go taller on gearing but i like a basher with conservative gearing so that regardless of how I push it on what terrain, I know it won't put any of the components under too much stress. With further ado, speed tests are below:

76km/k (47mph) is a very respectable speed for this car that runs this cool. The handling improvements over the 144001 and 124019 are really appreciated, it just feels a lot more comfortable at this speed. The way the car feels I'm sure you could easily get more speed by gearing up (or using a higher kV) but as I said above I like the way this feels for bashing, for me it is a great balance. Body roll is looking like it is becoming a bit of an issue especially on road so I will be looking at some anti-roll bars in future,

This setup is very solid for bashing

This was a particularly good (but messy!) day

For now, I will continue to run this car on 4s with the 2300kv motor but soon I'll be looking at changing back to 3s 3100kv for similar performance with the option of running 4s 3100kv for speed runs, I'm expecting around 100km/h with that setup. Lastly I want to try the 4300kv motor out on 2s because I really like the look of how a 2s 5000mah shorty hard pack fits in the car and this better simulates the cheaper ESCs that run 2s and 3s only. ​I’ve had success in the past with the Surpass Hobby 60a ESC and 3650 motor combo as reviewed in this article so that will probably be my next step. Actually this combo here looks to be better value and a more suitable motor kv for 2s: Surpass Hobby Waterproof 3650 4300KV Brushless RC Car Motor With 60A ESC If you think this might be useful, please let me know on the QuadifyRC Facebook group here. Once I have completed this follow up I'll be sure to post the link here and share with you.

I really like the way this 2s CNHL hardpack lipo fits, it just needs a trim of the battery tray. It sits lower and flatter to the car.

This 4s 1500mah is a bit oversized and I know the 2200mah CNHL 4s fits as well but the shape is a little more awkward

Conclusion

Due to the ESC this is not a cheap build but it is super reliable. I'm yet to decide if this Hobbywing MAx10 SCT 120A ESC is an overkill but I know I'll be able to re-use in anything up to 1/8 scale in future without issue. I will be trying some other lower cost combos in future and will link here when I do.

​Parts used for this Build

• Hobbywing Max10 SCT 120A 2-4s ESC
• Racerstar 3650 motor (2300kv for 4s; 3100kv for 3s; 4300kv for 2s)
• Surpass Hobby M0.6 Pinion gear set
• ​Racerstar DS6209MG 9.35KG Metal Gear Digital Servo (also consider the Racerstar DS6114MG 120° 13.83KG Coreless Digital Servo if you want something really fast)
• Flysky FS-GT5 Radio (Consider the Dumbo X6 with gyro for something more simple and less expensive)
• China Hobbyline 4s 2200mah battery; 3s 2200mah battery, 2s 4900mah racing shorty pack

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