WL Toys 144001 Upgrade: The best motor cooling for less than $2

The WL Toys 144001 is a very fast little 1/14 scale RC car thanks to it's massive 550 brushless motor that powers it with some rather tall gearing. The downside to this is the heat that it generates. Over time this heat can damage electronics and cause a decrease in performance and indeed motor failure. This is a quick and dirty guide to significantly improve motor cooling for less than $2 which should only take 5-10 minutes to do with simple tools.

A little bit of theory
Stock motor overheating has long been in an issue in the 144001. Recently I found in my review of the new 124019 (same car, longer wheelbase) that they had come up with a simple and clever way to improve motor cooling that was super effective - A thermally conductive paste that connects the motor to the aluminium chassis which makes it act as a massive heatsink. In use it is really effective - heat energy transfers to the hot motor to the cool chassis as a heatsink first and then with the airflow past the chassis, the heat is effectively removed by transferring it to the environment. Since the performance of a heatsink is directly proportional to its mass, the heavy chassis is a perfect candidate, compared to the motor heatsinks we've seen like the ones below... just compare the weight. Furthermore a fan is not needed since there is good airflow against the chassis. Simple, effective passive cooling.

This 550 motor heatsink weighs maybe 15g?

This heatsink which is already conveniently installed on your car weighs well over 100g

Guide
First you'll need some thermal grease. This is a highly conductive semi solid paste that will thermally connect the motor to the chassis. This is commonly used by computer builders between chipsets and heatsinks. If you cannot buy locally then Banggood have heaps of options here or these are some specific options below around the $3 mark. Don't worry about the having the best stuff like the computer guys use, it won't make much difference for what we are using it for. Just having something is important. BTW 5g is plenty but get a bigger tube if you don't feel confident.

30g Heat Sink Thermal Grease Compound Paste Syringe Tube is (about $3)

STARS-922 CPU GPU Thermal Compound Paste Grease for Fan Heat Sink is less than $2

5g Grey Thermal Paste Grease Compound Silicone For Graphics CPU Heat Sink is less than $3

Check your car first because if you have taken deliver in the last couple of months you may already have some there - I've heard the some of the more recently ordered cars may already have grease present. Grease present looks like the image below. Stop here if that is the case, you are already sorted. If not, carry on!

Next, remove the top deck and unscrew the motor mount from the chassis.

Remove the circled screws to release the top plate

Unplug the servo and motor and remove the whole assembly

Remove the plastic motor cover and it should look like thi

Remove the circled screws at the rear of the car from the motor mount

Like so..

The mounted motor should come out like this after you rotate it around the driveshaft bearing.

Squirt the paste out of the tube in a line along the bottom of the motor where it comes closest to the chassis. When you reinstall the motor the paste will squeeze and smoosh out between the motor and chassis. This is good - increases the (thermal) contact area.

Reinstall the top plate and make sure your screws are all snugged. That's it, go out and enjoy. You can tell the thermal great is working properly because the heat transfers effectively to the chassis - in short that means your chassis will get warm/hot quickly (same as motor temp) but in doing so it shares the unwanted heat energy which then gets removed when air rushes by. The faster the better so drive fast!

This lot should only take 15 minutes

Thanks for checking out my article and please let me know on my facebook page or in the 144001 group if it worked out for you. I've created a reference page below for all of the 144001 articles I've published here:
144001 UPGRADES - EVERY ONE OF MY GUIDES HERE.

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