water proofing my Evo

[BrianG]

It's gonna be tough. Like you've alluded to; the ESC and motor produce heat which will be hard to dissipate when inside a balloon. Personally, I would seal the batteries too. Like all types, the individual cells are sealed, but the terminals are simply wrapped inside heatshrink (or maybe tape) and is not waterproof.

That said, how you go about sealing everything depends somewhat on what type of equipment you have (a Quark vs the MM etc), the placement of the components, and how thoroughly you want to do this.

Any entrances to the motor should be sealed. The dirt particles suspended in "dirty" water when inside a motor would cuase bearings to wear much faster and the residue from the water can cause corrosion. So, cover the bearings and the wire entrance. Some good tape over the bearing hole and shoe-goo around the wires should be sufficient.

The ESC is a little harder. You want to seal it up, but there are quite a few wires in/out of the ESC and the heatsink fins should be exposed. Maybe a custom designed enclosure with tight-fitting wire exits? Then you could cut an opening for the ESC heatsink and seal the edges? If the encosure was big enough, you might be able to put the BEC and receiver in there as well.

The method used to seal the battery depends. Does the battery currently get warm during normal running? If so, it's going to get hotter if it is sealed up. If the battery is just about cold after normal running, you might be able to get away with using some type of balloon around the whole thing. I'd keep an eye on temps though. Or, build another "box" for the battery and have one side of the box a sheet of metal so the heat can go somewhere.

I'm sure others will have some ideas, so stay tuned! :)

Oh, and you do realize that the dirty water will also wear out other mechanical parts like wheel bearings right?