Ebay alloy cylinder kits

[shureimage]

Hi, has anyone had any experience of the 200/225 alloy kits, are they any good ? better than iron ? can they be made better?

Cheers.............

[coaster]

Hi, has anyone had any experience of the 200/225 alloy kits, are they any good ? better than iron ? can they be made better?

Cheers.............

I have 2, one ported my Mick Abbey on here and the other which I'm 'fettling' with myself curently with a read valve. The one's on ebay vary a lot from as low as £80 up to £160. The more expensive ones SHOULD have had the ports tidied up. The pistons they come with are not great quality but would suffice so long as you are not contemplating long high speed trips up the motorway. There is one on there at the moment for £50 barrel only. If I was buying another one I'd buy that then get a half decent piston like an Asso then get the barrel honed to fit with a 3.5 though clearance. The ports can be tidied up with a dremmel.

[chris2470]

Hi Coaster,
The exhaust and inlet ports will be simple enough, but what did you use for the transfers.

[coaster]

Hi Coaster,
The exhaust and inlet ports will be simple enough, but what did you use for the transfers.

My transfers were at about 115 degrees when I got it with the bottom edges quite uneven. I used the piston to scribe a line at the lowest point and a drum shaped gringing wheel in the dremel to tidy them up. I then used the piston again to scribe a line at 120 degrees and gently raised the top edge using the back face of the grinding wheel. The exhaust had already been tidied up and timed at 172 degrees.

I have heard though that grinding the transfers is not a DIY job and that it is possible that the engine won't run if you get them at the wrong angle or uneven:shock: I didn't know that when I did it but did take care to get them even and tried to keep the entry angle the same. I ran water through them when I'd finished to see what sort of pattern resulted compared to a few other barrles and it didn't seem too different. Not scientific I know but it was the best I could do at the time. Anyway, as I mentioned befor, I was fitting an MB reed block so I opened the inlet up as much as I dared and then cut a boost port using the dremel again. It runs up from the inlet port to a point level with the transfers, I couldn't find any info on how wide it should be at the time so it's only about 12mm wide.

The result is that it starts and runs very well and except for a bit of a flat spot in the mid range it will pull from 15 mph in top. I'm still playing with jetting and may swap the carb from a 30 PHBH to a 28 PHBH but I guess it's possible that fiddling with the transfers may be causing the flat spot The next step is to widen the exhaust port and also take the boost port out to 24 mm wide and fit a decent piston (Racetour) then Ireland here we come :fb:

Colin

[tarmac tickler]

mate of mune purchased a £80 185 kit,, the transfers were horendous, full of cast ally, it would never of ran, i,d go for a reputable dealer if i was you at the higher end of the price spectrum to be on the safe side,, but bang for bucks theyre brill,, if they blow up get another !!! dip your bread

[Stokie]

For not a lot of cash Harry Barlow of Pro Porting in Leicester will sort out one of these barrels and do some considerable work on the transfers. He added a Mugello type boost port to my 190 barrel too - tidy work.
I just need to call at the right time to catch him and be a little patient - or stand over him whilst he works on it !

[grimspeed]

i bought two of the original 185 alu cylinders from scooter restorations
and they where just the same. but i only paid £20 each so i sure cant grumble !
and with a bit of time they do what i have asked of them.

[shureimage]

Cheers for that seems like there not that consistent, might have to give Harry Barlow a call re pricing, I don't mind the cleaning up can do that without to much problems & then maybe see a about tuning later.
One of the main reasons for looking at these was hoping they have better cooling.
Also any views on the rapido they don't seem bad value compared to the upper range eBay ones?
I'm not looking for major tuning, got a 30mm & fresco sat to one side.
Cheers.......

[CPH Lambretta]

I spoke to Harry yesterday about doing me a 190 kit, he said the quality of the new barrels is crap, far worse than the stuff Scooter Restos sold back then. He said he'd had several of the ebay kits sent to him by customers to sort out and he wasn't impressed. He said the best thing to do was buy a Casa 185 kit.
But I would have thought the quality of the kits on ebay swings a fair bit, so it might be possible to get one that isn't a total waste of time.

[grimspeed]

anyone thought of altering a 200 rapido for 125 cases?
could be a reasonably cheep alternative !