TIME TO FIT ENGINE HOUR COUNTERS

[Train Driver]

After sydduckett problems are we expecting to much from our kits are we fitting and forgetting
I asked Mark at Mb as he is building me a long stroke 255cc engine at the moment, his reply

I have been putting this question to some piston manufacturers, ring manufacturers, ceramic platers, a digital ignition company and the rock oil tech guy.
none of them can believe the mileage we do and expect the parts to be reliable! especially pistons,rings and bore, which is where we (scooterists are seeing problems)
Under cooled, over sized pistons, higher revving and higher powered lambrettas used correctly will at some point i am afraid go wrong! it doesn't help the fuel is quality is very poor and possibly the main problem here.
it would help if people looked after their motors and at least re torque the head nuts down and check rings regularly.

I hope what mark says helps as i have know i have fitted and forgot but i have been lucky

[Andy Pickering]

Well as per your earlier thread..if I have to change my piston (ASSO £75) every 7.5 hours then its time to scrap the scoot and get another bike and kick its head in for 1000s of trouble free miles...????, IF like you say we buy expensive no very expensive kits and we have to do formula one style pitsops after every 100 miles then is it really worth the hassle..????, I have done over 100 miles on my stage 4 re-built motor and recently dropped motor and re-torqued everything and apart from tyre pressure checks/oil checks/plug chops-checks dont want to have to do major surgery every 100 miles that IMO is crazy..???

Might be wrong of course..

[goldeneye]

if your doing long distance rallys , say over 300 miles in a weekend, at high-ish speeds for the scooter, yes, you"ve got to check stuff. i check stuff before setting off ,and on a sunday/monday morning from a rally. tyres, cables, plug colour, quick shake of forks, carb tight? exhaust tight? etc. takes about five minutes, but can save you five hours at the side of the road. rather fix it outside a B+B /tent , than the M1! periodically, change rings, clean carb, general maintenance really. these are vintage vehicles, with a tuned engine, fucks sake, you"d be mad to take them for granted! york next weekend, then the "highland scoot", 620 miles the weekend after. i"m not going to gijon, but loadsa lads i know are, and they maintain thier scooters well. so, if your a lazy c**t, you"ve more chance of blowing up i suppose.............

[Train Driver]

I have to agree none of us wants to be pulling our engines apart every 6 months
(i ran my 205 Honda 10 years no problems) but these newer 18+hp engines seem fragile, perhaps they are to high Maintenance for scooterists is dealer servicing the future you wouldn't do home maintenance on a ferrari

[Train Driver]

If an engine is built properly with good parts including gaskets it shouldn't need to be stripped down every 7.5 hours, lamb46 is correct also about motorcycles, I have a 6 year old GSXR that has a full service history, in those 6 years its done 15k miles and only had 2 sets of spark plugs and I ride it hard, it red lines at around 17000 revs and red lines every time I go out on it, I'm sure if its engine was stripped down every few hours it would have had loads of things fail.

now stick a turbo and nitros kit on the GSXR and thrash it
that's the equivalent of what we are doing to scooters with RB's and TS1's
but put together correctly you shouldn't have problems but keep an eye on them

[cyberman]

My 'Tiny Tach' has one.....

[eibargum]

My sendec rev counter has a hour counter built in, not that i use it, just had a look though, 128.7 hour,s running time on my RB , does that mean i,v got to take it to bits, i think not.

[netweasel]

I had just posted this on the LCUSA forum, but I think it is pertinent to this discussion also.

There is a reason when we buy stock scooters with good mileage from all over the world, they still run and are only on their original or 1st oversize piston. They were used as designed. I have a SIL GP200 that I have put over 8000 miles on. I am still using the original piston, the only reason it is "in the queue" is because the driveside seal went.

These scooters can still be very reliable using newly engineered parts and kits. But you have to balance "performance" and reliability.

[camel]

i can see the point in reading hr counters..im also using a sendec which when not in use shows me run time,with cylinders resembling motorcross barrels i think its relevant,maybe not so much in std engines.....but what is the cut off point hour wise?...that is the big question.

[Train Driver]

i can see the point in reading hr counters..I'm also using a sendec which when not in use shows me run time,with cylinders resembling motorcross barrels i think its relevant,maybe not so much in std engines.....but what is the cut off point hour wise?...that is the big question.

Totally agree with standard type engines but the power output people say they get from their RB's and TS1's they are getting towards mx outputs, ok 125 mx