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Post by HotStuff2 on Apr 12, 2012 8:07:40 GMT -5
So, I picked up a (very slightly used) 2011 TaoTao CY150-A with 418km (~260 miles) on the odometer for $800 (plus another $170 for the tax/tag/title), and I'm happy with it.  Already had to switch out the spark plug (first owner left the crappy Chinese one in there) and the spark plug boot, but other than that, nothing major. In reading the posts, I've come across several things, and I have some questions. My apologies if these are answered elsewhere, but I haven't been able to find them as of yet. - Based on this thread, it says I should "6. Replace the factory airbox and intake tube (prone to cracking causing vacuum issues) with a new pod filter" - turns out my factory intake tube IS already cracked, although the local scooter shop patched it up (not sure how well, though, as the patch is already dried and cracked as well.) Where would I find a "new pod filter" for my scooter?
- Also, it says "7. rejet the carb 38 slow and 122.5 main has worked great for me here at sea level.... it's a small keihin style jet for the main", which is said to be needed at the same time as the pod filter replacement. What is this, and how is it done? (A link to something would be great.)
- Same thread as above, it says "5. Remove the stock petcock and replace with this cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Parts-Unlimited-Fuel-Shut-Off-Valve-Fits-1-4-Fuel-Line_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQ_trksidZp3286Q2em20Q2el1116QQitemZ360039304445 IT WILL NOT FAIL" - but that eBay link doesn't work (obviously too old.) Is there a brand/part # I should be looking for? (Based on the eBay link description, I searched Google and came up with this.)
- I replaced the stock (Chinese) spark plug with the NGK C7HSA; later in the same thread listed above, another poster recommended the NGK CR7HIX Iridium spark plug, and then another poster asked about the NGK CR8HIX Iridium spark plug, as it's the same iridium plug, just with a cooler heat range. Anyone with more experience able to comment on this?
- I also replaced the stock (crappy plastic Chinese) fuel filter with one from the local scooter store; not sure of the brand, but it's a clear triangle-shaped one. Are there any recommendations on better ones? I saw the Mr Gasket one referenced, but no part # given. (And yes, it appears that my stock fuel filter WAS on backwards, as the flow should be from front to back, no? The stock one was on with the flow pointing to the front, so I put the new one on flowing to the rear, although that might not be correct? The big end is facing to the front, but the arrow saying "FLOW" is facing to the rear - that seems like the proper way, no?
 Works fine thus far.)
- Lastly, I used to race SOLO 2 with my Miata (miss that car), and one of the cheap power mods on the Miata was to adjust the timing; by default, the stock timing was at 10° BTDC. The most common adjustment was to set it to 12° BTDC, and this would result in (roughly) a 10% increase in HP. Some people went as far as ~15° BTDC (stock naturally aspirated; those of us with turbo or superchargers sometimes went as far as 17° BTDC), and that also increased the HP cheaply. I see from the GY6 engine manual that the motor by default is set to 13° BTDC; has anyone adjusted the stock timing higher and seen any gains (or losses) from it? A 10% increase in HP on a 150cc motor wouldn't be much (obviously only 1.5 to maybe 2 HP), but still, every HP counts, right? I would think 2° increase in timing wouldn't be a major change for the GY6 motor.
Further reading (and following a few links), I've come across the NCY Performance CDI No Rev Limit for $39.99, which says it "Releases rev limit and advances timing on GY6 engines to allow for great speed and performance. A must have for all wanting the best performance from a GY6 engine." - anyone have any experience with this, or something similar?
I haven't changed out the vacuum or fuel line hoses, but I'm probably going to look at doing that around 1000km - 1200km or so (the next recommended service interval), unless something happens before then that prompts me to do it sooner. The only "major" things I'm planning thus far are: 1. I want to figure out a way to add a tachometer; the Taotao CY150-A only comes stock with (left to right) Battery / Speedometer / Gas gauges, and I miss having a tach. I'm thinking a small aftermarket tach mounted somewhere by the speedo, but I want to make it look as clean as possible. I'd love to just replace the battery gauge with a tach, but it's a small triangle-shaped gauge and I don't think it would be possible. 2. Speaking of the speedometer, it's in Km/h (with an inset for MPH), but the entire gauge pod is one large single sheet, so I can't just swap out the speedometer gauge. I'm thinking that I can either print up a (roughly 3" circular) MPH speedometer and overlay it, or else scan in the entire gauge faceplate and change the speedometer to read MPH. Still looking for examples, and hoping I can find something that will better (maybe a motorcycle speedometer with a round gauge, and use that instead.) Other than that, I'm looking at mods to increase the HP, and maybe an aftermarket muffler (although I'm not sure on that one.) Thoughts? |
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Post by znjdevils07 on Apr 12, 2012 17:59:27 GMT -5
dude first off, way too long of a post for anyone to stay interested enough to try and help you.. second off, u seem to have found all the info, not sure what the problem is...
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Post by stilllife on Apr 12, 2012 18:36:43 GMT -5
You seem to be well on your way with the research that you have already done.
I will try to answer some of your questions.
I highly recommend the Iridium plug. It certainly made a difference in the way my scooter ran. The standard NGK CR7HIX should do just fine.
I would try to leave the stock airbox on it or order a replacement. With high flow filters alone it will run too lean. So unless you are prepared to upjet your carb and fiddle with the mixture, the stock airbox is the way to go.
The fuel filter arrow should be pointing towards the carb.
The ignition advance via CDI made my engine run smoother, but did NOT increase performance much if any. But it can increase reliability. If you decide to do this mod be sure to see if it is an AC ir DC cdi. Also you will want to buy a performance coil with it.
The tach will need to be able to read 1 cylinder 4 stroke motors.
Chinese scooters have improved since that article was written. So I would leave the petcock alone unless you start having problems.
You scooter isn't completely broken in yet. Run a quality regular oil and change it now if you already havent. Then again at 600 miles then 1000, where you can switch to synthetic and start changing it every 600 to 1000 miles.
Do some research on roller weights or sliders for what is widely considered the best bang for your dollar performance increase.
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Post by PasoDoble on Apr 12, 2012 19:00:36 GMT -5
Its clearly a generation gap in here and " hotstuff2" is a newbie and is intent on being understood hence the patience for his part to lay the ducks in a row but with " znjdevils07" being half the age, is again, understandable with his tolerance/impatience to bother reading through.  Good to have" stillife" stepping in and to know there are members who has all the time to help out...  |
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Post by silentwarrior on Apr 12, 2012 19:14:00 GMT -5
great advice from stilllife.
paso how many times have you seen me say "instant gratification"
in the time you been here?
lol rofl
roflmsao
and wow instead of--"hey what kind upgrades can i do?"
we have a person who does RESEARCH then asks for confirmation.
things are looking up
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Post by timber on Apr 12, 2012 19:33:43 GMT -5
dude first off, way too long of a post for anyone to stay interested enough to try and help you.. second off, u seem to have found all the info, not sure what the problem is... Why not just pick ONE part of the post and answer the one? Wouldn't it just be simpler to learn a few landmark speeds, that 50 KPH = 31 MPH than going through all that trouble? No matter what you print out to overlay, if it gets moisture or humidity on anything made of paper or anything with inkjet ink it's going to run. curl, wrinkle. Learn 3 or 4 landmark speeds, it's not rocket science and once you know 50 kmph is 31 mph and that 25 kmph is about 15mph, you know one of the lines between the two is going to be around 20 something. The speedometers are in no way accurate anyway, people report they are off by 10 mph, even more, and vary in accuracy across their scale as well. People like iridium plugs because they supposedly last LONGER, but whats the big deal?? a regular NGK is about $4.99, it takes all of 5 minutes to change it out every thousand or few thousand miles. The iridium is more than twice the price, you can replace the regular plug twice for what the other costs. A lot of people are not going to rack up enough miles on a scooter in a year or two or three to even worry about it. I swear i think the exotic sounding name of "IRIDIUM" is half the attraction, just get a regular NGK plug in the correct heat- cross-ref'ing the one you had is a good start. Better do that SOONER, that rubber they use is crap and rots from the INSIDE out- contaminating the gasoline and whatever else. The fuel line and filter should be the FIRST thing that gets changed before even putting ONE mile on it. |
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Post by silentwarrior on Apr 12, 2012 19:58:20 GMT -5
ill answer another part
aftermarket exhaust:::::
be prepared to spend a lot of time
adjusting carb jets to match it.
my opin.
but everything 'still' said is pretty much what ive heard
def on the stock airbox
the plug-- i always use is the cr7hsa
i got one today for $3 at aotuzone.
i havent gotten a new plug in 2000k
and looked good , old but good
but i thought they cost $7 ?
jets no exp
petcock--unless your having fuel flow probs , leave it
fuel filter--same size from wally world works great
buy 2
air/ fuel lines--- change fuel quick.
the chinese 1's disintegrate quick
i like to use the 'yellow' tygeon ones
i can see the fuel flow. they have blue also
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Post by HotStuff2 on Apr 13, 2012 3:32:57 GMT -5
All good info, thanks for the replies. I'm planning on upgrades, but won't be doing them for some time. znjdevils07 - sorry that I lost you there (actually, I'm not really that sorry about it.) I'm loquacious and like to cite references when I ask questions (if I have them), and I'm not looking for answers to problems, I'm looking for opinions on the information I already found. (I made sure to put this first, so you wouldn't have to read too far to find it.) stilllife: I would like my engine to run a bit smoother, and increasing reliability is never a bad thing. How do I tell if it is an AC or DC cdi? Any recommendations on a performance coil? RE: the oil, unfortunately the previous owner immediately put Royal Purple full synth in it when he got it, and I'm loathe to switch it back to dino at this point. I did one oil change already, and put in Mobile 1 0W-30 Advanced Fuel Economy (which I've had great experiences with when I was racing my Miata in SOLO 2.) Most of the break-in and seating is already done, and my thinking is that switching back to dino wouldn't really give me any advantage at this point. What's done is done, and that's one of the risks of buying something used (even "slightly used", as mine was.)  \\-olf - I can read Km (I'm actually German/Austrian), and in fact the stock Taotao speedo has an inset for MPH as well, but I would prefer it to read MPH on the outset just for looks. It's merely a cosmetic thing. I wouldn't print it on paper, but rather stock cardboard, then laminate it. But what I'm really hoping to find is a decent 3" round speedo face that I can just swap in (overlaying it on the stock speedo), and hopefully calibrating it to be correct (well, as correct as possible.) That I have a bit of experience with.  Also, the lighting for the speedo is rather anemic, and especially at nighttime, you can only see the outer Km/h as the small light isn't bright enough to light up the entire speedo gauge.  I'm going to be looking at swapping in a brighter light for that (not sure if they're using LEDs or small bulbs; I didn't really look when I took it apart. If it's an LED already, swapping out to a brighter one will be easy.) Regarding the NGK Iridium spark plug: generally, the Iridium plugs have a better spark quality and intensity. I ran them in my supercharged Miata (which, granted, ran at a much higher RPMs all the time.) Also, as the scooter is my only means of transportation, I will be (and already have) racked up plenty of mileage (over 500Km this week alone. Damn, time to change the oil again already, I just did it last weekend.) Regarding the two versions of the NGK Iridium plugs: Based on the link given in the thread I referenced, it states: Thus, I would think that the CR 8HIX would be a better choice than the CR7HIX (as the firing end heating up more slowly and quicker heat dissipation is a good thing, no?) I'll probably be changing the air and fuel lines out next; it's a rather cheap preventative maintenance mod (although my neighbor, who just bought a slightly-beat-up 2010 Taotao CY150-A for $500 with ~4,000Km on the clock, still has the stock lines installed), and it's never a bad thing to upgrade to something better and/or more reliable. Any recommendations other than the Goodyear 3/16" and 1/4" lines? Roughly how much, foot-wise, of each will I be needing? 2 feet? 4 feet? (I hate buying too much, and obviously don't want to buy too little.) I could always look at Teflon and/or braided stainless steel lines... One mod I'm really wanting to do, but am going to be putting off for a bit just because of the cost, is upgrading to real HID lights. I understand the concepts of installing them, but I want to do more research on the electrical drain they're going to have, as obviously I need to make sure the battery can handle it. Oh, and figuring out a way to mount my iPhone. That's a priority. I have a few ideas on how to do that, but I need to find a quality mount for it first (and one that will handle it being in an aftermarket case.) I want this both for the ability to use my GPS w/o having to keep pulling the phone out of my pocket, and to be able to easily use the GPS speedometers I have.  Other than that, I'm just going through posts in the forums and looking through the Garage and the Mechanic's Corner posts (a pity many of them no longer have pics associated with the posts; looks like the Photobucket accounts were deleted or something.)  Lastly, silentwarrior, I'm a medically retired 'vet myself: 5th SFG, detached to the 2nd Ranger Battalion, attached to 2/187th Infantry out of Ft. Campbell, KY. I served '91 to '96 - and would have served even longer if that damn 'chute hadn't failed on a HALO jump.  I'm combat disabled, compensable (living off my pension right now.) Chronic pain, PTSD, depression, and anxiety is a  to deal with. Fortunately, my psych docs have been pretty good. Unfortunately, I'm not on pain meds any longer, and will need to be put back on them for any quality of life to happen. But convincing the doctors here in Florida (which has a HUGE "pill mill" mentality) of that will be a PITA.  |
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Post by imnts2 on Apr 13, 2012 4:56:16 GMT -5
Hotstuff2. OMG you are wordy. I thought I was but I am glad to discover I do not hold a candle to you. Maybe you need to write a novel. You are obviously literate. Very. You write well, but you really don't catch my attention for more than a minute or two and I am not being paid to read or listen to you. Maybe you need to practice getting to the point.
At this moment I wonder what it is you want here. Someone to tell you you are smart?
Don't get me wrong, I do meant to be helpful. Unwinding from the trauma of war takes a bunch of doing that most of us never quite get done. Korea and Vietnam is a long time ago and I was awfully lucky to spend it in mostly a long way from danger (never sure of that at the time) but every now and then another something peals off to surprise me. But we are all different.
I suspect you need some friends. If so , I wish you good luck. Perhaps like me you need to be careful and patient with both yourself and everyone else.
My scoots over the years has been very important therapy. And a great patient and strong woman.
Good luck. Welcome. Help us help you.
Re " upgrades" Most of it is Bull. These a Air cooled so they need to be not powerful if you want them to run reasonably long period. They are cheaply built. If you want a scoot to have anywhere near the reliability of a car, they need careful expensive building, water cooling(helps a lot) EFI. or 2t so you burn the oil and throw it out and get rid of some of the heat. If you think you are smarter that the engineers and years of experience, go for it. I guess you will learn in time.
Cheers
lefty2
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Post by dudley on Apr 13, 2012 5:23:39 GMT -5
Welcome to scootdawg.
Lots of good help available here, you just have to learn to ignore znjdevils07, and imnts2.
Couple other tactless a$$holes on here as well, but 98% are good helpful knowledgeable folks.
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Post by ericrockstar on Apr 13, 2012 6:51:52 GMT -5
Welcome to the Dawg Pound HotStuff! Sounds like you've been doing all the good research and I commend you and your efforts.
You will find quickly of all the mods you can do, the variator is the most cost effective bang for your buck out there. There's just but so much power that can be made with 150cc air cooled engines. I got an aftermarket exhaust that looks and sounds cool, but I don't feel it added any more power? I still run stock air box and carb because I am concerned about the whole jetting issue. I have replaced the cdi and coil also with stock parts as I do not believe performance parts will add any measurable performance increase. Though, now that I need a new air filter, the UNI is looking more appeal since they can be just washed off when dirty.
I would suggest some kind of pcv valve as that's the reason I need a new air filter already. The hose from valve cover air box is where the pcv valve should go. It's supposed to relieve the crankcase pressure and sometimes sprays a little oil mist, but at high rpm it can just squirt a lot of oil instead of just a little mist. The engine only takes about 3/4 quart so losing oil this way or any oil can make things go bad quickly!
I speak from experience with my scoot, idk. If you have the em mission stuff on your scoot it may already have that stuff or be completely different? I have no experience with scooter emissions stuff. A lot of people just remove it and block it off.
Anyways, welcome!
Eric
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Post by stilllife on Apr 13, 2012 14:36:37 GMT -5
You can usually tell if it is an AC or DC CDI by a few things. The reason I say usually is because the are a few that fall out of the norm. Overall, most CDIs are AC.
You can tell if its DC by:
1. If the lights can be turned on the scooter without the motor running.
2. The DC CDI will have 1 wire going to the two pin plug.
3. A DC CDI is normally larger than an AC.
Many times you can buy both the coil and CDI together as a kit which is what I did.
Check the terminals on the coil to see if the match what your buying. I had to change the ground terminal on my wiring harness that goes to the coil from a hoop to s spade type. You probably won't have to do this, most are the typical two prong type.
As far as the oil already being synthetic. I don't know if switching back will help or not. The break in topic is somewhat controversial to begin with. Some say synthetics are just fine in the beginning, others disagree. Some prefer a hard break in, others
a easy one. If it were my scooter', I would make an attempt to go back to regular oil for a bit with such low miles. It may or may not help. But running a quality regular oil for 700 more miles is not going to hurt anything.
I for one, appreciate the research you have already done and how well you write. I am sure "most" others members do as well.
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