Not so high performance?

GoldenMotor.com

Wild Turkey

New Member
Feb 15, 2009
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Adelaide Hills
Bought a very expencive engine in Australia from somebody that claims they know what they are doing?

Firstly, my background. I started racing gokarts in the late 80s. I am a qualified Mechanic of over 18 years. I have worked on Le Mans teams and produced 24 hour winning race cars. Won both state and national MTB racing titles, 15 years experience with bicycles, 5 of those years spent on motorized bikes. A diploma in Mechanical Engineering and several years electrical experience. Owned nearly 60 cars and have had maybe twice as many bicycles as cars. I am not new to machines and getting them to run right.

I completely understand the world of motorized bikes has it's fair share of mechanically challenged characters and general idiots. I have seen countless amounts of poorly installed engine kits. Witnessed the problems that poor installations and neglect create. Some would say I have a leg to stand on here.

For around a year now I have spent countless hours attempting to extract any "performance" from my "high performance" engine. This engine was one of 4 engines posted to us in Adelaide last year at the same time. From day 1 the output of my engine has been nothing short of pathetic. As this is by far the most expensive engine on the market I have followed the running in instructions to the letter. From the other 3 engines posted at the same time. One has been scraped and is sitting in a shed collecting dust as the owner gave up and bought another brand (the owner has a number of motorized bikes) The other 2 engines went to another person that won't ride motorized bikes any more due to the trouble the engines have caused him and the money he has wasted.

My initial concern straight out the box was the poor quality casting of the cooling fins. I bought this engine on the understanding that they had some sort of say over the quality of the components they used. If the cooling fins are poorly cast, what other defects may be in this casting? My next concern was how the price of the Speed carby was added and they neglected to deduct the cost of the standard carby that was not supplied to me, not to mention the over priced shipping. Upon fitting the kit, I soon discovered the fuel tank leaked where the outlet was badly welded. The paint on the tank was poor too. So I have had to fit a second hand one. Once I had the engine up and running, I discovered nothing would make this engine 2 stroke, it would 4 stroke through the entire rev range.

Back in the shed I discovered the jet was loose in the carby. Either this was not assembled correctly in their workshop, or they have just thrown the speed carby on without looking inside it. Not checking would suggest a disregard for what mixture this "high performance engine" was running? Again, am I paying for any kind of quality control? Back out on the road, the next problem was a high idle. The problem... a cheap and nasty inlet manifold gasket that fell into pieces when I removed the manifold. Not the first one I have encountered on this brand of engine. I have now cut my own from gasket paper.

Still this engine would not 2 stroke. I checked the crank seals as it would not be the first time poor quality crank seals from this company have caused us problems. The seals in my engines seem to be OK. I have spent alot of money and time getting a full range of jets in from the US. I still get the same colour spark plug from .70 to .78. I have been up and down in plug temperature ranges. Again no noticeable change.

I removed the cylinder head to find it was exactly the same capacity as a friends standard engine from this distributor? I bought a "high performance engine" with a standard head? I have changed that to a head from another motorwizza engine I have. Hooray! it finally 2 stroked only at low to medium RPM though. At this stage I was willing to try anything. I have used a SBP expansion chamber, another standard exhaust, a standard exhaust with no internals. The best result I have to date is a locally produced expansion chamber. I have gone back to a standard carby running a .78 jet. Changed the entire electrical system. Different fuels and fuel mixtures. Another inlet manifold and various air cleaners. I have tried 44T, 41T and 36T sprockets. Still after 2000km this engine has never impressed me and never seen much beyond 35kph on flat ground unless I run it too lean.

Today I was furious having to walk up hills on a group ride. People on $120 ebay 50cc engines laughed at me as they flew past me up the hills. This engine has also had harsh vibrations from day one and even though I can get it to 2 stroke for most the rev range now from hours of messing with it. The amount of torque this engine produces is a joke.

I am yet to attach the word "impressive" to any of this distributors engines we know of. Some are acceptable, none are outstanding. Has anybody else in Australia had a similar problem?