tHe Norrie Kerr way” ALL THE eh at cea 70 MAKE YOUR VESPA. FAST | THE FIRST AUTHORITIVE TUNING MANUAL FOR VESPA SCOOTERS « PISTONS = REED VALVES * CARBS « GEARING = POWER VALVES * BRAKES Printed and Published by Scooter and ScooterisiKEGRA SCOOTER CENTRE ESTABLISHED 1981 THE PREMIER SCOOTER SPECIALIST OF ESSEX. MAW AGENTS FOR lambretta © vespa RACE PROVEN PERFORMANCE TUNING SPECIALISTS CHROME & BRASS PLATING RESTORATIONS FULL RANGE OF PARTS, SPARES & ACCESSORIES COMPLETE WORKSHOP FACILITIES CUSTOMISING WORLDWIDE MAIL ORDER SERVICE CALL 0702 331686 OR VISIT OUR SHOWROOMS AT 91 PRINCE AVENUE (A127) SOUTHEND-ON-SEA, ESSEX.FOREWORD It has been my privilege to have been associated with the famous Vespa scooter in this country since joining the Douglas Company in 1949. It was at that year's London Motor Cycle Show that the first imported Vespa was introduced to the British Public; and since the Douglas Company commenced the manufacture of the scooter at their Kingswood, Bristol works in April 1951, there have been many thousands of machines both made and imported. Throughout my involvement with Vespa, it has been my pleasure to have met a great number of enthusiasts who have shared my love of a two wheeler that was responsible for introducing so many to a new means of transportation. One of those enthusiasts is the author of this publication who, for a number of years now, has worked very close with the Vespa scooter as a rider and owner, an active member of the Vespa Club of Britain, and more recently as one of the leading Scooter Dealers in this Country. Norrie Kerr, a Scot with a love of scooters, has already established himself as an authority on Scooter Sport; the Editor of the longest running scooter magazine ‘Scooter and Scooterist’ and a winner of the British Scooter Road Race and Twisty Sprint Championships. He is now passing on to Vespa owners the all important expertise of ‘Tuning’ in a very practical and simple way. Every reader might never be a winner, but at least it can be said that by taking the advice of an expert, there certainly is no better way availabie to assist the reader in ensuring that their Vespa Scooter is tuned well, than with a help from a past Champion. ERIC BROCKWAY, PRESIDENT VESPA CLUB OF BRITAIN. (Mr. Brockway sadly passed away in 1994) The contents of this manual remain the property of Scooter & Scooterist, any infringement of Copyright will not be tolerated. © Copyright Revised 1996 The Publisher, Printers, Editor and Writer of this manual shall not be held responsible for any errors, mistakes or advice contained herein. The writer cannot be held responsible for any damage caused in reference to work carried out in accordance with the views expressed 3CONTENTS CHAPTER 1 - TOOLING UP . CHAPTER 2 - THE BOTTOM END .. CHAPTER 3 - BARRELS & PISTONS CHAPTER 4 - TUNING THE BARREL PAGE 7. PAGE 9 PAGE 18 wins. PAGE 20... PAGE 33 .. CHAPTER 5 - CYLINDER HEADS PAGE 37 .. .. CHAPTER 6 - GEARING (PART ONE) PAGE 41 .............. CHAPTER 7 - GEARING (PART TWO) PAGE 48 .. CHAPTER 8 - CARBURATION (PART ONE) PAGE 54. CHAPTER 9 - CARBURATION (PART TWO) | PAGE 58 . CHAPTER 10 - EXPANSION CHAMBERS | PAGE 65 . CHAPTER 11 - TYRES AND BRAKES PAGE 69 CHAPTER 12 - REED VALVES PAGE 75 .. CHAPTER 13 - IGNITION AND TIMING PAGE 85 . CHAPTER 14 - GEAR IDENTIFICATION PAGE 86 .. CHAPTER 15 - POWER VALVES. PAGE 88 . CHAPTER 16 - SCOOTER SPECIFICATIONS PAGE 90.. .. ADDITIONS FIRST PUBLISHED IN ‘SCOOTERING’ MAGAZINE. REVISED AND UPDATED FOR THIS MANUAL. TUNING VESPAS THE ‘NORRIE KERR’ WAY Rallies, Badges, Ties, Magazines, Meetings, Banners, etc. DETAILS OF MEMBERSHIP FROM: — The General Secretary, Barty Baker 654 Crombie Rd, Sidcup, Kent DA15 ATRatfterty Neuman MpEans © lames IMPORT # EXPORT * TRADE * RETAIL # MAIL-ORDER Srmibrettes cla ies Haake ) GREAT BR! daa ras Ratlerty Neuman 32 EXMOUTH ROAD, SOUTHSEA,, PORTSMOUTH, HANTS, ENGLAND PO52QL) _ TEL: 01705 755125, EXT-9 FAX: 01705 291715 (NSRAR VESPA {i ROCK OIL BUND) Sasi a (yey duos} 0) ALL PRICES LISTED ARE PLUS POSTAGE AND PACKAGING CHARGES Payment can be mace by ACCESS, VISA, SWITCH, MASTERCARD, CONNECT CARD, CHEQUE, POSTAL (ORDER, BUILDING SOCIETY CHEQUE, BANKERS DRAFT, EURO CHEQUE, MONEY ORDER, C.W.O. 10% Dsscount gven OLC.G.8, NSRA, V.CB.MAG, BMF..F.B.S.C and NS.S.A. Racers ‘Stocksts of Paggie, imocend, SL, Michain, Cunlop, Yokohama, IRC. Amal, Dello, Males. 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MANY LINES ARE "OE" AND | QUALITY IS THE SURFLEX BYWORD | SUPERB STYLING AND DESIGN FROM THE q i LEADER IN REPLACEMENT SEATS, WE OFFER Ce j.41) AN EXCELLENT SELECTION FROM THE RANGE | GPM OFFER A HUGE RANGE OF PISTONS FOR GP ALL MACHINES, AND IN A RANGE OF SIZES. SENSIBLE PRICES, WITH HIGH QUALITY TAG - 4 NOW WITH LOW-EX, LOW EXPANSION FEATURE MICHELIN TYRES ARE LEADERS IN THEIR FIELD. TOP QUALITY TYRES. WE STOCK ALL THE SCOOTER RANGE AT EXCELLENT PRICES WHERE DO YOU GET ‘VE" SPARES? AT YOUR LOCAL DEALER WE HAVE OVER 500 DEALERS NATIONWIDE, CALL YOUR DEALER | NOW AND ASK FOR DETAILS OF 'VE' SCOOTER PARTS |- CHAPTER ONE - TOOLING UP This tuning manual, the first to be devoted solely to the Vespa Scooter, is designed to assist you to tune your Vespa Scooters, and in general the Chapters will cover all models with any particular model having its own reference All Vespa's produced since the late 60's have been ‘Rotary Valve’ models, and that’s the range | will concentrate on. ‘Rotary Valve’ is the form of induction that is used to induce the fuel, via the crankshaft, (i.e. the outer edge), into the engine. The Vespa uses a cutaway on the peripheral edge on the crankshaft as a form of inlet period. The cutaway rotates past an inlet port on which a carburettor is attached, this is ‘Rotary Valve’ induction. 1'll come back to this subject under the appropriate Chapter at a later stage. To do any tuning you will at least require the following items:- An electric drill - variable speed if possible, hand files, riffler files (engineers files) - these are imperative if you're going to remove metal, a degree disc - to measure port timings (suitably modified to fit your motor), a selection of grades of emery paper, a small metric tuler, a fine point scriber - to mark out the ports in the barrel/crankcases, a selection of burr’s, sanding and polishing bits to finish off your work, an arbour with some fine emery strip to polish the ports afterwards. An angle-poise lamp is a handy item to help see what you are doing. The use of a vice or attachment to hold your barrel or crankcase should be igh on your list of priorities. It saves the manhandling and allows you more accuracy. A vacuum cleaner is handy to keep the intended parts free from swarf, not essential but handy - but at least have a small brush on hand to keep things tidy. The most important thing to remember is to be clean and tidy. Swarf, i.e. metal particles, gets everywhere and it pays to be extra careful. Clean up every now and again during your working. The first stage is to completely strip the motor, remove all bearings, circlips etc. Remove all cylinder and inlet studs, this will allow you access to shape ports etc, without the studs get- ting in the way. The size and shape of the ports is not important at this stage, these items will be covered Chapter by Chapter. At this stage we are simply preparing the engine and parts for our work to commence. Clean off all the external road dirt etc, and wash out the oil from inside the motor, ready for porting. The matching of the ports, manifolds etc, will be covered later. Let's look at what we will be covering in the following Chapters; PORTING - ie, Crankcases & Crankshafts, also matching Manifolds, Barrels etc. BARRELS - Le. Porting, Modifying, Converting etc.PISTONS - i.e. What's Available, Jap, Italian, etc. CYLINDER HEADS - i.e. Reprofiling and high compression. GEARING - i.e. Full lists of what's available, and how it could work for you CARBURATION - _ i.e. Vital information if your motor is to run well. IGNITION - ie. The Facts Explained, and Examples Listed. EXPANSION ie. Just noisy boxes? Or can they deliver Power, and how do CHAMBERS they work? TYRES - ie. Different sizes effect gearing, I'll be getting to grips with them. BRAKES - i.e. Can they be improved? If so, Ill explain how. REED VALVES - _ i.e. Big advantages can be had but only if fitted properly. Also a Full Specification Sheet that helps all owners. It would be fair of me to point out that | won't be divulging any major secrets, simply outlin- ing how the average owner can, with a little assistance from yours truly, obtain better per- formance from the Vespa Scooter. The facts that you will read over the coming Chapters are available in most good two stroke tuning books. It is my pleasure to convert those ideas and their application towards the Vespa, using the knowledge that | have of the Vespa, and the amount of success | have obtained tuning my machine. | hope to pass on to you the formula that will give you some satisfaction - satisfaction derived from your own workmanship on your own machine. In doing so | hope that you will experience some plea- sure in something | have done often. Right then! Get your tools ready, in the following Chapters I'll be doing my best to explain how to ‘Tune Vespas - The Norrie Kerr Way’. A selection of bits for your drili/air too/router etc. to help remove all the metal that will transform your commuter vehicle to a Road Racer!- CHAPTER TWO - THE BOTTOM END Now that you have set yourself up with all the tools to work on your motor, it's time to delve into the mysteries of tuning Vespa's. The undertaking of work as detailed as we will be doing, will require a in-depth knowledge of how your motor works, how it comes apart, and how it goes back together. The degree of competence shown doing this work will, in the long run, effect the performance of your tuning. Motors that have been put back together with T.L.C. (Tender Loving Care!) tend to produce better results than those that have just been ‘slung’ back together. Before | go any further | would like to make it clear that tuned motors are no less reliable than standard motors. The fact is that a tuned motor will be just as reliable as any other as long as it is put together properly, and maintained regularly. Tuned motors wear out a lot quicker than a standard motor, and need more attention than standard units. Bearings, seals, piston rings etc. all wear heavily compared to standard, simply because the motor is churning out a lot more power than it used to. It is my intention, in the following chapters to avoid the use of complicated arithmetic for- mulae to express a point. However, | will explain certain functions by formulae, i.e. the working out of cylinder capacity, and other such items, that will enable you to work out cer- tain items that will be of use to you tuning your Vespa THE BOTTOM END:- This Chapter is all about crankcases, crankshatts and the porting of, etc. The reason we have to port the crankcases at all, is because the inlet port is positioned in the crankcase, and not in the barrel. This type of tuning to the Vespa I call a ‘Bottom End’ tune. The term ‘Bottom End’ refers to the crankshaft and crankcase. The ‘Top End’ refers to the barrel, piston and cylinder head. However, we will concentrate on the ‘Bottom End’. Of all Vespas, the small frame engine is without doubt the best one to tune. It lends itself immediately to the tuner. It allows side draught carburation, and has better prospects for a variety of gearing. The machines handle infinitely better than that of large ‘P” Series, of course these articles are designed towards ‘all’ Vespa models, so whatever the model Vespa you have, all the tuning in this book applies. To start with, we are only going to ‘measure’ the engine and the relevant ports we are working on. Do not start hacking away at the crankcase or crankshaft until you are certain that your figures are spot on, that's important. During the prolonged stages of tuning, you will need to part assemble to check your measurements. This action will be repeated many times if you are to do the job properly. It may be inconvenient, but it most certainly is nec- essary.Having completely stripped the motor, we must measure the amount of metal that we are going to remove. Doing this will alter the port sizes and the duration of the time that any port is open. These alterations are called ‘porting’. To mea- sure how much metal we have to remove from the crankcase and crankshaft, we need to refit only the clutch side bearing, and the crankshaft. Slip the crankshaft halves together, and bolt together with just a couple of studs. Slip the piston and barrel on and leave the cylinder head off, but bolt the cylinder down tight using spacers. The next step to mount the degree disc onto the flywheel end of the crank. Secure a pointer to the crankcase, onto one of the fan cowl screws, and determine where top dead centre is. At T.D.C. the pointer must line up with ‘zero’ on the degree disc. Familiarise yourself with the inlet port opening and closing. The crank rotates in a clockwise rotation when viewed from the flywheel side. Let's now look at what we are going to do next. Eventually we will remove metal from both the crankcase and the crank. The amount of metal we can remove from the crank is restricted, for if we remove too much metal, we could seriously affect the balance of the crank. This also means we will remove metal from the inlet port in the crankcase. In doing so we also increase the cross sectional area, i.e. we will make the inlet port larger. This is a bonus, as the normal inlet port is small and any alterations we make to the inlet will allow us the use of a larger carburettor. Measure the inlet timing as it is in standard form, on most engines it will be in the region of 150 degrees, looking at the breakdown, it will be seen that an inlet period of 150 degrees will have a number of degrees before T.D.C. and a num- ber after T.D.C. The manner in which we alter the inlet timing is very important. It is a fact that once we have removed metal from the engine, it is very difficult to replace it. It follows that in all our measuring we must be precise, errors can be costly, any errors can ruin a good set of cases. Be extra careful when mea- suring. A good guide for a quick reference is to remember that, as a rule, a ‘maximum’ of 70 degrees after T.D.C. is your top limit, no more. This means to have an inlet timing of 180 degrees, 110 of those degrees would be before T.D.C. and 70 degrees after T.D.C. You will then decide if you are going to fit a competition crank, or a 60mm crank. If you opt to modify the standard crank, finish all your measuring and have your crank split by your local engineer and then modify the web to suit your requirements (see diagram), failure to do this could result in particles of metal from the ground off web, finding their way into the big end bearing, and if that happens then bearing failure could result. Don’t use a rag or tape to try to seal the big end while you grind the crank web, it pays to do the job correctly, and while you may not have the ability | have to tune motors, you do have the ability to know what's the right way, and what's the wrong way, and wrapping the big end up in rags/tape is the wrong way. Before we alter the crank, note the direction of rotation, to extend the inlet peri- od we would measure 15mm on the crank web, scribe a line across the end of the web so that it is visible through the inlet port.TOP: RIGHT-MODIFIED FOR 28/30 CARB. LEFT IS STANDARD. LEFT: REMOVE SHADED AREA 'B' TO INCREASE INLET TIMING, BELOW: HOW YOUR ENGINE OPERATES, ON PAPER, RIGHT: MALOSSI 180 CRANKCASE MODIFICATIONS TO GET KIT TO WORK EFFECIENTLY. "1Use this method to gauge how much to remove from your crank. You may find more than 15mm will suit your requirements (see sketch), but use 15mm as a starting point. Now set the motor up for a dummy run. This will allow you to see how much you will need to open out the inlet port. The competition cranks that are available are already modified and ready to drop into the motor. The cranks are also polished and are a diract replacement for the standard product. The shape of the inlet port is important. In the photo's, | have shown the way I prefer to open them out. This is better than an oval shape because of the area you can develop for the use of larger carbs. Remember what | said earlier, ‘be careful when measuring’. Once you have decided on the inlet timing to use, | recommend 175 to 200 degrees as your limit, depending on what you're going to use the motor for - Road or Race. The upper limit of 200 degrees mentioned eartier is not simply a case of the bigger the number, the more performance. It would be a foolish move to carve lumps out of the inlet port thinking that you must aim for that top figure of 200 degrees - not soll! You must use the inlet port timing increases in conjunction with increases in exhaust and trans- fer port timings. There is a delicate line between success and failure when porting - remember that. ‘Once you have established what port timings you are going to use, and double checked your measurements, it is then that you begin to profile the inlet port into shape. At this point the motor is completely stripped, all the bearing shafts and circlips have been removed. Remove the two inlet studs and the four cylinder studs to allow you to get right into the port to get the shape right = a word of waming - whilst it is acceptable to remove a small amount of metal more than your markings, in the lengthwise projection of the inlet port, where the crank web meets the crankcase, it must be noted that the width of the inlet port should not be opened up any more than tmm'on either side. Any more than 1mm and you risk making the inlet port wider than the crank web that seals it. This would allow fuel to be displaced at all times, rather than via the inlet port timing - you have been wamed!!! Slot the crankcase halves together and check the timing, presuming that you've got it right, then we'll move on. Overlay the base gasket of your barre! onto the crankcase, scribe round the overlay inside of the gasket at the transfers and proceed to remove the unwanted metal around the inside of the Grankcase mouth. This applies to all models, but if you have a ‘PE’ and obtain a ‘Malossi’ or ‘Polini’ kit, you would need to do this to enable the kit to perform properly. Both the aforementioned kits for the ‘PE' have multiple transfers that use the crankcase to trans- fer mixture to the cylinder, as opposed to the standard cylinder, which uses only one crankcase transfer. It's worth a mention here that when you eventually port the barrel, you may have to go back to the transfers in the crankcase to do any final matching. 12TUNING TOP: COMPARE THE STANDARD CRANKCASE ON THE RIGHT TO THAT ON THE LEFT, WHICH HAS HAD THE PORTING ALTERED TO SUIT MALOSSI OR POLINI CONVERSIONS. BOTTOM: AGAIN ON THE RIGHT, THE INLET PORT IS STANDARD, THE LEFT HAND INLET POST IS MODIFIED TO SUIT 28MM OR 30MM CARB AND MANIFOLD,Match the inlet manifold to the inlet port. On ‘P’ type models, using the 28/30mm manifold, it will be difficult to match the manifold 100%, therefore a lot of time will be spent feeling if it has matched or not. On small frame models, which use my small racing manifold, it is pos- sible to get in to match the two spot on. Longer manifolds on the small frame machines will fequire the longer procedure of ‘feel, trim, fit, feel’ etc. to get it right. Matching the manifold is an important task and a considerable effort should be made to do the job correctly. Once you have finished your porting, use the arbour and fine emery to finish the ports in a smooth fashion. Many different opinions surround the extent to which you may want to ‘smooth’ the work on your ports. | would simply say that | have always been more con- cemed with the shape of the ports, and the smoothness takes second priority. Just a final word on the choice of cranks that are available and what they offer you. A competition crank, is a crank that has the inlet timing on its web already altered, the crank has also been extensively polished. The 60mm crank has also been altered, and some makes are polished. The standard crank is 57mm, and the 3mm difference increases the capacity of your machine approximately 10cc. SOME INLET TIMING SUGGESTIONS: Road Tune (standard barrel) - 170/175 degrees. Road Tune (kit fitted) - 185 degrees. Race/Road Tune (kit fitted) - 200/220 degrees. Ato B to get stroke x 2, ie. 28.5mmx2=57mm ie. PX/PE models. A to Cis con rod length Note: The con rod length has nothing to do with stroke. If you were to use a different con rod, you would only alter the position of the piston in the barrel... the stroke would stay the same.- CHAPTER THREE - BARRELS - PISTONS The good old Vespa barrel is just that, old!! That of course is not a slight on the quality, or the product, simply a statement of fact. The ‘P200' barrel has been around for some time now, in its previous guise it was the Rally 200, and prior to that it was the Rally 180. Sadly, of all the models, the 200cc Vespa has almost stood still, whilst other models received updated porting or more ports, the 200 has received little attention. Compare that with the 150 Super - uprated to a 3 port PX, likewise the Primavera - hence the ET3, the 90 - trans- formed into a 100, and just lately the 50 Special/PKSO - upgraded for the PKSOXL. Of course the icing on the cake is the T5, the barrel from the TS being a work of art, gone almost unnoticed by the public, except for the rave reviews of this writer. Presuming that you want to use the equipment that came with the machine, i.e. the stan- dard barrel, then | will explain what's involved. The standard barrel on any Vespa can be tuned, having said that, it is worth noticing that there are one or two exceptions, those being the PX125/150 and the PE200. The reason for the exclusion is that the 200 is a difficult barrel to tune, likewise the PX125/150 barrel, whilst easier to port is less accommodating to an alternative piston. My first decision, when asked to tune a barrel, is to work out the piston and ring speed, (the maximum speed at which the piston and rings will operate safely) - see the formula at the end of the next Chapter. If any proposed tuning were to exceed these requirements, then the idea would be a non-starter. Economies would come into it as well. Take for instance the following:- conversion piston £40.00, shorten barrel top & bottom £12.50, rebore the barrel 2mm approx., and that’s only your standard barrel. Compare that to £125-£135 for a brand new barrel, head, piston all ready to run, and you still have your old barrel to sell or hang onto in case of emergency. So you see, it is only in certain cases that you would want to use the standard part Having got rid of the ‘if and buts’ we'll get down to basics. On all standard 50/90/100 Primavera 125 + PK, also PX and PE machines, the transfer ports are covered 3mm by the piston at bottom dead centre. This means that to obtain fully open transfer ports, it would be beneficial, when replacing the piston, to use a piston that would clear the transfer ports at bottom dead centre. So rather than just buying another piston with the same com- pression height, (the compression height is measured from the edge of the piston crown to the centre of the gudgeon pin), it may be difficult to obtain a piston that is exactly 3mm shorter than your piston. You may in fact end up buying one that is 6mm or 8mm shorter, this would require you to remove metal from the gasket face, and off the spigot. This allows the barrel to seat in the crankcase to the same depth as it did previously. A word of advice to anyone who shortens a Primavera type barrel - you can remove the small pieces of spigot at the lower edge, directly down from the transfers, these serve no purpose and should be removed. The main front and rear spigot will not be affected by the removal of these supports. 15The removal of the metal from each end of the barrel is a specialised job, which should only be entrusted to an engineer that fully understands what is required by you, and has the equipment to do the job successfully for you - certain dealers offer the same service. The removal of metal from the ‘ends’ of the barrel is yet again a bonus, allowing us to alter the port timings of the exhaust and transfers. Carefully measure how much to remove, bearing in mind that the transfer ports must be unrestricted at bottom dead centre. Let’s take a “for instance” - the standard Vespa 125 Primavera piston has a compression height of 36mm. If the piston we will use has a height of 29mm, the difference of 7mm can be used in the following way; removal of 3mm from the top of the barrel, thus clearing the ports at bottom dead centre, which in effect raises the exhaust and transfer timings. That leaves a difference of 4mm, which we remove from the base - note that there is still 1mm clearance over the top of the piston at T.D.C. This 1mm allows the piston a little ‘growing room’ at high revolutions. The con-rod and pistons run on the limit of the tolerance on the bearings fitted. If for instance we remove 8mm from the barrel instead of 7mm, we'd run the risk of the piston touching the cylinder head. It could be that you may wish to make slight adjustments to the above figures, and the clearance for the piston/head would require adjustment towards the completion of your work. For your information I'll list the standard compression heights:- Vespa 50 S + PK 26mm. Vespa 80/90/100 + PK... . 30mm. Vespa Primavera 125 + ET3 + PK Vespa PX 125/50... . . 35mm. Vespa PE 200 All the above are heights as used on standard machines, ideally you will require a piston with a compression height which is - the figure above, less the height of the piston masked the transfers at bottom dead centre. Obtaining a piston isn't going to be easy, you'll proba- bly end up with one shorter than you require, but as | have shown, you can use that to your advantage. The bore size is the next thing to consider. if the barrel can be modified to suit a shorter piston as above, then it can also be bored out to suit a larger bore piston. The larger piston will increase capacity and if the right piston is used it will give better results. The restriction ‘on big bores is the size of the spigot, the diameter of the part of the barrel that fits into your crankcase, at least 1.5mm thickness of metal should be retained es a ‘minimum’ standard. To bore out any bigger than that could seriously damage your barrel through warping or fatigue. Again a “for instance” - spigot size 73mm, maximum piston size 69mm, thus retain- ing that important 1.5mm minimum wall thickness. 16The larger the capacity the greater the risk of cylinder wall distortion, as the cylinder heats up to temperature, the cylinder wall distorts, simply because the wall is so thin that the fins on the barrel actually distorts the thin inner wall. The only way to avoid this is to retain a minimum wall thickness. A Polini 207cc kit with a Kawasaki or Suzuki 70mm piston is a conversion | used to offer. The wall of the barrel would just take the piston, but on occa- sions the spigot would actually break while being machined, it was was so thin. If it did run, the performance would vary. The reason, simple, the piston did not have a smooth surface to work on. Be careful to make precise measurements, mistakes will be costly. Another problem is if we bore out a smaller capacity barrel to its limit then it could result in a barre! with extremely small transfers. As you bore out the cylinder to take a new piston you eat away at the transfer area, which as you bore the cylinder out actually gets smaller. You would not bore out a 50cc barrel to something in the range of 50mm, the transfers would disappear by that stage, although the spigot size will easily take boring out to 55mm, therefore it does not always follow that the spigot size is the only factor, remember those transfers. Let's take a look at some safe conversions. MACHINE SPIGOT STDBORE CONV BORE STDC/HEIGHT CONV C/HEIGHT V50+PK = 61mm 38.4mm. Y 40mm 26mm ¥ 2.5mm PK80 = 6imm 4.5mm. s 49mm somm Ss 27mm v0 61mm 47mm s 49mm 30mm Ss 27mm Vi00+PK = 61mm 49mm s 49mm 30mm s 27mm Prim+PK E7325 61mm 55mm K 57mm 36mm K 29mm PxX125 67mm 52.5mm. 35mm PxX150 67mm 57.8mm. 35mm PE200 73mm 66.5mm 42.5mm 15 7omm 55mm K — 57mm(Lin'd) = 30mm K 29mm Y=Yamaha S=Suzuki K=Kawasaki Japanese pistons used above. The absence of any conversion for the PX/PE in the above chart is deliberate. A few con- versions could be arranged, but | would not recommend them. The P200 has transfers that are skewed around in the barrel and it is difficult to obtain a conversion piston that could be used - those pistons though, by the time they had the port windows cut into them, would be weakened, and you know what happens to weak pistons - they break! The PX125/150 has a gudgeon pin of 15mm. That pin size is unusual on a piston of say 63/64mm that we would require to make it a worthwhile conversion. Often it is easier to obtain the services of a piston supplier or at least a good look at the catalogue to find that elusive piston. It must be remembered that the above chart is only a guide. Many Italian manufacturers make performance kits suitable for all the above machines. The kits are usually well made and costs are comparable to the option of the Japanese conversions | have listed. It would be far more practical to obtain a ‘good faster’ kit for a 50cc Vespa than it would be to carry out the Yamaha FS1E piston conversion above. 17ABOVE: MALOSSI PISTON ON THE RIGHT, COMPARED TO A STANDARD 200 PISTON, LEFT, BIG DIFFERENCES! BELOW: COMPARE THE KH400 PISTON ON THE LEFT TO THE PRIMAVERA STANDARD PISTON, RIGHT, THE PORT WINDOW IS FOR THE BOOST PORT IN THE BARREL, THE COMPRESSION HEIGHT IS MEASURED FROM THE EDGE OF THE CROWN TO THE CENTRE OF THE GUDGEON PIN. 18Likewise, to simply convert a 80/90/100ce machine into another 100cc machine is rather fruitless. It would be much more sensible to opt for the larger 125 or 135cc conversion. One word of advice, all conversion kits come with barrels that come with more ports than your standard barrel. It's worth a good look at what you can get for your money, before you decide to have any work done. You can purchase a kit off the shelf for that purpose, but armed with the above information you could set about doing the job yourself. You would obtain a Primavera/ET3/PK125 bar- rel, 4 cylinder studs, a cylinder cowling and a cylinder head. You then have alll the parts to do the 125/135cc conversion. The boring and shortening would be carried out in accor- dance with the procedure mentioned earlier. One point to remember, if you use a ET3/PK125 barrel for your own conversion, the barrel would have ‘the extra third transfer port’, Naturally the new piston would require the ‘hole’ in it to allow the third port to do its job. This is easily done, however be careful, make sure that you put the window in the right side of the piston. It is quite easy to make a mistake and put the hole in the exhaust port side of the piston. Remember to put the hole at the same side of the ring pegs (i.e. the inlet side). Use masking tape to draw the shape of the port on to the piston before you drill and file the hole, double check everything you do thoroughly before drilling etc. In all cases when the piston is fitted to the crank, the ring pegs are on the opposite side than the exhaust port. To check what | mean, mark with a felt tip pen the top of the piston where the ring pegs are located, as a test, slip the piston into the barrel with the arrow on top, pointing to the exhaust, and note that the marks do not run across a port. It is vital that the marks you made on the piston crown avoid all ports in the barrel. Top quality pistons use top quality rings. The best rings available are known as ‘wire drawn’ and are made of steel. The cheaper type of rings are cast iron. Cast iron rings would have a low ring speed and would not be recommended in a tuned motor. Below | have listed some of the alternatives. Wire Drawn, both types of ring listed are available. Cast Iron in both plain and chrome finish. Dykes i.e. ‘L Shaped’. (These can be obtained in Keystone i.e. ‘Wedge Shape’ ther Cast ron or Wire) Plain i.e. ‘Rectangular’. Sadly you will not always obtain the type of ring you may prefer, your choice of piston will determine that. Most Japanese and some European pistons will have wire drawn rings. A question that is often asked is “What's the advantage of a twin induction?”. A brief reply would be that a twin induction will produce more torque than a single induction. In later Chapters we'll cover torque and you'll see then that the amount of fuel that a motor can induce at high revs will assist its torque figure. A motor that produces good torque will climb hills better, accelerate better, and will proba- bly produce a slightly better top speed, but to be honest | much prefer single induction for its simplicity. Twin induction in its true form can be of tremendous advantage, in the case of a Vespa this has not been the case. Most Vespa twin inductions are crudely modified single inductions, therefore not having the potential to produce the power that was expact- ed, over their single induction counterpart. 19- CHAPTER FOUR - TUNING THE BARREL UNING THE BARREL ©.K., so you decide to use your own standard type barrel, decide what piston to use and have the barrel bored to size only, | mean that the piston should be a tight fit in the barrel with no clearance. The reason is simple, should you slip with the cutter when porting, and mark the cylinder wall, when the barrel is honed for clearance, the chances are that the honing will remove the mark within the clearance limit. The next move is to measure the amount to remove from the top and bottom of the barrel, so that your new piston will fit properly. Slip the barrel and piston on to the motor and dou- ble check what exactly you have to remove. Take the barrel to your friendly dealer or engi- neor and specify what you require. Make sure it is written down, if not, as soon as you are gone he will do it the wrong way round, removing double from the top and half from the bottom. Again, slip the motor together and double check what you've done. If everything is ©.K. then we'll move on to the actual porting and we'll start with measuring again. EXHAUST PORT The exhaust port works in conjunction with the exhaust. When the port opens, there is a difference between the pressure in the cylinder and the port when it is open. The pressure waves move up and down your exhaust through the gases and aids the transfer of fuel into the engine, from the crankcase, into the cylinder. How well these waves work depends on how quickly the port is opened. How we obtain that is by having a port that is wide and rec- tangular, with a good cross sectional area. How high the port will be depends on what ‘exhaust lead’ you have. The exhaust lead will also affect the speed at which the motor will work, What the exhaust lead does is simply to allow the pressure that has built up to drop before the transfers open. If this did not happen then exhaust gases could get into the crankcase. The total exhaust port timing is therefore the addition of the exhaust lead time and the transfer port timing. The amount of lead has to increase as the revs increase. The exhaust lead time is the difference between the exhaust port opening and the transfer opening. This also applies to the closing of the same ports. Another “for instance” - with 360 degrees to play with, the inlet is open let's say 185 degrees, the exhaust is open 175 degrees. Remember that the transfers are open also for 125 degrees. The total exhaust lead takes 50 degrees. That total is well over the 360 degrees we have to play with. It follows that some ports are open at the same time. The overlap is important. If the inlet port was open too long, then fresh fuel would be in the wrong place at the wrong time, resulting in a motor that would not function at all well - the diagram shows the overlap. 20The size of the exhaust port is very important. By subtracting 70% of your bore size of 66.5mm on your calculator you should end up with 46.55mm. That would be difficult to measure, so let's say 46mm. | have obtained good results using a figure of 42mm on a 55mm bore, giving a 75% exhaust port size, but that is purely to illustrate what can be done by experimenting. The danger in having too large an exhaust port is that the port is too large to support the piston rings as they pass over the exhaust port. How often have you heard the saying ‘the rings went out the exhaust port’? That is because the port was ‘opened up too much. Don't be tempted to open up the port beyond the 70% margin, it could cost you dearly. EXH. sT PORT The height of the exhaust port is our next consideration, having used the machining of the barrel to arrange the transfer port timing, we also adjusted the exhaust port timing. To fur- ther advance the exhaust port we must carefully measure to 180 degrees - the timing is divided into 90 degrees before top dead centre and 90 degrees after top dead centre. The shape of the port is important, many options surround the eventual shape of the exhaust port, but I favour a good sized rectangular port. Whatever shape you decide on remember the 70% rule. | would advise that you also try to blend the exhaust manifold onto the barrel. This allows good uninterrupted gas flow. The alteration of the transfer is our next port of call (pun, pun). You shape the transfers to allow the gas to get from the crankcase to the compression area in as smooth a fashion as possible. The size of the transfers on the base gasket face is determined by the amount of metal that surrounds each transfer. Look at the transfers on the outside of the barrel where the fins surround them and you'll see what | mean. Look to obtain as much area and make sure that you ‘feel’ match the trans- fers to the crankcase. Do this by separately trying the barrel onto each half of the case and ‘feel’ how much each port is matched. Continue to alter the ports until they match the crankcases. You do not want to end up with two transfers that differ in size. Aim to match them onto the cases, but keep an eye on the fact that you don’t make one port bigger than the other. Remember to leave enough transfer wall to seal the barrel to the cases after you've worked on the transfers. 2mm to 2.5mm thick is just about right. The third/fourth transfers opposite the exhaust port should be raised to the same height as your main transfers. This is more so applicable if you have bored the barrel out to a bigger cc. The rear transfers are angled so that when you overbore the barrel the actual height drops as you remove the metal for the bigger piston. Simply scribe the height using the pis- ton as a straight edge to bring all the transters to one height. Standard PK/ETS barrels third transfer is 1mm lower than the main transfers from the factory. Any further work must be done now to any of the ports. One task we must undertake Is to put a chamfer on the cylinder port windows. This in effect takes the sharp edge off the ports and is relatively easy to do. Simply take a small half moon needle file to each edge of the ports. Aim for a 10% angle at approximately 1mm deep across the edge of each port. The T5 is a little different, being nicasil lined, it is not reborable, therefore you would retain the standard piston, which fortunately can cope with the extra work load that your tuning will put on to it. Cont'd a1Opening transters is easy, but they must be matched to the crankcases. Leave 2 to 2.5mm gasket face around the transfer to seal it to the crankcases. BARREL TUNING If you remove metal from the base gasket face of the barrel, you will also need to remove the same amount off the spigot that fits ‘into’ your crankcases as shown on this Autisa 22Pinasco 213cc barrel with only one visible crankcase transfer The Malossi 210cc has loads of transfers that use the crankcasings to transfer gases. This means opening out the mouth of the cases to suit-again, feeling and matching all the time A shortened PK barrel. Not all the metal is taken from the bottom, some will need to come off the top of the barrel to get the port timings right. 23I would suggest knife edging the divider in each transfer port, then remove the dividers in the crankcase, in each transfer area, this will allow better gas flow, and my experiments so far have shown a good increase in output from this alteration. Couple this with the inlet tun- ing earlier, should result in a high rewing motor. One word of warning, take great care when altering the height of the exhaust port, being alloy, carves out easily, but the nicasil cylinder lining is very hard and a very fine cutter must be used on the nicasil finish. ‘Nicasil’ is a trade name for the process that lines the alloy barrel. Nicasil ensures long life from the cylinder lining. Nicasil is only microns thick on the alloy barrel, it is not reborable, and sadly only repairable at considerable cost. Both the Pinasco and the Malossi PE kits have the Nicasil finish. Care should be exercised when altering the exhaust port as mentioned above regarding the tough nicasil lining. You can have T5 barrels sleeved, but the eco- nomics of having a new barrel and piston at £92, or a sleeve job at £80 to £125 is up to you. You do gain a few cc's though for the extra cash, 9cc in fact. FORMULAS - USING YOUR CALCULATOR The formula to work out the actual capacity of any machine is as follows:- Your bore size, divided by two, times equals, times PI, times your crankshaft stroke, divid- ed by one thousand, equals your cubic capacity. Example: 55 +2 x= x 8.142 x 51 = 1000 = 121.8cc. Next your piston speed:- 166, times your stroke size in inches times your engine revs, equals = Example: .166 Ix 2.244 (57mm) x 9000 = 3.352 (feet per minute). The piston speed is vital, to help with any projected tuning | have listed the crankshaft strokes in inches to help. Remember you do not want to have a piston speed over 3,500 (fpm), anything over that figure is a grey area and not recommended. The .166 is a con- stant. 50 + PKSO 90/100 + PK80 up PX + PE all Conv. Crank 47mm=1.850" 1mm=2.007" 57mm=2.244" — 60mm=2.362” The task of working out the projected speed of the piston should not be overlooked. It must be done and your tuning should take the results of the formula into consideration. In the Jong run you'll be happier with the results, knowing that your figures are within the limits imposed. Piston ring flutter is also a problem. A piston, using rings of a lower limit than you require is fatal as far as engine life is concerned. It follows then that a piston with rings capable of piston acceleration that you will require, is one of your first steps. Most Japanese pistons are well within the limits for ring flutter, piston speed and also piston acceleration. 24‘When you consider that the acceleration of gravity is 32 feet per second per second and the piston in my Racer is around 135,000 feet per second per second, you can imagine the forces on piston and rings is vast. This will produce piston acceleration in the region of 100,000 feet per second per second. (Note: Piston speed is different from piston accelera- tion). PISTONS YOU COULD USE: FS1E Suitable for V50 Specials and PK50. TS100 = Suitable for V90/100 + PKBO/PK100, uses 3.5mm loose rollers. KH400 Suitable for Primavera/ET3/PK125's, could be used on PX125 as well. KH750 Suitable for use with Polini 207cc kit. There are other pistons available that could be used, but their use is restricted. The Kawasaki AR125 is a popular alternative, but the capacity is still only 125cc and the majori- ty of people prefer the Kawasaki KH400 piston, giving them the 131cc conversion. Likewise, the Suzuki RM125 dome top piston, but again it is only a 125cc. | have also ‘experimented with a range of pistons on all Vespa models, one or two | keep under my hat, others did not work successfully. There is little use in using a piston if it does not fill all your requirements, and that includes the PE200. Such is the variety of kits available it makes no sense in trying to tune the standard 200 barrel, especially when you look at the porting on the kits compared to the standard product. Having said that, the choice is yours. Reversing a small frame 125/135cc barrel is another type of conversion. Since the four main studs that the barrel is bolted down with are square in their configuration the job of reversing is easy. You basically rotate the barrel 180 degrees so that the exhaust comes out the front of the engine, instead of the rear. You “must’ also rotate the piston or you are going to have piston rings coming out the exhaust port, as | showed you earlier. Remember the arrow on top of the piston must point to the exhaust port, if you're in doubt mark the peg locations on the piston crown and double check. There are special expan- sions that suit the reversing of the barrel, and that is the real reason for the reversing, to get a good expansion system. The other job that needs looking at is the matching of the barrel to the crankcases. As you rotate the barrel you also re-align the transfers in the barrel where they match onto the crankcases. Another point to remember is that you must use a carb that exits into the under seat cubby box area. You cannot use a carb that points towards the engine bubble, the new expansion is in the way. You don't need to run out and buy a new reverse barrel kit, you can reverse your own. The only thing you need to do is cut the fins on the barrel to allow it to drop down onto the four studs and therefore miss the flywheel. This is not a diffi- Cult job and can be done in line with the rest of the tuning of the engine. 25) yp B. ‘Send large $.A.€. ong for INTERNATIONAL SCOOTER SPARES YJ news ea MAIL ORDER SPECIALISTS i nesrcaeones: sane ates eres, ee rere basen SCOOTER SPARES NEXT DAY DELIVERY 2 » s» THEUK’sNO.1SPARES STOCKIST 8 MAIL ORDER CIALISTS é Q High Performance Exhausts All Accessories a 6 Clutch Kits Performance Bearings 5 8 Quick Actions and Cables Big Carbs 9 a Allen Screw Kits Custom Seats a Pike Nuts Helogen Driving Lamps : 3 Rewire Kits Racing Tanks o Q Performance Parts Road and Race Tuning a S Tuning and Conversions Gearing Kits & 8 50/90cc to 110ce Racing Crankshafts 8 Q 50 /90cc 100/125¢c to 135¢c High Compression Heads a = 125/150cc to 180cc Reed Valve Conversions s Q 125/150/175cc to 200cc Crankcases Ported 9 tg 200ce to 225cc All engine work guaranteed a os 185cc and 226cc Suzuki Electronic Conversions & a a Hydraulic Conversions q a j———__—. HIGH PERFORMANCE AND TOURING a BEEDSPEED + BEEDSPEED + BEEDSPEED »—% | -BEEDSPEED + BEEDSPEED * BEEDSPEED + 26I MENTIONED GAS FLOW AND THE IMPORTANCE OF SMOOTHNESS TO AID THE ESCAPE OF GASES-ABOVE: 9 PIECES MAKE UP THIS 180° BEND, BELOW; THE 'LINTEK' RACER WITH A RACE EXPANSION FITTED,UM AT PONTADERA-HOME OF VERIGHT AT THE TOP IN SPORT Core © « btTAFFSPEED RACING Performance Juaiag Ceutre Opening Times. Mon -Wed 10,000 - 6:00 pm Thur Fri 10.00am- 4 30pm Saturday 10.00am-§ 30pm Sunday 10:30am: 4.20pm TAFFSPEED are acknowleged as leaders in the development and tuning of Vespa & Lambretta scooter’s and their related preformance parts. To name a few:- Hydraulic Disc conversions, Reed Manifolds, Special Full circle crankshafts for Vespa's & Lambretta’s with Japaneese conrods, Heavy Duty Suspension, Clutch & Gear Selector Springs, Primary Drive Gearing Kit Nylon Lined Control Cables, Cylinder Packing & Reed Valve Packing Plates, | Exhaust Systems - Road BS.AU. 193.12 or for track Racing. They are available through TAFFSPEED RACING or one of the few appointed dealerships we distribute to; plus those in other countries, | eg; Germany, Sweden, Austria, U.S.A., Austrailia ete. Our workshop's have full engineering & machining facilities for carrying out crankshaft overhauls with standard or alternative conrods & their padding. Alloy cylinder replating or rebore & honing of standard cylinders. Lambretta clutch modifications for 5 or 6 plate use. Porting & machining work to crankcases, cylinder’s, head's & inlet manifold’s, in fact most things are possible given the time;- from a mild stage 3 to a race stage 6 Honda 205 conversion, a TS1 engine unit with 58mm or 60mm stroke, Air or Liquid cooled for road or track use, or fitting a reed valve unit ontoa Vespa crankcase to suit the Malossi 30mm Dellorto or one of our own TAFFSPEED reed block units for 34mm Amal or Dellorto carburetors. Having carried out the engine tuning work, you may choose to have your engine or complete scooter set up on our DYNOJET ROLLING ROAD facility. We supply Team & individual riders with Race Performance Products, to the same standard as used on our own machines. Together with our technical back up, rider's & Teams have won many Championships over the years. You can join this winning band of people by choosing TAFFSPEED Performance Products when you are rebuilding or updating your road or race machine. FOR ANY OF THE ABOVE SERVICES OR OUR MAIL ORDER SPARES DEP'T. RE ee eed aU eee eee B LL ae ee eee ED ee eee ae ee Le Bd eee te UL APL el Be aL ee a a ehABOVE: RARE SHOT OF THE: BOTH 1984 SHOTS, WITH THE PRESTIGIOUS NO, 1 PLATE, BOTH TAKEN AT CADNWELL, THE BEST CIRCUIT FOR THE LITTLE 125.- CHAPTER FIVE - CYLINDER HEADS There's a lot more to a cylinder head than just being the thing on top of the barrel. The cylinder head is a device that will accommodate a charge of fuel/air, it will be ignited at a certain point, and the burnt gases will escape out the exhaust port. How much fuel/air will be compressed will depend on how much you have reprofiled the head. How successful the exercise will be will relate to how well you have done your homework. Firstly, let's look at the position of the spark plug in relation to the squish band - fact; the most successful location for a plug is in the ‘central’ position, although it should be remem- bered that many people still prefer a side plug position, and that it has not been adverse to use that position. To modify a side plug head you must use a central squish head. To iden- tify one, look for a head that has the bell shape directly in the centre of the head. Drill the head to suit your plug and remove the area of the fins to allow access with a plug spanner. Any alloy welding to build up the external thread for the plug, or if you are going to weld on a thread adaptor, then now is the time to do it. Most two stroke motors use central plug positions, but the Vespa is out in the cold in this respect, the T5 being the exception. Most standard Vespas use side plug location. Fuel/air is not only used to run the motor, but the introduction of the mixture into the motor also acts as a coolant. It is important that we get the compression ratio just right, failure to do so could end up in disaster. The reason is simple, too high a compression could in fact create such heat in the motor that the cool fresh charge of fuel is in fact heated before it gets a chance to cool the piston crown, on the other hand a low compression ratio would end up with a rather sluggish machine, but you could also foot a hefty bill for bearings if the compression was not corrected in time. You can work out the compression ratio in several ways. One item we will require is a syringe. This will allow us to measure the combustion space volume at T.D.C. We will require this information to complete the formula. To obtain a measurement you should fit rings to the piston and fit the barrel and head, correctly torque down. Through the plug hole you should inset the oil from the syringe, the syringe will have markings which will show how much oil you have used. Use a thick oil and fill it to the bottom of the plug threads. To obtain a syringe consult a chemist, but get one that will hold at least 20cc of fluid. By Formula: cR compression Ratio. lead Volume at T.D.C. in cc’s. SV = Swept Volume of Capacity in co's. Geometric Ratio’s - How To Find The Compression Ratio. (SV=255¢ HV=25cc) HV +SV 25 +255 CRHV 25 33How to find the Head Volume - (SV = 225cc CR = 10.0 to 1) = 25.0cc 9 We will now attempt to find out what the corrected figure is for that formula. To work out the corrected figure we must first, of course, know the distance the pistons travel ‘above’ the exhaust port. This is an example: Stroke Exhaust Port Height Head Clearance 24mm, 60mm imm 35mm Now use the new figure to work out the cc’s using: Thre Ti=3.142 124.5 Bore x 5 Bore 68 68 BVA raHeSN42 OF ao x 35 = 3.142 x 34.34 x35 = 127125 cu.mm ~ 1000 = 127.122cc Swept Volume above the exhaust port, so using the previous formula: HV +SV 25 + 127 CR= _ = - —- =6.08to1 HV 25 Our analysis of the total formula now appears thus, that a 225cc with a 68mm bore, a stroke of 60mm, an exhaust port height of 24mm and 25cc's of head volume will in geo- metric terms be 10.0 to 1, whereas the corrected figure is 6.08 to 1. Simply insert your own figures from your own machine to work out the formula. Some people still insist that ‘skimming’ the head is raising the compression ratio, and while that is correct to a point, there is much more to raising the ratio. First thing we do is take a template of the radius of the new piston crown. This is in fact a cardboard cut-out which we will use to shape the squish band in the cylinder head. You can also use one of those profile tools which is really handy. You set the shape of the piston crown on one side, and the other side you use to sit inside the cylinder head to check your head squish shape. The net result is that you end up with an exact replica of your piston crown radius in your head. The reason that you should go to alll this trouble is simple, once the fuel has ignited, it spreads a flame that travels between the head and the piston. If that clearance is not correct then damage could result. It is important that you make sure the squish band clearance is uniform throughout its diameter.CYLINDER HEADS ly different tronIf we deal with a bore size of 55mm, our head should measure 56mm across the squish band at its widest point. That is the only way that we will know that the piston will not touch the head. If we were to bore out the 55mm bore size to 57mm, then the head should be opened out to 58mm, therefore the head should always be 1mm larger than the bore size. One way of making sure the head is central to the barrel is to dowel the head to the barrel. Use long studs to bolt the head and barrel together (off the motor) and centralise the head to the barrel. Obtain some roll pins and drill through the head into the barrel. Aim to drill down through the head into the fins on the barrel. The range of Polini and Malossi kits for the P200E don't come with a cylinder head. It is advisable to have your own head machined to suit the piston size and squish shape. Those kits are 68mm bore size so the head modification would be to 69mm. SQUISH BAND CLEARANCE The clearance between the crown of the piston and the cylinder head should be 1mm which you can measure for simplicity with thick multicore solder. Although this sounds a bit ‘Heath Robbo’ it is a quick guide and will be checked when you finish the job. The removal of metal is done by drill and bits, or on a lathe. If you use a lathe you'll need to improvise and fabricate a tool to hold the head in the lathe. This can be done by making a tool which locates into the four stud holes and then fits into the lathe. Alternatively you can use a mandrel on central plug heads only. This screws into the plug thread and then is held in the lathe to machine your head, with the former being the best method. Using a drill freehand will take longer and the results will not be as tidy as using the lathe. Care must be taken though to ensure that the correct volume is obtained when fitted. Remember, once removed, metal will prove very difficult to replace. So make sure that you do it a bit at a time. Each time you check the clearance make sure you nip the head down correctly. The num- ber of times | have stripped motors and found the piston has been touching the head, sim- ply because the owner or tuner has not rechecked the head once properly tightened down. Torque settings are: Stud Size, 7mm = 18/20 ft/lbs 8mm = 20/22 ftlbs If the head was to touch the piston, the results could be expensive. The big end bearings would suffer and the chances of the piston surviving without breakage would be slim. The piston would certainly crack and the barre! surface damaged as a result. | think the mes- sage is clear, always double check the squish clearance. Heads are easily warped from over-tightening. To ensure that your head is perfectly fiat across the gasket face, simply lap in the head on a piece of .25” thick plate glass with fine emery paper on top. Continue to lap in until the surface is a uniform matt finish across the face. When you have completed your work on the head, the only things to remember are to seal the head when fitting. A thin film of instant gasket will do the trick, or some Loctite 275 and tighten down diagonally the four nuts to the required torque. 36- CHAPTER SIX - GEARING - PART ONE At this point | throw my hands up in despair, as far as the Vespa is concerned. The alterna- tives are limited. Hamessing the power that you will develop from your motor is important, transferring the power to the rear wheel through the gearbox is easy, doing so through the right gearbox is a little more difficult. In all cases, to alter the gearing on a Vespa engine you need to completely strip the motor. Even to change the primary gearing will require you to fully strip the motor. Take “for instance” the 135c¢ conversion. The number of primary gear sets you could use would number at best six or seven. When you compare that to the Lambretta, with the ease of change, and the combinations available, it highlights the problem for the Vespa. Experience over the years has provided me with the information that | require to gear my motors to my own requirements. Different circuits require different gearing and likewise motors that produce different variants of power will require different gearing to suit. The dif- ference between a road machine and a racing machine as far as gearing is concerned is vast. Most road machines will be geared to suit overall use, whereas a race machine will be geared to the longest straight on the circuit, with an eye on acceleration. There would be no advantage in having a machine that was outstanding down the back straight if it took all day to get there, because of ‘too high’ gearing. Some Basic Information: Too Low Gearing = Good acceleration but poor top speed. The machine runs out of steam, mainly because the gearing is not suited to the motors output. The symptoms are over revving in top gear as the machines power outgrows the gearbox. Too High Gearing = Average acceleration with reasonable mid range power. The most noticeable feature of over-gearing is the lack of power when you come to an incline. You try to accelerate and you find there is no power. You usually drop down a gear and pick up the power. Descending a big hill with the wind behind you is the only time that this particu- lar type of gearing comes into its own. Sadly, as soon as you hit the flat or a slight incline you're back to where you started, struggling. You will also find 3rd gear is as good as top, simply because the gearing is too high It can be seen from the above that gearing is vital if you are to tum all that hard work you did on the crankcase and barrel into something. The chances are that with a little help you will select a combination that will give you good all-round results that will compliment your tuning. Why would we alter our gearing? If we alter the power output of our motor, then we should look into a change in gearing. If you own a PK5O and fit a 105cc kit then you would require a gear kit that allows you to harness the new power that the 105cc kit produces. Likewise, if using a 185¢c kit. If you owned a 80/90/100ce machine you would want to up gear to suit your new found power source 37