150cc Simple mods beginner

[Goosey]

Ok, I have 2 stock Retro150cc scooters. I installed a new engine last year into the black,2005 Baron. A new carb in the 2009 iScooter (grey). I will be riding the Baron for work commute, and playing with the iScooter.
I am going to have all the plastics off, changing her over to white, so a good time to do some small adjustments. I had carb issues after an emission control hose popped off last summer, replaced the carb, and adjusted the valves. The weather here turned to winter before I got a chance to really test her out, so keeping my fingers crossed that it will run for more than 5 minutes now.
1. I will be removing the emission control system, not needed in WI.
2. The air box has one of those silly restictive tubes inside, pulling that out.
3. I have a stainless performance exhaust, took me awhile to find a bracket that would fit, and I have to have the end of the pipe straightened to make it fit under my rear fender.
4.purchased 12g dr. pulley's
? question, would changing out the variator to the Dr. Pulley be worth the expense ($130), or stick with the standard variator.
5. with my new engine was a clutch with a very stiff spring. I didn't use it as it was a bitch to compress in order to put the belt on. Thought I would try this with the new weights for more top end. I am a little nervouse about this, if the belt breaks on the road, it will be a problem to change on site without help.
6. Kevlar belt
These things I can do now. Should I bother with the Dr. Pulley variator, and I was thinking to try jetting #125-#130.
Any thoughts? Top end is more important to me than take off. No hills to worry about. Some cold days, but mostly 60 to 80 degree riding days. I want this scooter to be used for cruising.
Also, the old engine parts are available to play with.

[shiftless]

Sounds like you're on the right track
Do away with the emissions crap, lose the stock airbox and go with a freeflowing filter like a UNI , upjet(at my altitude 38pilot & 130 main jets work great), performance exhaust is a plus
12g sliders should work well
The best vari I have found is a prodigy 115mm (autotech355 on ebay is where I got mine)
Also an 842 belt (if your engine is longcase)

My setup cruises 50-60mph all day at 7000rpms (I do have 17g rollers in my vari , 1500 contra and 2000 clutch springs)

[Goosey]

My engines are the short case, 743-20-30 belt, 10" wheels. have a belt that was sold as a kevlar, but it's not a gates, and I wouldn't know kevlar from Adam. These Retro's have a 27" seat height. I am 5"1 and 135lb, and do 55-58 with stock.
Is there a good rejet set/kit out there? and will the stiffer compression spring help with the top end? Are the Dr. Pulley weights compatable with any performance variator?
I was going to ad a fan shroud if it is helpful in cooling too. I'm not sure what the stock weights are.

[90GTVert]

Dr. Pulley makes sliding weights that are compatible with stock 150 variators and aftermarket variators. The only exceptions would be the J. Costa variator (totally different setup) or something that used different sized roller weights than the stock 18x14mm ones.

The stiffer contra spring is more likely to hurt top end. I originally wrote this article regarding 2 stroke scoots, but a lot of it applies to any scooter. Check out the section on CVT tuning...

49ccscoot.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=basicstuff&action=display&thread=345

I think an air scoop helps, others disagree. I think most will agree that as long as the inlet is as large as or larger than the stock shroud's inlet it may help a little. Unfortunately I haven't seen anyone testing with a temp gauge and showing real results.

[Goosey]

The stiffer contra spring is more likely to hurt top end.

I will try that last then and see if it makes any difference on it's own. I really don't want to try changing a belt with that thing in there if it isn't worth it.
Exhaust, weights, air flow, and jets first then. I will look into that variator.

lose the stock airbox and go with a freeflowing filter like a UNI

The Uni filter, what do you do with the tube that goes from the head to the air box? Pictures of how it is installed?I tried a search here, but it filters out less than 4 letter words, like, air box uni, see the problem?

[90GTVert]

I see three common ways to deal with the vent hose coming from the valve cover. 1)Just tie it and let it hang somewhere. Preferably in an area where anything it would possibly drip would not be likely to get on the rear tire. 2)Attach a small filter to the end. 3)Route it to some sort of vented oil catch can. Either works. 3 is prob the most technically correct solution, 1 is the least. I use method number 2 on my 50cc GY6 with no issues. My filter has never even got dirty or oily.

Here's the little filter I used.


Sorry, I can't seem to find one pic of how it's in there exactly and you can't see it with the fairings on. Nothing to it though. I used a hose from the head to the filter. I stuck a piece of metal tubing in the hose to give me soemthing to clamp the filter to. Found a spot and tied it up.

A quick tip for searches : Use an asterisk as a wild card for words below the character limit. For example, you can't search for "air", but you can search for "air*".

[Goosey]

Ahhh, that just runs to the clear tube with the plug that comes off the air box? I suppose you can pull that from the air box and throw in on the valve cover as option #4. I do better looking at the parts. I'll look it over soon. Thanks for the suggestions. I hope to start riding again when my kid is on spring break soon.
It is wet and cold out in my shed yet, need some sunshine. My battery has been on a tender for too many months now, in the basement, there is a coating of crystalized leakage on top of the battery. One good battery between the two scoots, argh, hope it still has the juice to start em.

[Goosey]

aNother question, I was looking at upgrades without doing a big bore kit. Ran across a "final gear kit". I know I can do this, been in the gears before when I changed the drive shaft. Is this an upgrade in itself, or do you ad this only to the whole big bore setup?

cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=230464673810&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

[stepthrutuner]

It's hard to say about the higher gear. If it's very much of a step it could really kill acceleration and if you ever did encounter much of a hill it could drop it out of the power band and make it a slug going up. You could always tune the gearing back with weights and contra spring and 'run on the pulley' and wind up still with pretty much a rocket down hills. It definitely will take some retuning with weights and possibly contra springs to get your original acceleration back. I consider the ability to stay with or ahead of traffic in cities a pretty important safety factor.

[Goosey]

I'm definately not in a hilly area. Looking to ad a little top speed. This is a 150cc, and it tops at 54 right now stock, i'd be happy with 60. Take off is not an issue with the 150 either. I have a performance variator, and clutch, and springs on the list of to do's, kinda broke now with the new shed purchase. The gear step up looks affordable, but I may not want to go there first?

[Fox]

54mph is about as good as it gets for a 150cc unless you get the up-gear kit or maybe port the head and play with the jetting. In order to go faster with the current gearing you have in the back end you have to increase RPM's and that means increasing air flow through the engine I.E. porting the head and freeing up the exhaust and using a UNI pod filter. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on that.

As for that vent tube. I think you've seen my solution before but just in case you haven't it's here:
www.scooterforumonline.com/index.php/topic,1851.0.html

Some automotive fuel line, a few zip ties and voila! The vent tube no longer leaks oil anymore because it's routed up high.

[Goosey]

So the up-gear kit's not a bad idea, get that exhaust changed up( have that already), and try a uni filter. Put in the sliders I've got, and see how things go from there. And yup, I've seen what to do with the vent tubing The variator and clutch&springs can wait.
Right now I am trying to get the %#!* lawn mower going

[scooterrebel]

Fox, the photo of your mod is gone.

[rocketdog]

5. with my new engine was a clutch with a very stiff spring. I didn't use it as it was a bitch to compress in order to put the belt on. Thought I would try this with the new weights for more top end. I am a little nervous about this, if the belt breaks on the road, it will be a problem to change on site without help.

I have found that it's usually not the Contra Spring that is strong on a stock scooter. It's the lack of lubricant=grease that makes the rear pulley hard to compress. And the fact that Chinese grease is more like Cosmoline than grease. Also, if you polish the pins and the slots they work much better.

RD

[Goosey]

I have saved that clutch as a spare, and will probably be changing it into the Baron anyway, I was hearing a little noise last summer from the clutch area. I tended to keep doing the repairs on the Baron, but really modding and riding the Roadrunner more. Just a more reliable machine in general. Sadly, house first then scooters for 2011.