Modern Vespa

What's your thoughts on extra 2t oil in gas tank while breaking in a high performance cylinder kit. Was recommended to use extra oil in tank but also have an autolube system.
What's the effects? Heard it leans out.

Any thoughts?

Bike: Stella 177 iron cast
20/20 carb sip road 2

Depending on how much extra oil you use mixed in with the gas in the tank I don't think it would hurt anything except for the the spark plug, and if you change that out after a few hundred miles when you stop using the extra oil it should be fine. I don't know how much "extra" oil is too much though?

The most important thing about breaking in a new engine (and this mostly applies to four strokes) is to put as light of a load on the engine as possible during break in, and to constantly vary the engine speed.

Specifically this means to accelerate slowly and gently and then immediately begin decelerating slowly and gently. Never cruise at the same speed constantly be increasing or decreasing speed gently. It is a huge pain in the ass to do this, it goes against everything you normally do and you have to overcome muscle memory. just about the time you are getting the hang of it you can quit doing it.

The other important thing is to let the engine cool completely between cycles. Especially the first few times operated, take it for a run and bring it home and park it a good 3-4 hours.

Above are extreme break in instructions, it is not necessary to do this but I am convinced it does help an engine last longer. As a kid my dad and my uncle as a hobby started building high performance VW engines. They did several of them and got pretty good at it but making lots of horsepower in an air cooled engine that was designed for 36 horsepower they just wouldn't last very long. they lasted the longest when those strict break in instructions were followed for the first 1000 miles and that is what I have always done with every new vehicle/engine...but I have mild OCD issues.

You do not know what your limits are until you exceed them, and just because I am sliding doesn't mean I am out of control!

Thank you for the reply. It's one ounce oil to one gallon of gas. Plus the autolube. Yes I've heard to vary the throttle for the 1st 500 miles. I noticed my plug is rich but not sure if it's rich because of that extra oil. I mean my jetting is rich

52/140
140
Be4
118 main

Just curious. I don't think it's fouling cause it still works

If the autolube is working, I wouldn't worry about adding more. The ratio should be good enough as is. If you are premixing, then I'd add the extra for the break in.

Most definitely break in gently! No wide open throttle for a 100 miles, gentle throttle etc etc.

My 177 kit was 400 miles before any WOT, officially in instructions it was 500 miles and that's just a DR . What kit is being run in? Its a tedious process.

That wasnt verbatim, that was just me saying 100 since there's the manufacturers recommendations and theres the "well I did it and it didnt do anything." General rule of thumb says 500 but no ones gonna behave themselves that long

jet it fat, don't romp on it or wring it's neck too much. 3% is okay for break in, just don't use full synth. it'll take forever for the rings to seat.

heat cycle, retorque the head. run a tank thru it and retorque the head. consider the break in done after a two tankfuls

What cylinder kit did you ended up getting? Good advise here from people that had cylinder kits. I ran the 2% on oil injected fitted scooters and ran 2.5% percent on the non injected fitted scooters. There is no logic to my mix ratio, it is just the matter of trust. I trust the oil injection system and that is why I blindly do the 2%.

I have been rebuilding Vespa motors for 25 years and before that atv and dirt bike and a variety of car engines. I have built more than 400 Vespa engines total. I'm not going to say anyone is wrong in what they are doing, I am only going to state a simple fact. When you talk about rich or lean, you are referring to air to fuel mixture, not fuel to oil mixture. If a bike runs 2%, it's 2% oil to 98% gas traveling through the carb. 3% oil is 97% gas. If your adding 1% more oil you are leaning out the air to fuel ratio. If that is how you want to break in your engine in that's fine but you should jet it with 2% if that is how you are going to run it in the future. If you feel the need to run more oil during your break in do that after you have settle on your 2% plug chopped setup and then raise your oil percentage and raise your main jet size to compensate for the extra oil during your break in. It's hard to plug chop a bike with the mixture higher than what it was designed for. To much oil will make a plug look richer than it actually is, giving you a false sense of where your air to fuel ratio really is.