Modern Vespa

Right, the air intake system is not bad at all. I will delete just the intake snorkel #22.
Have some TwinAir filter material and will replicate the OEM foam.

nope

Thanks for the interest skids

Will update as the project moves on.

I don´t know about differences between Piaggio and Vespa guises of said engines but the lambda ´emulator´ is a bodge really.
The Malossi electronics should work on either imo. It shoúld be a matter of setting the switches to match the goodies on that particular scoot. That said I have not tried install it in mine yet so fingers (and toes) crossed.

Meanwhile I still totally do not get why nobody swaps a camshaft. Apart from a variator kit it is the simplest and most effective way to tune a 4 stroke.
Maybe I will find out why first hand

How's the re-build coming along? Been speaking to the shop today and my engine is done and back in the Scooter. They're just waiting on my wheels returning from the powder coaters, so hopefully I should get it delivered soon.

Not gotten further than the rear end out. Using a friend´s place. Maybe get more time over the weekend
The bike is as new so all clean working. That is
Should be quite noticeable.

Making headway now.

and there was light

So; ready be fitted back in.
Well, swap the original foam for TwinAir material and delete inlet noise muffler #22.

Fingers x-ed it all works and toes ditto for the electronic wonder box.
Apart from an exhaust swap which is a lot of noise about nothing much, it is what there is.
I am usually none too keen going the whole hog first time but with the Vespa most of the work is separating and mounting the drive unit.
If I would decide try a plod magnet later on, that is simply bolt on.

I wonder how john71 is fairing with his sooped up scoot.

My Scoot is almost ready, just waiting on the horncover coming back from the Paint shop. Should be delivered one day next week, I just hope the weather stays dry. The wheels are back and looking nice. I was going to add a white stripe on the rim, but I think I'll leave them as they are. Might look a bit busy.

Gorguous colour!
Look good with the off white.
No, no white line, better a wheel colour accent somewhere on the scoot. Like the GTV diagonal on the cófanos.

p.s. english not being my second language even, ´horncover´ took me a moment

Your English is better than my Spanish will ever be!!😁

It's arrived, but so has Winter!! It's about 4 deg. and Dark at 4.00pm here, so haven't been far. How's yours coming along?

Looking

What is the first impression?

Mine is running; definitely thumping harder. The ForceMaster install is holding progress up as less simple than seems.

Over here we are into the colder, under 10 C., nights but as the sun only gets about as low as high in the UK, day times are still kissing 20 C. and light till some 18.30.

Just been out a couple of times but it's nice. Very smooth. Not been out the town yet, lots of snow out in the countryside.

That will limit things a bit yes. Not such an issue over here that

Hoping to notice a more serious difference than ´smooth´
Ok, say IF 7 hp more, that is only 7 hp so hardly a road burning experience but when starting with less than that, it would be double the ... euhmmm... ´power´.
I reallyréally hope the electronics will work and the sweet thing will have a toúch of bad girl. With upping the capacity by half and adding a ´hotter´ cam she should.

nope, can NOT get the electronix to behave. All is connected as it should, procedure as per instructions; all three leds go on, two go out, but the red light stays on instead of green thus blocking the engine from running.
Yes I have the correct part number thing according to Malossi web site and all connectors go where they should...

Without the gadget it runs good. Definitely more punchy.
Obviously limited by standard fuelling so no fogging it. Although modern nikasil, must be run in a bit anyway.

Nów I hear from the grapevine that most who bought the Malossi magic box could not get it to work as per instruction manual.
Not sure I believe that, but a Dutch bloke who does an whole lot of videos on youtube could not get the Forcemaster going either. And that is him being a Vespa tuning specialist. Outside help needed and sorted but

I am sceptical about the above though.
There really should not be an issue as there are hundreds of thousands of engine management systems tweaked like this. I have done several.
There should not be an issue but there is.
So, need to reach out to the specialist in Málaga and meanwhile ride with standard fuelling.
Not happy with that.

Fingers crossed.

Hope you get your settings sorted. I imagine we have the same Force master set up, but mine was set by the Guy's who set my engine. I can have a look at it if it would be any help?

I had no problem getting the Force Master to work the first time, though I did find Malossi's instructions (for the whole process) a bit confusing. I remember I had to watch that part of Robot's installation video a few times.

Thanks for the moral support guys.
It really should not be complicated but....

Not very happy with the running at the moment. Looks like the delete of the inlet muffler and change to the less restrictive TwinAir filter foam was too much derestriction.
When opening the throttle a bit brusquely, the engine chokes on the air.
May put inlet damper back until I have the electronix sorted.

Also thinking of going a ´sports´ exhaust after all. Despite being VERY sceptical about the power gains, I now do have more gas pumping through ánd a ´hotter´ cam.
Stupidly expensive though and I do definitely not like extra noise.

Pondering about it,
waiting for the tuning specialist to come back to me,
looking at muffler options
and last but not least will apply some go faster stripes.


Will keep you posted.

As you know, we're not fans of Sports exhausts, but this SIP does sound nice.?si=Go0bXS8Ywz7bRZvK

SIP Oinc (or something like that) and the Polini are on my short list.

Meanwhile

Very nice. It's a shame you live so far away. I've got a lovely brand new White seat and mirrors that I took of mine. Would look great on yours.

I appreciate the thought John.

Just been looking through your old posts. We've got different Force Masters. I've got a 2.1 Could this be affecting things?

Thanks for checking.
It sure would.
I have the one listed for my model number though so it should work.

Been out on mine today. Do you like my engine sticker? 😁

tbh cannot make it out all that well

How did you like the spin?

I´ve been out too but on the pedal bikes with my love. Crossed several mountain passes on heavy duty dirt ´roads´.
Left at 10.00 and got back 16.30 No we did nó spend much time for coffee/lunch
Is very to the point in this thread as it is part of the integral performance enhancing project: Getting in better shape and shedding/shifting some shape works everywhichway

. . . a nod to the Plod😁

Thanks for the literal clarification. Looks great and the plod will not get that


p.s. despite my aversion have ordered a loud(er) pot by Polini

btw main reason for the sort of still sceptical change of mind is having measured to standard exhaust outlet; 15 mm exit is restrictive for a revving 185c.

Meanwhile starting to suspect that the Malossi ecu is defect

Very interesting . . . . keep us informed.

Package got lost

Seller sent new one yesterday.

Ah, nightmare!! I hope it's here before the holidays.

Mwah, just a muffler. Luxury ´problem´no?!

My son is back from Sweden for the holidays. Most practical for him to stay at the (half mine) farm where my ex resides meaning running the gauntlet to see him.
She wanted to divorce, she makes more than I, she wanted to stay on the farm and expects me to repair/change a broken faucet or what.
Meanwhile I am living together with an attractive youg(er) woman and that is like oil on fire: EVERYthing is an issue, miscommunication a certainty.
My current love wants ex to buy me out. That means she would need to sell, which my son goes against.
Yes I can go to court but would be out of pocket and go in effect against my son.
´Same´ thing the joint crypto funds.
Merry X-mas and happy new year

The just a muffler´s probably here before the weekend anyway.

Package has arrived.
The muffler is very neat and surprisingly light; just 2 kg. header, fittings and all.
That is a definite win for sure.

The exit of the pipe is the same as standard. I cannot see it make any flow thus not a single Watt of difference with the db-thingus fitted.

The db-killer is fitted with a large circlip (easy) and a small spot welded strip (a pita).

Forgot to update for a while: Life, holidays, weather etc. No excuse, just the reasons.

Fitting the exhaust was in itself a doddle.
I díd have some niggles but nothing to do with the Polini.
First I started with the scoot on the sidestand as that gave me better view on the cyl. head studs/nuts.
The OEM muffler did not clear the folded up stand so change of position.
I assumed that the Polini would not go on ditto but it was just too much of a pita to get the exhaust nuts on so put it on the sidestand again.
Smooth sailing from there and the muffler went on too without interference of the centre stand.
Nice btw that those nuts are copper; that corrodes só much less.

Ah and the winding of the O2 sensor cable went against my mechanical empathy. I did wind it up while screwing out but .... So fitted it by turning the header pipe and fitted that one with the sensor in situ.

The weight difference it just under 2 kg. Not world shocking and more can be found switching to a LiFePo4 battery but still 30% off of the stock one

Noise wise the Polini is definitely louder than stock but nothing obtrusive. It came with homologation cert. for mine but I doubt very much that it will pass inspection.
Sofar not contemplating to take the db reducer out. It is loud enough.

The looks, well I actually like the compact look of the original pot best. The Polini looks.... after market.

Ah and then ´power´ wise I don´t know. It sééms that the 185 kit or the cam appreciates the larger diameter of the header tube.
I remain very much sceptic about the vfm but also I conclude that with the increase in cyl. capacity and hotter cam the exhaust system became the weakest link throttling the other investments. Thus it is more of a must, but even for the discounted pot I bought it remains a lot of money for marginal powah gains.

As to the whole operation.... Would not do it again and accept the limitations of the dapper running standard thing.
Ok, % wise it may be none too bad but it is just too few skinny horses for the bucks.
Mind you, that is coming from 125, so never mind 150 cc.

And how fast is it with the kit ?😁
Thinking about buying a used cheap 🤪946 and would like it to go a bit faster

One maybe crucial aspect I did not mention: The powerthingy is still under warranty claim so nót fitted!
I do not expect much extra power from this anyway, but it would improve the wáy it runs. There is a flat spot now.

Top speed has not changed much if any.

I must change my tune a bit as this afternoon took my charming company for a trip and we bought some groceries half way.
First time two up and basically the proof of the pudding as thát is why I wanted the tune up.

As just observed top speed is not much if any higher.
This is however a matter of the gearing/variator.

Púlling power now doés deserve that monniker: Two up with the pet carrier stuffed with heavy articles, the difference is quite marked.
One particularly steep ascend where it used to have trouble to stay above 50 km/h it now kept 70-75.

With mentioned load (and tanked up) I checked several 0 - 80 km/h on the speedo and it is consistently well under 10 seconds.

So although the top speed has not been affected, the practical/usable ´top´ speeds have been. It can be driven considerable faster.
Especially two up it is a different scoot.
Judging from acceleration and the way it now attacks uphill, I think it may have double the pulling power

So bottom line I now have diametrically changed my opinion: It was worth the change for mý use.

Two other observations are:
1. the variator is smoother with load changes. Where before you could markedly feel the change point from pulling to engine braking upon closing the throttle, that change over is now smooth as if it has a freewheel.
2. it runs cooler: I could still keep my bare hand on the muffler after flogging the scoot 35 km with around 15 degrees ambient temp.
On the way back we did some 45 km and stopped for half an hour under way. Yet the contents of the pet carrier was luke warm at the most.

Fingers crossed for the powerthingy.

Good to hear your project is up and running again. Cold and a lot of Snow over here, so it's been a couple of weeks since I've been out on mine.

Over here winter too. Literally frfrfréézing nights/mornings but nice daytime. Nights will get colder usually for a month yet but the sun is getting noticeably warmer already.
This does mean that road parts which do not get any sun will stay frozen though.
From about 11.00 till 17.00 it is good riding weather. Need gloves but ´summer´ gloves are enough.

Will keep you posted. Am véry curious about your experiences too.

Currently looking at the battery. Is still the original so may get to end of life. When it does, want to fit a LiFePo4 which is a fraction of the weight.
Much like with the power, a few kg is a lot on a light scoot.

Also have some feedback on the fly-screen. It works a treat for me. Not just less wind pressure but even with this cool weather had several fatties splatter on it.