New Lifan X-Pect Mechanical Woes!

[culcune]

Originally Posted by Overland Adventure

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She's fixed!!!

I couldn't help myself, I took her for a nighttime ride. 15+ miles, I held her wide open and stayed at 60 mph for a considerable amount of time - zero issues! Thank you to everyone for the help and advice. Between making sure the ignition coil had proper grounds and connections, and setting the valve lash to the specs in my video above, she's riding smoother then ever. Smooth steady idle. Even after holding her wide open at 60 MPH I can come to a quick stop and she'll idle smooth as silk for as long as you can stand to sit still. Plenty of power too!

Stay tuned, I'll post a Top Speed run on my YouTube channel, complete with the difference swapping to a 17 tooth front sprocket and 42 tooth rear sprocket make!

Glad to hear this! I am glad that American Lifan was able to pull through for you and give you the proper specs So, what I gather is that you are on the stock 15/46 gearing? I would like to suggest for selfish reasons that you change only the front sprocket to a 17 and run it that way for a few verified runs. From what I remember, the now forgotten, but VERY popular Lifan GY-200-5 (it was the Hawk of its time circa 2006) came stock with street-friendly 17/46 gearing. This was pre-GPS (okay, pre everyone having a GPS, but there was pretty much no GPS built into cell phones at that time) and everyone reported 70 mph or so top speed (on the speedo). My guess was solidly in the low 60s considering how bad mechanical speedos were and are (no digital dash like today). Once you establish stock top speed, and then 17/46 (for nostalgia sake) then go 17/42 to see how much, or if, that changes things. Oh, and I now know where The Simpsons city is!! Say "hi" to Homer...

[Jsalmi]

Good thing it's running now, thanks for great video. I have JT 1264.17 on my Xpect it will bring the revs down to my liking. Keep us posted how the 17/42 performs.

[Overland Adventure]

Originally Posted by culcune

Glad to hear this! I am glad that American Lifan was able to pull through for you and give you the proper specs So, what I gather is that you are on the stock 15/46 gearing? I would like to suggest for selfish reasons that you change only the front sprocket to a 17 and run it that way for a few verified runs. From what I remember, the now forgotten, but VERY popular Lifan GY-200-5 (it was the Hawk of its time circa 2006) came stock with street-friendly 17/46 gearing. This was pre-GPS (okay, pre everyone having a GPS, but there was pretty much no GPS built into cell phones at that time) and everyone reported 70 mph or so top speed (on the speedo). My guess was solidly in the low 60s considering how bad mechanical speedos were and are (no digital dash like today). Once you establish stock top speed, and then 17/46 (for nostalgia sake) then go 17/42 to see how much, or if, that changes things. Oh, and I now know where The Simpsons city is!! Say "hi" to Homer...

That's the plan! Stock max MPH, 17 tooth front MPH, then 17 tooth front + 42 tooth rear MPH. I'll post the video on my Chinabike Adventures YouTube channel and make sure it has a GPS speedometer overlay (since the factory speedometer is a few MPH off)

Originally Posted by Jsalmi

Good thing it's running now, thanks for great video. I have JT 1264.17 on my Xpect it will bring the revs down to my liking. Keep us posted how the 17/42 performs.

Will do

[Jsalmi]

I was under impression of OHC also. ss27gogeta on this site posted a picture of valve train which on the left shows 2 pushrods actuating valves. I should have taken a pic as well but was in a hurry. Post # 27 ss27gogeta 08-22-2019

[Goob]

Originally Posted by Jsalmi

I was under impression of OHC also. ss27gogeta on this site posted a picture of valve train which on the left shows 2 pushrods actuating valves. I should have taken a pic as well but was in a hurry. Post # 27 ss27gogeta 08-22-2019

I guessed it was OHC because of the two access ports in the valve cover. Also, the Lifan website says OHC.

Oh well, in my opinion the OHV is better for these little bikes anyway.

I guess if you are up for a challenge you can adjust the valves thru those ports rather than take the valve cover off!

[Overland Adventure]

Originally Posted by Goob

I guessed it was OHC because of the two access ports in the valve cover. Also, the Lifan website says OHC.

Oh well, in my opinion the OHV is better for these little bikes anyway.

I guess if you are up for a challenge you can adjust the valves thru those ports rather than take the valve cover off!

You could, but you'd have to bend your feeler gauges and it would be a singularly awful experience. Once you have the fuel tank off, taking the valve cover off is a 10 second process and makes it infinitely easier. The chrome access port caps look cute, but after adjusting the valves and seeing how easy it is to just take the valve cover off I can promise you I will never ever deal with the access caps, it would take 5x the time, bend my feeler gauges, and be less precise and accurate of a setting, plus the bike frame would be constantly in your way. It would be a simply terrible experience.

By taking the valve cover off you can go from a fully dressed ready to ride bike, to stripped down and adjusting the valves, to a fully dressed ready to ride bike again in 20 minutes or less. My 'How To' video is about 10 minutes long and that's me taking the time to show and explain everything. I think the chrome access caps above the valve are there for show more then anything to be honest. Only time I can really think you'd use them is if you wanted to take them off and start the bike and see the valve train in action without oozing oil everywhere.

[ProDigit]

Has anyone in this thread found a way to make the bike run richer?

I've unplugged the O2 sensor and the mid range is richer, but the idle and top end are still lean.
Online suggestions indicate increasing the fuel pressure or drilling out the fuel injector holes for more fuel flow with a needle like drill.

Despite the bike running slightly richer than stock, putting an aftermarket exhaust on it, will make it run lean.
I need to use 2 baffles for it to run a bit richer (introducing back pressure).

[ChopperCharles]

Buy a Tactrix Openport 2.0, an adapater cable, and then download the free ECU hacker. Plug it all together and run the program on a laptop. Strap the laptop to the passenger seat, start recording, and at the same time start a stopwatch. Ride the bike. Note the time on the stopwatch when the bike starts acting up. After the ride, look at the time index on the saved logs. If it's ECU/EFI related, the data will be there in the recorded logs. There may also be codes. The whole setup costs under $100, and now you'll know exactly what's wrong with your bike.