I had a metrakit in my 87 elite 50. When we first put the kit in we cycled on and off at idle, then ran it around the shop for a while. Then I went to drive it home, at about 1/4 throttle. It seized on the way home. I brought it back to the mechanic, he looked at the spark plug, it looked fine. I can't remember whether he richened the mixture or not, but basically he said it shouldn't do it again and so I went home. He was right, it never happened again. But after 500 miles of use I began to have trouble starting it. I got out the compression tester and only registed 75 psi... I also noticed the first piston ring had a lot of blow-by past it. There was lots of carbon as well. My mechanic had ported the cylinder, and shaved the head, so I decided rather than just getting new rings or whatever to start fresh with a new kit. I've also switched to using pre-mix now. Against Mopedwhiz's advice I'm using a 50:1 ratio, because that is what the guy at VTcycles recommends, who has much more experience with these kits. (I assume because he sells and installs them)
I guess what I want to ask you is, what ratio pre-mix are you running? Also, how is your compression right now? Actually, my compression with my first metrakit may have been okay. The compression tester I was using is older than I am, about 20 years old. My dad used it when he was my age. So maybe my old kit was fine, but the gauge was wrong. I'll probably never know because I broke one of the piston rings when I was trying to put it together, not realizing that the rings go one way in the groove. Anyway, the new kit is about 130 psi. While the old gauge read 75 on both the new and old kits.
-Nate
Posted on May 15, 2004, 6:53 PM from IP address 128.253.199.115
