Advice on Tao Tao ATM50--maintenance, etc  By  james (Read 6,100 times)

i just sold my atm50 had over 15,000km. i used 15w40 engine oil and 80w90 gear oil. i would change both a.s.a.p. breaking in a new engine you really should change engine oil at 100km, at 500km, at 1000km and then every 1,000km. the gear oil doesn't need to be replaced as often. i did mine about every 3,000km. i forget what the book recommends so refer to your owners manual since my numbers may not be accurate.

i believe my owners manual said at least octane. i have used with 10% ethanol with no major problems but if you have access to ethanol free fuel and don't mind paying a little extra then skip the corn.

you are probably going to need (or want) to unseal the carburetor or buy an aftermarket carb so you can keep it tuned.

i bought my atm50 used and replaced the original battery around 8,000km. i've heard keeping them on a trickle charger can make them last longer but i never done that.



i always thought we needed to use premium. dang owners manual must been written by OPEC.

I like using 10W40 specially in the summer, I would recommend that you change all your fuel lines, get regular fuel lines from your local part store, Always use Pepboys (I have to put that out there) the China fuel lines don't withstand ethanol to good and the get gummy inside and those particles clog your carburetor, you can also put in I think is called Sta-bil something like that for ethanol, (or a tea spoon of oil in the gas tank) to lube up the hoses so they don't dry up, and about the fuel, like everyone pretty much said you can use 87 but I personally do not recommend it, Higher octane is not only for high compression, but more for timing advance, scooters don't have a knock sensor or a computer to tell them how much they can advance the timing, before they start knocking, the lower octane fuels will make your scoot have a lower time advance tolerance, than a higher octane fuel, no you don't need to put but 87 I personally think its way to low, that stuff burns way to fast and to volatile, I use but I have the EFI kit and I am able to advance timing how I want it, I still don't have a knock sensor but so far I haven't knocked and I am getting really good gas mileage and performance.
Another thing you should do its replace your spark plug fuel filter all the regular tune stuff, these Chinese bikes come with really really cheap parts. hope this helps good luck

I guess the millions and millions of scoots in china and overseas are pinging and donating like crazy using their low octane gas.
Alleyoop

Tell you what so we do not get into a pissing match use the mid range rating, they usually have 87, 89, put in 89. I keep telling people they do not need the the scoot motors are NOT high compression motors. The scoot motors actually make more power with the lower grade and the reason is burns just a little bit slower which the high compression motors need.

But you can put in anything thing you want you will not notice any difference between the grades.
Alleyoop

I said high octane burns cleaner , what I meant was it burns hotter and tends to clean some components like some products do . So in a sense it burns cleaner

China also still tends to use lead in some of their fuels even though very poisonous the lead does help protect or lubricate certain engine parts .