Wal Phillips injectors

Wal Phillips injectors

Tuning your fuel injector from "Scooter World"

Many scooterists have replaced their carburettor by a fuel injector. The two devices are entirely different in principle. The fuel injector must be adjusted in two stages. It is essentially a drip feed. Since many scooterists have asked for them, we give some tips on tuning - they come from injector inventor Wal Phillips himself.

Having fitted a fuel injector you must remember that it involves different handling of the machine. This is not difficult, but it is essential to follow the instructions to get best results.

Starting the scooter
Turn the fuel on at the last possible moment, and kick over as normal. Hold the throttle steaily, just a little open and blip the throttle on and off as soon as the engine gets running. To stop the engine, turn fuel tap off.
Should the engine not fire right away it may flood up with fuel, so turn the fuel tap off and kick the engine over with the throttle wide open to clear it. Should the engine curst into life now, quickly turn on the fuel and try to keep it running by blipping the throttle on and off while the bottom end (or first half) of the throttle range is adjusted. Always adjust the bottom end settinf with the engine running.

Flat spot. Delayed response to the throttle movemement or a flat spot signifies a weak mixture. This may be rectified by taking the connecting link down the threaded jet lever, having the lock nuts already finger tight only so that the adjustment may be made with the engine running.

Heavy smoke. Uneven running (eight-stroking) plus black or heavy blue smoke form the exhaust signifies an over rich mixture. This may be corrected by adjustment up the threaded lever. This allows the jet, which is in effect a jet-sized petrol tap, to shut off a little in relation to the butterfly, thus weakening the mixture.

Tuning the top half
The above adjustments will have been made with the throttle not more than half open, so you have tuned the bottom half. Having got the bottom end reasonably clean, thighten the lock nut - always the same one - and start on the upper half.
With the engine in neutral quickly open the throttle at last as the engine will take it and listen as the revs mount right through the range. At full revs in neutral gear the exhaust note wants to change from clean two-stroking to a slightly uneven rich sound.
Should this note come in earlier up the range and be accompanied by excessive blue smoke, the top end is too rich.
Adjust the top end weaker by screwing down the throttle stop screw one turn and lengthening the link until the butterfly is restored to its fully-open position. This will weaken the mixture right through the range, and two or three turns down the threaded lever will be needed right away to correct the bottom end weakness.
Restart, re-tune the bottom end and check the full throttle sound again. When the required result has been obtained - that little uneven or blabbing palse of uneven at full revs - it is in order to go out on the road and in due course carry out the final top and tuning adjustment to the point of a plug check.
Have a short burst of full throttle in third or top gear. Switch off the fuel and coast to a standstill. Examine the plug points. White, dry plug condition means weak mixture and a risk of engine seizure. Light or full brown colour is fine. Black means too rich.

Recommended Jet sizes

Lambretta I° bore 150cc - 039" TV175 - 040" SX200 - 042" GT200 - 042"

Vespa I° bore 160cc - 040" 180cc - 042"

Fitting & Tuning instructions for the Wal Phillips fuel injector Fitting notes: To allow clearance for JET LEVER it is sometimes necessary to file the RIGHT HAND (offside) nut, also with some machines the stud may have to be shortened. To avoid distortion of the flange ensure that both nuts are tightened equally. Couple up the original throttle cable, not forgetting to place the spring between the cable stop and lever, and then connect plastic petrol feed pipe. The injector is now ready for test.
Starting the machine: 1. Open petrol tap.
                                   2. Kick over the engine as normal.
                                   3. Should the engine flood, switch off petrol, open the throttle wide and kick over the engine a few times.
                                   4. Always stop the engine by turning off the petrol, leaving the injector dry for instant starting.
The Phillips Fuel Injector is a very simple design. The jet assembly is in effect a petrol tap. The butterfly is in effect an air tap. The levers are arranged so that the tuning of the first half of the throttle - taking the link down the long threaded lever for richer, or up for weaker - does not upset the basic full open setting. The second half of the throttle travel-top end-tuning is controlled by the throttle stop - say by one turn - and then lengthening the connecting link to bring the butterfly back again to the fully open position. This will weaken the mixture right down through the range, and call for a richening of the first half of throttle travel (bottom end). Tune the bottom end with the engine running, and when a clean pickup is obtained (lagging response and spitting back means too weak. Wight stroking and black smoke means too rich) open the throttle fully very quickly and watch the exhaust. Should black smoke appear as the revs mount well up the range the top end is too rich. Adjust weaker as described (not forgetting to reset bottom end) until black smoke has cleared. Then road test and finally tune top end to plug reading.
The idling stop should be set and at the same time the throttle cable must be adjusted precisely without slack, otherwise the throttle return spring will overcome the spring in the link thimble, and allow the jet to shut right off, so stalling the engine.
Bias on the side of vertical turns (on one unit) may be located by slackering off one side flange nut - with the other side not fully tight, and puching the unit over to make an air leak. If this is done with the engine running at near idle and the bad cylinder begins to fire this is the rich side. Now remove unit and make a small air leak that side, by cutting a little groove in a fibre manifold gasket (which may be fitted if one is not already there). All this is well worthwhile to get the superb instant response, and clear cut power gain that the injector will give.
Twin injectors: Fit separate pipe and tap to each unit so that after starting up, one side may be switched off whilstthe other is tuned to run clear, right up the range. Then switch over to the first side and tune it likewhise. Level butterflies with cable and adjusters. Tune top-end to plug readings.
Basic setting: Your injector is adjusted to a basic setting and the clamps should not be disturbed. If, however, by accident the clamps are moved use the following procedure:
1. Insert a ..... drill shank through the fuel feed hole, so that it is visible in the injector bore. This lines up jet in open position.
2. The left hand clamped lever must be hard against the throttle stop screw and the jet block.
3. The butterfly must be in the horizontal fully open position. Adjustment is carried out by altering the length of the connecting link
4. Arrange that connecting link is at approximately right angle to threaded lever when is fully open position. NO END FLOAT at jet spindle. Click on pic to enlarge

Bolt-on booster from "Motorcycle Mechanics" - November 1966

Something for nothing - that's what everybody would like - a couple of magic words and suddely your bike develops another ten brake horpe power!
This never happens and so you have to look around and decide just where your money is best spent. The answer is to improve the engine, but this usually means buying very expensive parts and also spending long weekends in stripdowns and testing. But we have found an item that you can buy and bolt on which will give a reasonable increase in performance, and that is a Wal Phillips fuel injector. M M has tried these out in the past and found them to be just as clean running and realible as a carburettor but correctly unied, they will give a higher top speed, increase acceleration and sometimes both. We had a pair of Lambrettas on test this month and this was an opportunity to try out a new injector designed specially for scooters.
Made by the sane firm, this injector is similar to the existing types, but it is much shorter so that it can be fitted to a Lambretta or Vespa without having to cut a hole in the side panel.
Having a stub fitting, is fitted straght on to the SX200 that we were trying out. The tubing which normally servers as an overflow pipe to the Dell'Orto carb can be used as a petrol pipe from the tap to the injector. Wal altered the adjustment very slightly and then the bike was tried out. These are the times that were recorded:

	carburettor	injector
0 - 30	5.5 sec.	4.6 sec.
0 - 50	14.5 sec.	12.0 sec.
Maximum speed	61 mph	70 mph

We did not have chance to check the fuel consumption but it was not more than a couple of miles per gallon up on standard. This is a very small price to pay for a top speed increase of nearly 15 per cent. With the injector fitted, the SX200 gave a standing quarter mile time of 20.8 sec. and a terminal speed of 65 mph. This was only 1.6 sec. slower that the Royal Enfield GT, although the Enfield would continue accelerrating while the Lambretta run out of steam.
While the percentage increase may not always be so high on other makes of bikes there is bound to be an improvement of some form and this can be had at fairly low price. Not all bikes respond as well as the Lambretta but you can check up with Wal and get his advice first.