180cc engine upgrade

[KrekerisLV]

Hello!

I've been riding my X9 180cc for a couple years now and over time compression has decreased significantly to the point where I'm having problems starting it when cold. The obvious choice to me is to replace piston and piston rings, however i thought that i could upgrade my 180cc cylinder to a larger one while I'm at it. Has anyone here done this before and could recommend the best course of action? On a separate note, is it possible to mount a 250cc engine in X9 180cc chassis? Because then i could just get the entire engine.

Thanks

[Solo]

I have been down this road with my X9 so I'll step in.

On mine I added a 200cc big bore.

A kit like this : link won't show, I'll edit once in pc.





The other one was a vxr200cc gilera runner engine bolted in.



The big bore kit was easier, with engine out abd in my shed didn't take too long.

[KrekerisLV]

Alright, waiting for the link (:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but does the 125cc model and 180cc model have the same engines (aside from cylinder of course)? Meaning i could purchase a 200cc big bore kit meant for 125 and it would fit my 180.

[Solo]

On the piaggio leader engine, the bottom ends are the same. So you can swap the tops 125 / 180 and 200, they can take the 210 kit I belive. But with the 210 kits your pushing the limits of the little engine

[Gav]

Excuse my interjection just showing you what a big bore kit involves, albeit this one brand new is for a High Cam Honda, or Chinese copies same, but this was intended for a Hymo trail bike which I sold when I bought a brace of 200 cc ones instead, of course it doesnt fit a 4 valve Leader engine but to give you some idea.

[KrekerisLV]

Thank you for your input, Gav!

I still haven't had the chance to take apart the engine and measure bore diameter, pin diameter etc. However, I've been looking for a replacement (180cc or larger) and it has proven a wee bit more difficult than I hoped for. For one thing, I haven't seen a new 180cc 4T LC replacement kit anywhere. I did however find this 200cc cylinder kit: https://www.sip-scootershop.com/en/product/cylinder-sip-200-cc_PI843291?q=cylinder%20piaggio%20leader that is being sold for a (sort of) reasonable price.

Has anyone bought anything from this shop? Could someone more experienced take a look at that cylinder kit and see if there are some signs that it wouldn't fit?

Once I actually take apart my engine, I'll try to update this thread as well.