The Lifan engine thread

As far as I am concerned this was a big mistake to hide that filter screen exactly the way it was done on the old honda's. Symba stole that motor design too, but here is a pic from the manual and the access that they provided to cleaning the filter screen. Much smarter as far as I am concerned and Lifan should look it to it.



I am glad that the motors are holding up and Lifan is building a quality product and reputation.

That is a better idea but I've never found anything in the screen. The Lifan 150 has the screen under an easy access cover, as does my Lifan 200 but you still have to remove the side cover to clean the centrifugal filter. I assume the Symba is the same.

I also adjusted the valves today on both the 140 and 200. The 140 is the same as all the small Honda engines but the 200 being a push rod engine is different. Here are a couple pics of the 200 rockers. Nice not having to work through a little hole like on the horizontal engines.

How many miles do you have on the 200 now, hugemoth?

The Lifan 200 seems to be a well designed and decent quality engine. I also had a 2007 Lifan LF200GY-5 dual sport bike, unfortunately it did not last long. Just past 3500 miles, that centrifugal oil filter came loose from the crankshaft and destroyed the engine. I was way out in the desert at the time, fortunately within cell phone service range. The filter was installed with just a nut, no lock washer, or any sign of thread locker. The nut just came loose. If it hadn't been for that, it may very well have lasted a very long time, as I over maintained it. Maybe someone at the factory just forgot to put locktite on it, but I would have used either a Nyloc nut, or a a flat washer that could be bent around the nut, like is used on many clutch nuts. One thing I really liked about that engine was the pushrod OHV design. I am not a fan of non replaceable internal cam chains. It does look like the oil pump is chain driven, but you can get to it. With that many miles on it, I'd replace that chain.

I can see how major damage would occur if the centrifugal filter came loose but mine has a tabbed washer that locks the nut in place. You can see one of the tabs in this pic. The oil pump drive chain and sprockets show no sign of wear. There isn't much stress on it and it gets plenty of oil.

Cam chains and tensioners have been a weak point in many Honda engine designs. The parallel twins with the chain in the middle required a major tear down to replace. Even my old CX500 push rod engine had cam chain guide issues at about 50K miles and the early ones had a factory recall on the tensioner.

I like the design of this engine and understand why the Honda CG125 that it is based on is so popular where it's sold. While not the most powerful 200cc engine around it has a very linear power band and always runs the same regardless of temperature or humidity.

BTW to answer the question in the previous post then engine has over 37,000 miles.

Ah, that explains it. My engine did not have that part. BTW, I got my bike for under $1400 online, from a dealer who had it drop shipped to me from Texas. I thought that was quite a deal. American Lifan no longer sells that model, as far as I can tell, and all of their bikes have now become so expensive (they refuse to sell them in any other way than through an authorized dealer, who gets a big chunk of the profit) that buying a slightly used Japanese bike is now a better option in many cases. I replaced mine with a Yamaha XT225, which I got for not much more, with only 1800 miles on it. It now has close to 30,000 on it, and the only issue has been with the starter clutch, which I blame on bad design. I replaced about $150 worth of parts to fix it, then turned around and installed the kickstarter assembly from a TTR-225 on it. I now mostly use the kickstarter. To it's benefit, the Lifan also had a kickstarter, something that has long been lacking on Japanese dirt/dual sport bikes.

Mine was purchased for the same price and drop shipped from the same place. 3 of my friends bought the same bike a couple weeks later. No one has had a single engine problem.

It's too bad Lifan didn't continue to offer those super low prices long enough to get their name known in the US. I wouldn't buy a new one at the prices they're asking now. I would however buy their engines to put in older bikes to get them back on the road, and have so far done that with 3 bikes.

The 110 and 100 cc Lifans, do they need to have their clutch cover removed to clean out behind the interior of the clutch assembly?

Yes. It also has to be removed to clean the oil screen.

My Lifan 200 dual sport bike has turned over 40,000 miles. The engine is running as good as ever and has never had a single problem. Oil changes, valve adjustments, centrifugal filter cleaning, and one spark plug over all those miles. It is among the most reliable bikes I've ever owned in 46 years of riding.

Had to tow my friend's Suzuki 400 with under 10,000 miles back to camp with it last week.

That's pretty impressive, I have to say.

I have owned 2 Lifan bikes. The first one, 100cc, 4T.... very reliable. I used it as a daily conmute, very cheap, fun to drive... a bit "small" for me, but at the end, a nice bike. I have made with it more than 40,000kms when I sold it.... no major repairs, just normal service, and electrical plant change at 38,000 kms more or less.

The other one is my scooter, 7 years with me and almost 50,000 kms with me. Almostg the same history, normal service, but with this I have put new cilinder, and pistons 15,000kms ago (the motor seize up). The spare parts for this motorcycles are very cheap in my country, I just spend $27.00 for the new cilinder, piston, rings, gasket kit.

First problem to report on my Lifan 140cc engine. 11,000 miles on the clock now. Under hard acceleration in first gear it feels like the chain is jumping a link on the sprocket but its internal. I suspect the shifting fork is bent, letting the dogs slip under a big load. Its spent much of its 11,000 miles being ridden off road in first and second gears. I'll split the case and have a look when I get home next month.

There's a great yahoo group with almost real-time questions and answers every day. I think its called honda_clone at y! groups. Theres lots of wiring diagrams detailing how to put which lifan into which C bike. 12v/6v conversions, AC or DC headlight, e-start, winkers, There's diagrams for all of it in the database.

A nice examination of what happens when you thrash a C90 engine across the world..

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I've got a 1975 CT90 for which I've recently purchased a Lifan 125 semi-auto clutch to replace the destroyed original motor.
I'd like to keep this bike as stock appearing as possible and would like to use the original exhaust.
Do you think it would be too restrictive for the 125?
This is the square motor (54 bore and stroke).

Sam Bateman
Arvonia, VA

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

The stock exhaust won't fit the Lifan head because the flange is different but you can make it fit with some cutting and welding. It will be more restrictive than a pit bike exhaust but probably not too bad because the stock exhaust on the CT90 is a pretty good size.

I've had my first problem with a Lifan engine, the 140 with just over 11,000 miles. Under hard acceleration in low gear it momentarily pops out of gear. Won't have a chance to pull it apart until late summer but I suspect either loose shift drum stopper or a bent shift fork.