I noticed on many of the engine close-up pics floating around the web, some of the Taotao 110cc appear to have a small flanged stub on the exhaust near the cylinder head with a check valve on it. Don't tell me they're injecting some air to 'lean-out' the exhaust?!??! What an ugly bunch of hardware to strap on to these babies. This pic isn't the best. There was some great closeups on eBay, but I can't find'em now.




Joel

 

First time i saw those was last summer in china...Had not seen them before..Musta been a '09 or '09 item because none of mine have it.

 

I remember reading about this a few years ago on an automotive forum with respect to some 'Honda knock-off' 70cc's having air injection on the exhaust, but I've never seen one. We'll find out when my kids's 110 comes in.

Joel

 

The one I have has it. I always wondered what it was

 

Yeah, I believe the science behind it is; The extra oxygen admitted into the exhaust stream will burn off more unburnt hydrocarbons (basically just dilute the stream). REALLY cheesy way to achieve this. The other possibility is that little bulge in the exhaust pipe downstream of the check valve is actually a small catalytic converter (I doubt it is), if so, air injection helps light off the cat quicker.

Joel

 

Here's the picture I was thinking of. What an ugly appendage to put on there. I believe there's also a big air filter canister at the top of the black hose:


Photo compliments of this fella: 2009 110cc KIDS ATV (ATA-110D1) !! ON SALE NOW !!:eBay Motors (item 270468912682 end time Oct-18-09 18:22:13 PDT)

Joel

 

Sure its ugly..but the exhaust is cleaner!!

(lots of sarcasm in that comment if you didnt notice)

 

Looks like they weren't really thinking when they put that on, facing forward that low to the ground is just asking for a rock or stump to snap it off, then you have a big exhaust leak or broken pipe to ride home with.

 

Granted it's a kids machine, that's what I was thinking. Being right on that bend, your only (somewhat) option is to blank it off right at the flange on the pipe, but then you've still got the stub/flange to contend with. Cutting the flange out and clamping the cut pipes back together with a decent clamp wont work on a bend and I can't weld! Maybe you can add propane injection and have extra rocket propulsion out the exhaust!! Hang on.... WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!

Joel

 

Poking around the net, I found out that bulge in the exhaust pipe just downstream of the air injection check valve IS a catalytic converter! Dude's got pictures where he cut the pipe on the inlet side and drilled out the honeycomb guts (which took some doing), then welded the pipe back up. I can't imagine there would be too much precious metal catalyst in them to do any 'catalyzing', but regardless, it's gotta get scorching hot.

Joel