[Molish]

Hi! Miss me yet? Ha! well, One 5mm kidney stone and the loss of my dog recently, I'm back at it again. Thankfully, I don't have about 1000000 questions this time around, but more pics and another video again! YAY!

I'll try to make this short. Done are most of the service section in my 400ex manual. Got the carb off and totally got her all cleaned up. Still have a crap idle, but now I know why...

The crankcase blowby return line that plugs into the air intake for the carb. When the quad is all warmed up and running, it's putting out constant air pressure in tune with the engine (a puffing of air) but with a hint of white smoke. This smoke is choking all my airflow on my quad and killing it! when I disconnect that breather from the intake, the quad runs like a DREAM! The smoke is barely visible only when it gets nice and warm. when it's cold, no smoke. I put a movie up on youtube that showed the smoke (it's hard to see, but a constant "puffing" with the motor idle) before youtube converted it into it's crappy format. Here is what is happening....

YouTube - Crankblowby.MOV

Now I have notice my oil looks off color. Possible water contamination I thought. I changed the oil in her, but only from the drain bolt. Not from the crank case (switched from a Castorl synthetic back to the HP4 synthetic and changed the filter). I was thinking I need to run a bunch of cheep synthetic through her and get all the contamination out, then drain and refill with HP4

Oil color -

I've read that if you have a gray color oil issues (possible water contamination), that you should run a bunch of oil through it to clean out all the old stuff. just keep filling and draining it from the filter on the side of the motor until it runs golden again. I was thinking that this contamination might be why I'm getting a lot of smoke from my crank blowby. The water mix with the oil making it thinner and easy to "burn" off inside the crank case.

Your thoughts?

 

[Helmut]

That oil on the dipstick looks alright to me, but maybe I just can't tell in the picture. But if you think it might have water in it, you are correct about draining and adding it until it comes out the right color. If that doesn't solve your problem, it's possible that you might need new rings. Have you tried a non-synthetic oil? If the engine has high miles, it might be better to use a regular ATV mineral oil, because I don't think you're supposed to use synthetic oil in a high mileage engine.

 

[Billy250X]

Yeah I was told it would take out seals and rings and bearings running synthetic in a high mileage engine.

 

[Molish]

UGH... I was worried it was my rings...oh hell, that is gonna be fun to replace. Duh, i re-read Helmut's post and it answered my question here. If she still smoking after I run the old oil out, then it is the rings. Man, I hope not. Crap, I didn't wanna have to do any head/cylinder work this year. Mabey I'll get lucky and it's just crappy oil contamination burn off.

Ok, so use a mineral based oil for older engines. I'm the third owner, second owner was the racer. He ran Castorl Synthetic car type oil it's whole life. I got it an immediately changed the oil and filter back to HP4 Synthetic In January. I did some quick reading and most sites are saying stay with what you are using. Since the manual states use HP4 and she has had synthetic her whole life, I'm leaning towards staying with HP4. But I will use some cheep synthetic to "Clean" her out today and then refill with HP4.

Ugh, sorry about all the questions. And here I promised I would throw out 100000 of them. :icon_ nono2:

EDIT: I did some reading and changed my post a bit.

 

[Billy250X]

Yeah I'd stick with the HP4.Honda designed the oil for the machine.It's like using stihl oil in your stihl chain saw.

 

[Molish]

Question... If she runs like shit with the breather attached, can I just un-attach it from the side of the air intake and plug the hole (on the intake)? I run open airbox for extra air flow.

I might see if I can extend and re-route the crankcase breather along the frame out near back of the wheelie bar. Make it like it's own little exaust. But I'll be adding an extra couple feet of hose to it (and was told by my local shop to try a cone shaped small filter on it. like the kinda they have in the imports section. will help with water and stuff) . Good idea/bad idea?

Granted, I'll keep the oil level up and check it before each ride for now until I get the cash to get the oil and filter next week for the oil flush. Then, if needed, the new rings.

That oil level in the pic up top is the normal level in my quad I think. Half-way up the stick about 30 seconds after shut off from warm, no snapping the throttle, just resting the stick back in the fill hole (not screwing it in).

 

[Helmut]

I would flush it out with the regular ATV mineral oil until it gets clean and is coming out the right color. I would start it and run it and see if it still has the blowby. If it doesn't, then you can put the synthetic back into it and try it. Then, if it doesn't have blowby, great. If it does, just change back to the regular ATV mineral oil. If it still has blowby using either type of oil, then you probably need to replace the rings.

 

[Molish]

ah HA! Found my oil contamination spot!!!

My fricken Clutch lifter arm is leaking. Since it's so low = easy to get water in. Now I just need to understand why. I'm looking at the pdf of the manual I got, and it says all that is there is a bearing and a dust seal.

Pic form manual

Is it the dust seal that is allowing the leak, or the bearing and dust seal combo? Just replace both and see what happens?

Since I've got bad oil, I've stopped riding it until I do the oil flush. ( :icon_ cry: :icon_ cry: :icon_ cry: :icon_ cry: )

Don't wanna have a piston lock because of thin oil or something. I rode it hard while I was testing too, which makes me feel like such an idiot for doing so. Hindsight and all...

Good news is I routed the crank breather out the back end of the quad, sealed the breather hole on the air intake for the carb (a little piece of tight fitting wood and gasket sealer on the end), and my idle problems are 95% fixed (It's a Lectron carb, It'll never be 100%)

EDIT: Just checked motogrid.com for parts. They described it as an "oil seal" and of course, have three different ones...

17 SKU: 91201-HM3-A61 OIL SEAL (14X22X5) (ARAI) (Honda Code 8511446)
1 $1.94 Add to Cart
17 * SKU: 91201-KF0-003 OIL SEAL (14X22X5) (ARAI) (Honda Code 1491646)
1 $1.94 Add to Cart
18 SKU: 91204-KK0-003 OIL SEAL (12X18X5) (ARAI) (Honda Code 1747773)
1 $3.25 Add to Cart


AHHH!!! I hate it when I''m not exactly sure which part to order... good thing they are only about 1-3 bucks