General question about the 2005 and up dirt bikes?

[SSMAN]

Ok, Pulled the pump cover and every thing looks good. Impeller rotates with kick starter. Made sure no hoses were clogged, put it back together and put water in it. When you first start it while it is cold, it does not leak. You ride it 2 blocks down the street and it starts dripping. 2 blocks back, you get on it and it gushes out the overflow tube when under a load. Let off and it goes back to dripping. Romp on it in gear, it gushes out.

Head gasket? No oil in water or vise versa. Seems tiny bubbles start forming. (Like carbonation in a sprite) But honestly it is hard to tell due to the turbulence of the water pump.

For what it is worth, but is starts, runs pretty good and idles with no problems. I have not ridden one of these till now (or any semi new 4 stroke) 3rd gear still pulls the front tire up pretty good.

Local shop wants $400-500.00 to change head gasket. Tho I am still not 100 % that is the problem. I am leaning that direction now tho. Any mechanics work on the side so I don't have to pay the shop rate?

[krazy kris]

Damn that sounds pretty high but you do have to take off the timing chain and valves all for a $20 gasket

[Grape]

Hold hand over radiator neck just after you fire it. Or, use a leak down and see if it bubbles into the radiator. Thats 4-500 seems nuts for a single cylinder....

[SSMAN]

Hold hand over radiator neck just after you fire it. Or, use a leak down and see if it bubbles into the radiator. Thats 4-500 seems nuts for a single cylinder....

Ok, I am still asleep, but I am not following you on this . If I have my hand on the neck (blocking over flow hole?) What am I looking for?

[Grape]

Just seing how quick pressure builds up against your hand, but if its moving that much water out, its gotta be leaking. Its really no big deal, i wouldnt think on a single. All we do is inline 4's and we dont charge as much as you were quoted. Pm sent with number

[Quadforce]

its obvious its building pressure or it would not be blowing out the overflow. IMO you have a break in head gasket or I have even seen a crack in the cylinder wall that would cause this type stuff. I am guessing you have compression getting in the system overcharging it and just like a car you just have to start checking why one reason at a time.

[ktm300hater]

Radiator caps are notoriously light. Stiffer cap. Usually if head gasket is bad it will start pushing water immediately. Replace it with a 1.8 bar cap

And yes my kid raced for 15 years. The last year he raced in 2010 we did the AMA arenacross series and he was making 250 and 450 main events.

And if the head gasket is bad I could change it for about 200. But you'd have to bring it to Stephenville

[SSMAN]

Thanks for the input guys, I appreciate it.

[Grape]

Radiator caps are notoriously light. Stiffer cap. Usually if head gasket is bad it will start pushing water immediately. Replace it with a 1.8 bar cap

And yes my kid raced for 15 years. The last year he raced in 2010 we did the AMA arenacross series and he was making 250 and 450 main events.

And if the head gasket is bad I could change it for about 200. But you'd have to bring it to Stephenville

You guys raced against some of our stuff that Demuth was riding.

[ktm300hater]

You guys raced against some of our stuff that Demuth was riding.

Josh is a great guy. I saw a video of him riding the other day. Good to see. When he was riding for Babbits he would come over to our pit and coach Ryan a bit. Not often you see a veteran racer come give advice to a rookie

[SSMAN]

Big thanks to Grape for helping me out. Only the weird shit happens to my stuff. LOL. I would not have figured out what all was wrong with it if I had done this myself. It is good to watch a skilled guy at work. Once again, thanks!

[krazy kris]

Big thanks to Grape for helping me out. Only the weird shit happens to my stuff. LOL. I would not have figured out what all was wrong with it if I had done this myself. It is good to watch a skilled guy at work. Once again, thanks!

What was the problem

[SSMAN]

What was the problem

What we know so far, head gasket is one. But when doing the leak down test, we could not figure out where the air was escaping to. Grape circled around listening and finally put his finger over the hole that allows water to drain from the spark plug hole. Which should not have had air coming out of it. Once he covered that hole up, air was bubbling in the Radiator at a good clip. Come to find out some of the threads were pulled out of the spark plug hole which I guess opened up to the drain hole somehow. I am still a little confused about that , but I think that is the scenario in which it was happening. You could see a gap in the spark plug threads somewhere in the close to the center of the threads or so.

No way in hell I would have found that. Grape knows his shit.

[Quadforce]

good deal glad you got it figured out