Blaster base gasket blew out on the left side. My concerns are: What causes this....Could sand have gotten in the lower end....if so how do I flush the lower end. Thanks!!

 

The base gasket always go on a blaster, stock anyway. One of the sides is very thin and doesnt grab the gasket enough to hold it in place.

Get a new gasket and some gasket spray from an auto parts store. I like the tacky gasket sprays to help hold it in there. Once you get it backtogether torque it down to spec, dont over tighten it.

If left go you will eventually hole the piston (melt it from being lean) and have a entire other mess to clean up, that aluminum goes everywhere. AS for now, so long as the piston didnt hole yet any dirt that got in is probably gone, going in after it would actually put more in.

 

What we did back when my son had a Blaster was to take a punch and dimple the case very carefully in three spots on the area where the base gasket lays. This seemed to stop the gasket from blowing out. We always seemed to blow the left side too.

The punch we used was loaned to us by a mechanic that was spring loaded. To use it, you simply applied pressure downwards with the punch in your hand until it "popped" leaving a small dimple. Three of these placed strategically on the case solved our problem.

We also used only Yamaha oem base gaskets from that point on. They have some type of metalized properties to them. Seem to work better than regular gaskets.

Regards.

 

Thanks for the replies! Dimple the surface...thats something that never came to mind. I still wonder about sand in the bottom end...anybody else have any other ideas/comments?

 

"Spring loaded centerpunch" is what buttermilk is talking about. That would definitely take care of it

I had one of those, never used it and then forget what I did with it. Any center punch (pointy) will work though even the manual kind, but dont over do it.