Actually how often do you have to pay attention to your two stroke to keep it running good? If it makes any difference I would like to know about the sport and high performance ones like the 250s (Suzuki, Kawi, and Honda) Banshee, Quadzilla. Thanks.

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95 Warrior 95 XR250 97 Kodiak

 

Always pay attention, most manufactures recommend replacing pistons every 30 hours of run time, if you race its probably sooner. That may be a little overkill, you should be able to replace the rings (which is cheap, the cost of rings, gaskets, and cylinder hone) maybe 3-4 times before a piston is needed, if caught in time anyway. If you let the rings get too warn out and the piston starts to get loose, it may end up needing bored if run too long in that condition. One way to tell if new rings are in order is to know how the engine should sound, if you begine hearing a little extra rattle from the piston, new rings are needed. Also feel the compression in the kick starter and listen as you slowly crank the engine over, if you hear and feel the copression drop faster that is should, then you may need rings. When all else fails get a compression tester and check. If it's below the recommended copression, put new rings or piston in if needed.

Also if you think that because its a 2-stroke and not a 4-stroke that the crankcase oil doesn't need to be changed all that often, not so. The life of your gears, bearings, and the clutch depends on fresh non-contaminated oil. Contaminated oil can actually change the molecular structure of the gears, or any other metal, making them more brittle.

Hope this helps,

Sickman

 

I have a buddy who is a mechanist and makes parts for high preformance snowmobiles and quads. He say to replace the piston at least once a year. But if you race alot that you would probably need to replace it more than that. Another buddy has a 500r quadzilla and he said he wasn't going to worry to much about it. Then last Sunday we were riding along and his motor seized up. He said maybe the mechanist knew what he was talking about.
Mike