When I ride for about 30 minutes the engine gets hot and you can hear the valves start ticking. I'm using the recommended oil in it but I'm wondering if I should change weights of oil since there are a few miles on it.

What weight should I use on this thing?

 

stick with 10-40 and make sure your oil cooler isnt caked up with mud. All years of the 350 has lots of valve train noise, even more with an aftermarket camshaft!

 

Ok that makes me feel better. Should it get really hot though? I guess it would since I don't do much high speed stuff. Mostly technical hill climbs and low speed stuff. Has anyone ever put a fan on the backside of the oil cooler?

 

my 350 big bear has a tick in the top end that gets louder as the engine warms up. its nothing to worry about. as long as that red light that says oil temp doesnt come on, im not worried.

 

I used to be a mechanic but I've never worked on ATV's before. So when I hear valves ticking it worries me. Makes me think that they're not getting the protection they're supposed to. I guess I need to put my experience with cars behind me and just learn to ignore the chatter. Thanks!

 

Check my profile and look at my wolverine, if you look just above the headlights you will see the new oil cooler I put on it. Its accually an aftermarket transmission oil cooler I bought at autozone for $30. I also bought 6ft of oil cooler hose there too for like $8, and mounted it up top so it would stay out of the mud. It works great for me, even with the high compression big bore kit and the hot cam. I have never had it over heat since the oil cooler upgrade.

 

Heres a closeup shot of oil cooler

http://i289.photobucket.com/al...orsports/oilcooler.jpg

 

I'm sure the extra fins in your application help cool the oil but I can't help but wonder, moving it up where the air doesn't actually flow through it properly, wouldn't that defeat the purpose of upgrading? In the stock location you get good air flow through the cooler. On your mod you would only get air flow over top of the outside...not through. You would be better off with the bigger cooler in the stock location.

 

I thought about that and accually installed a 4" box fan on the back thats wired to a 180 thermostat. I figured it wouldnt get enough air flow, but the only time the fan came on was once when i was bad stuck, and it idled for 10min with no airflow. The fan ran for about 3 min after I started riding and went off and has not came back on since. I still occasionally flip the manual switch on the fan to make sure it still works though. So I guess what airflow it gets is plenty enough. I know it sure wasnt getting much with the stock cooler in the stock loction, directly behind the winch.

 

Well cool. Looks like you've done some great work on it. Seems to be working good. Wanna work on mine? LOL