I have a 2002 honda 250ex that when its cold or not hot yet the valves tick really bad!! when the bike is hot it sounds perfect..the only thing i can think of is when the oil gets thin the valves stop ticking..does this sound like an oil pump problem..or....???? the valves were adusted and it made it worse..?? please help

 

What weight oil are you running and what brand? Is it perhaps to "heavy"? The newer owner's manual (exact same engine, no changes), specs 10W40 for warm weather, 10W30 for cooler, and 5W30 for the cold. There is no 20W40 or 20W50 or any of the heavier oils spec'd anymore!

Another thing that might help, is to run an ester synthetic oil. These oils have huge advantages over petroleum oils, because they are much thinner at startup than petroleum oil, yet protect much better after they are hot.. Yes you can have the best of both worlds....good pumpability at startup and good protection at running temperature, but these oils are expensive!

My preference is Redline MC oil, but I also highly recommend Maxima. I run Redline 10W40 in summer and 10W30 in our mild winters, and Maxima 530MX if we go to the mountains where it is really cold.

As for the oil pump, it has no oil filter, but have you ever cleaned the strainer or the oil cleaner centrifuge???? The centrifuge is supposed to get cleaned every 200 hours, and this is something that everybody ignores! If it is an 02, good chance you have 200 hours on it by now.....

Another possibility is worn valve guides, worn valves, worn cam, etc. Has it ever been run with an air filter that was neglected???

 

Check the lash again.

 

yes when i bought it it had a uni filter that way white it had so much dust in it..very dry..as for the oil i put in 10w30 atv oil and it helped the ticking at start up a little..it starts ticking then stopes for like 2 seconds then comes back...and it has WAY over 200 Hours..where is the oil strainer??? oh and my friend said in his honda 250ex manuel it says not to use sinthetic oil becasue of the kind of clutches we have......

Also this might help... the oil pump shaft that runs from one side of the pump to the other has in and out play. (if that matters)???

 

No mention of synthetic in the owner's manual. It does mention no Castor based...

I have run one ester synthetic or another in the dozen Honda's I have owned for the last dozen years....every one still runs like the day it was new!!!

 

ok....well what about the oil stariner and the oil pump shaft play?

 

maby some pics will help.....the strainer and screen are circled..
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and the oil pump assembly is less than$ 40.00
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