I have recently bought an 04 sportsman 700 an embarked an an all weekend ride this past weekend everything began fine untill i noticed that my exaust was cherry red i thought ok i didnt think that this was that big of a deal and didnt think nothing of it. later that night it started to over heat so i stopped and let it cool i added some water because it boiled some antifreeze out and thats all i had available and again i thought this wasnt that big of a deal i had been riding all day pretty hard so i shrugged it off. the next day i noticed i had an exaust leak down by the manifold where the dognut gasket is then i started noticing that it wasnt quite running right at slow speed when i wasnt on the gas that much but seemed to go fine when i was about half throtle or more. It also would backfire once in a wile when doing some high speed road traveling when i let off the gas to slow down. any ideas at all is it all related to my leak wich has gotten alot worse and the worse that sounds the more it did all of these things can you guys help me??

 

sounds like it running way to lean. any airbox mods or aftermarket air filter? what about a aftermarket exhaust? pull the spark plug to see what it looks like. should be a nice tanish color. if its white/ashy looking then its running lean. need to adjust carb to fix it

 

all it has is a k&n air filter the rest is stock will check plug and let you know what i find out

 

also when was the last time the valves were adjusted?

 

Maybe the muffler is clogged up.

 

Just a thought........Replace the exahust gasket and torque pipe mounting bolts to spec. 4 stroke motocross bikes are notorious for backfiring and running lean when the exhaust to pipe connection is loose.

 

little while ago noticed that my 04 700 was causing the header to get cherry red it got so hot it burnt out the flange gasket I took carb apart and gave it good cleaning and it quit doing it. also repaired vac leak from valve cover to air box not sure whitch one did it but it though good luck..

 

actually i had that same hose fall off that one from the air box to the valve cover i repaired it after the pipe was cherry red and havent noticed if the pipe still gets red or not but it deffinately still overheats i pulled my plug and it wasnt white it was more of a brownish color also when i went to check the plug i noticed that it wouldnt idle it would for about a minute but then it would idle down and die out any ideas??

 

My buddies 700 glowed the y pipe after he leaned it out a bit.. never had overheating problems though... and a 700 has hydraulic lifters.. no adjusting needed.