Just wondering - - the older engines (200, 250, 300's) were pretty much Timex material (takes a lickin' but keeps on tickin') , but the newer engines just can't seem to digest anything that gets into the oil system - why is this??

 

Please expound???? What models specifically. No problems here! My engines last FOREVER.

 

Sorry for the confusion - the "sideways" engines like the 250 Recon, 350 Rancher, 400 & 450 Foreman - the "traditional" style engines like in the 400ex are still pretty reliable.

I'm averaging 3-4 "sideways" smokey hondas a month through my shop, and learned a long time ago that if you don't split the case and clean the crud out of the bottom end, the new set of rings won't last 5 hours riding time - I'm just curious because I'm not having to do all this to the other makes

 

Smoking is common on the 400ex as well.

 

I have an 03 honda foreman 450 that's start'n to smoke.

Were these repairs coverd under the Honda warranty? Just curious, I hope I don't have to find out that the repairs are not warranty when I take it in.

BTW, mine is flooding and washing the cylinder, so it's just sitting with the gas turned off right now.

 

utilitys are not submarines......water does alot! just my opinion

 

my dad picked up 2 old old old honda 50cc trail bikes when i was like 2 and a half 3ish and all he had to do was change the rings and they worked fine for a good 8 years after that and the guy that sold them said he was a volvo mechanic and there was no way to fix them and then 15 minutes after he bought it we went for a little ride past his house lol

 

I submerged my rancher multiple times, one oil change each time. I probably only did 2 regular scheduled oil changes in the 3 years I owned it, and put a lot of miles on it. The engine was bulletproof and still ran great. Other friends with this atv have had similar experiences. My family in TN has 3 ranchers and a recon and they take worse care of their hondas than I do and they all run like tops.

Guess Not all of us are having the same experiences.

 

I have not heard of any ring problems at all. As for myself, I have 4 bikes with the "sideways" engines. All have quite a few miles on them, especially the Recon. No smokers, and compression is good on all of them. Must be hot, humid, Texas weather!

 

I've watched the Honda forum for quite a while now, trying to see if anybody was having this problem elsewhere - not even a search proved up anything.

I was kind of leaning toward the water issue with our "sugar" sand that is so predominant around here, but you would think that would affect the other makes and the older Honda engines like the 200 and 300 as well.

An '03 Foreman I did last week had over a cup of "goo" I scraped out of the bottom end - and it had noticable "sugar" sand in it.