Hey gang. First time on here. Qustion is: My buddy sank his Foreman and it runs but it smokes like crazy. He has changed the oil 5 or six times but I don't think he has changed the filter yet. Any suggestions on what may be wrong?

 

Sounds like sand and or mud in the engine, changing the oil doesn't get it all out. If it ran long enough to start smoking, the damage is done. Remove engine and make sure to totally disasemble, not just a ring job. Will probably need boring, perfect time for a big bore kit.

 

^ Agreed, been there, done that.. Dont forget the oil cooler. It traps dirt and sand like crazy. Easier just to buy a new one. Oil cooler that is, not bike

 

If he didn't change the oil filter then he didn't get all the water out of the engine ! I sank my cousin's Suzuki LTF4WD 250 Quad Runner when we were riding double , and it was job just getting it out of the creek we were over a half mile down the creek when this happened ; and i don't have leg's below the knee's ! I lost them in 1975 in an autombile accident so let's just say it took a long time to get back to the truck , and then go to my house to get my Honda and hookup a truckbed trailer to go back and pull his Suzuki out of the creek and get them back home ; so i could dry out his quad and get it running again ! It took me all day cleaning and drying everthing up but i got it going , the main thing is not to run the engine untill you get all the water out and everything is dry before you try to run the engine ; I removed the gas tank and flushed it out with acetone , and i took the oil filter out and put the cap back on without the oil filter ; i took the spark plug out and left it out untill i was through flushing the engine ! And i used kerosine to flush the water from the engine ! Then i removed the carburator and cleaned it out , and on the engine flush with the oil plug in i filled the crankcase with kerosine untill it start's coming out the sparkplug hole ; then remove the oil drain plug and let it drain all the kerosine from crankcase ! Then i started pouring the kerosine through the crankcase with the drain plug out , i did this about 3 or 4 time's then i poured acetone through the crankcase about the same as i did with the kerosine ; then i put the oil drain plug back in and filled it to the full mark with good oil ! Then i put a tablespoon of good oil into the sparkplug hole , and put an old sparkplug in and slowly begain to turn the engine over with the starter pull rope to allow the oil to lubricate the cylinder wall and piston and ring's and lower end of the crankcase ; then i drained the oil from the crankcase again ! I repeated this filling the crankcase with oil 3 time's untill there was no sign of water in the oil , after all this was done i put a new oil filter in and refilled the crankcase with oil ; then after cleaning the carburator i put it back together ! Cleaned and reoiled the air filter , cleaned the airbox put it back together and on the Quad ; removed the sparkplug and turned the engine over again using the starter pull rope ! Then i sprayed some gas into the cylinder and installed a new sparkplug , and finished off the gas tank by pouring some acetone into the gas tank and shaking it up all around the tank ; and poured all the access acetone from the tank and let it air dry ! It's doesn't take over a munite or two for the acetone to dry out a fuel tank , and then in reinstalled the fuel tank put the seat back on and it was ready to fire up the engine ; when i started the engine it smoked for about 3 minute's and stopped smoking and was running as good as new ! ........ The main thing to remember when you drown a quad out like this , is to not start and run the engine untill you get everything dryed out and new oil and oil filter as well as the air filter and a new sparkplug are installed ! If he didn't run the engine while there were dirty water in it everything will be ok if you follow the instruction's just as i gave them to you in this reply your engine will run again , it may smoke a little but it will clear up if he didn't run the engine with dirty water in the oil ; i know from experence that you can clean them out and get them going again ! Only if he ran the quad with dirty water in the engine will it be ruined , if he didn't run it with dirty water it will be fine ! .................

 

That may work good too, it might get all the water out. But its not the water that messes up the engine. Its the mud and/or sand that eats up the rings and bearings. Your not likely to get all of it out just by flushing it. Unless your lucky.

 

Well 03fabulousforman i guess i was lucky 2 time's then , because it was in 1989 when i sank my cousin's 1989 Suzuki LTF4WD Quad Runner ; and it's was still purring like a kitten in 1993 when he sold it to his nefew right after he bought a 1993 Suzuki LTF4WD 300 King Quad just 2 week's before the blizzard of 1993 ! And it was still running when i serviced and adjusted the valves on the 1989 Suzuki LTF4WD back in the spring of this year 2007 , and i was lucky in 2001 when a freind got drunk and backed his 1992 Polaris Sportsman 500 into a cattle pond on his farm ; and he left it in the pond over night before pulling it out of the pond ! It took me over 6 month to get the Polaris going because he let 3 or 4 people try to get it running , and when he did remember that was a small engine machanic for over 20 yrs ; we had to track down the part's that were scattered around 3 or 4 different location's ! But once i got all the part's together it took me 3 day's to finish the job , and it this long to check out the electrical system just to find out it had a bad coil wire that cost $3.00 to replace ; he gave me $100.00 to start and it took so long for him to find the part's that when i got it going and took it back to his truck shop he told he bought a new 2004 Polaris SP 700 ! And the last time i saw him at the shop he told me that the old 500 was still going strong , he still uses it on the farm the haul hay and grain to feed the cattle and 3 horses at the farm ; and he only uses the 2004 SP 700 for pleasure so i guess you can say i way lucky 2 time's ! And remember i said that if he didn't try to run the engine before everything is flushed out of engine and forgot to mention the draining the diff oil's and there was 4 differant types of fliud's to i had to flush on the Polaris counting brake fluid and 3 differant fluid's on the Suzuki counting brake fluid ! ................

 

could be a blown head gasket. the oil could be leaking by the lifter vally in to the cylinder.