hi my name is duston i am completely new to fourwheelers and know nothing at all about them, yesterday i boufght a 1999 honda trx 300EX for 600$ from a local guy here in town, it has some problems he did not tell me about that i wold like help with and know what to do about them, it dont have a battery and the starter is bad on it so he said i have to puch start it which is no biggie for me, he said he just changed the oil in it last week, so i got it home i push started it and drove it for about 5 minutes then took it into my grandpas garage to look it over and check it out, i noticed it had no oil in it(BONE DRY) so i put oil in it and went back out to ride it and now it smokes but it didnt smoke the first time i rode it, what wold this problem be and how bad is it? reminder i know NOTHING about atv's as this is my very first one any and all help wold be greatly appreciated,( should i still be able to ride it or should i stop riding it now since its smoking when i push heavy on the throttle)? thanks in advance

 

Welcome to the forum.

Running it without oil you likely messed up the piston rings, and probably the oil pump. If you got it for $600 and it's still running, if the smoke isn't too bad I might consider just riding it.

 

Your first mistake was taking to the word of the local guy , one of the first thing's the owners manual tell's you to do is check the engine oil level before and and everytime you start the engine ; even on a new atv that has been prepped by the dealership you bought it from even they some time's forget to check the oil before a sale !

Especially if it's not a showroom floor model , **it happen sometimes with the best of them who hire highschool student's to help uncrate the quads for the final assembly of the new one's !

The good new's is that if the engine didn't seize up the engine might not have been damage , it could be possible that you overfilled the crankcase whe you added the oil ; you can try to drain oil and see how much oil drain's out and check for metal filings by sticking your finger in the oil that you drained out in the drain pan and rub your finger's together to see if there are an exccessive amount of aluminum filing in the oil !

Then find out just how much oil the engine hold's there not alot of metal filing's in the drained oil , and also change the oil filter because if there are even just a little filing in the drained oil you will some trapped in the oil filter ; good luck i hope you didn't burn the ring's and do to much damage good luck and welcome to the forums !...........

 

thanks for the help and advice guys i greatly appreciate it, it does have an oil leak but its not bad about a silver dollar size spot overnight, i was searching the forums and ran across a post talking about putting seafoam in with the oil and running it for about 5 or 10 minutes then draining the oil and replacing the oil and filter then pouring some in the gas when riding it, i dont know if this is a safe thing to do or if it would further hurt the engine, i have heard of putting it in the gas but i never heard of mixing it in with the oil and then changing the oil and filter after 10 minutes of riding. any info on this subject would help

 

ghettodawg

What benifit did you read others got from adding seafoam, and draining and replacing the oil again?

Seems from what I read, you would be wasting you money as it will likely not fix your atv's issues.

Maybe a thicker oil could help

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: trailbuzzer

ghettodawg



What benifit did you read others got from adding seafoam, and draining and replacing the oil again?



Seems from what I read, you would be wasting you money as it will likely not fix your atv's issues.



Maybe a thicker oil could help</end quote></div>
this is word from word what the post said about the seafoam,"sometimes with old engines with crudded up combustion chambers have stuck rings. so the rings will sometimes line up and you get oil burning. seafoam apparently cleans this freeing up the rings." so im thinking since this is an older engine it might have stuck rings due to its age and or abuse if any. or due to lack of oil changes.

 

Thats a great price you paid, and a 99 aint old at all! Heck i just bought a '87.

 

Getto
I'm kinda thinking you likely have excessive ring wear, but I suppose its worth a try, as you might not have alot to lose.

 

hey ghetto, i hope yours doesent have a twist throttle. my first atv was a 250x and it did and it brought me near death a few times. i was used to a thumb throttle from other peoples atvs' i had ridden before i got mine and the twist definitely took learning to control. i could have made some money if i videoed some of my goofy spills.

 

My old 250x has the thumb throttle, and i'd love a twisty! Any idea where i can find one?