Run forever is one thing. Anything will run forever if taken care of. Run like new in a 2 stroke is impossible because the top ends have to rebuilt every year. So in essence it's a new engine every year. Maybe if you're not racing it (in competition) you would never see the maintenance that's required after every single race that you don't do to a 4 stroke. Yes they are good engines and make tons of power. But the reliability of a 2 stroke CANNOT match that of a 4 stroke.

 

Just what makes you think your two stroke needed to be rebuilt every year?

Very true, a two stroke has less than half the parts of a 4 stroke. Half the parts to break, because they arn't there too break.

 

If you ask me I prefer 4 stroke because they dont require as much work. I think they will last longer too. But if i was to ever start racing i would most likely choose a 2 stroke over a 4 stroke.

 

I guess it depends on who is riding it and who is maintaining it. If you want to talk about race engines, well than of coarse your going to have to rebuild them often. Especially if your a pro or even a semi pro (lol) and running the **** out of your engine for a day/days at a time than you will most likely engine will require a rebuild or refresh after every race. Although, most rebuilds (talking race engines here) are more of a refreshment done to keep engine performance optimal to keep up with the constant power demand. But if your just messing around in the dunes or blazin some trail than I think you could squeeze some serious life out of the machine, 2 or 4 stroke.

In addition, if you compare the cost to rebuild a 450r, or any four stroke 450 motor out there for that matter, your looking at some serious money, several hundred if not close to $1,000. I can rebuild my 250r for a couple hundred bucks. But I still think they are both good machines. Just my 2 cents...

 

lol i use to race motox on my 1995 yz 250 that i had for over 10 years plus tons of trail riding.i put 3 pistons & rings in that bike it never had a lick of problems. the pistons were put in before the bike ever blew up.heres a couple pics

 

EPA and other organism are responsible. 10 years ago, we were ready for clean 2 stroke. A 2 stroke with sealed crank bearing, elentronic direct fuel injection, powervalve and oil injection is very, very clean. It doesn't spit unburned fuel (wich was the pleague of 2 strokes and the main pollution problem) and produce less Greenhouse Gas Emissions because of the cooler combustion. However, they hammered the industrie with the NO 2 STROKES very hard, wich yielded into the stop of the clean 2 strokes engine in favor of new 4 strokes. However, in the sled industries, 4 strokes aren't doing miracles as they promised. 2 strokes is so much lighter and compact that in the end, the clean 2 strokes are cleaner than the 4 strokes. I hope we'll see the return of the 2 strokes in dirt bike and ATV's

 

Loss of compression, loss of power, mostly the top end being worn out but a few piston wear issues. I took the engine completely apart and fully rebuilt it after every season. And during the season 4 or 5 times I rebuilt the top end. I guess if you're not racing every single weekend it would last longer. But for me the 2 stroke was more of a hassle than it was worth. I'm running a Honda 450 4 stroke now and have less than a quarter of the maintenance than any one of my Honda, Suzuki, and Yamaha 2 strokes ever required.

My point exactly. In my experience it is not worth the hassle. For me, I never would compete in a race without a race engine. It would be pointless to do so.

 

The new 4 strokes make power almost everywhere in the RPM range. The 2 strokes had a narrow power band range. The new 4's are awesome.

 

Sprayedgt: My point exactly. In my experience it is not worth the hassle. For me, I never would compete in a race without a race engine. It would be pointless to do so.

Point being though, no matter what you running the **** out of it, 2-stroke or 4-stroke your going to wear it faster... 2-stokes such as the 250r, Quadzilla, and Banshee are still great motors, they are race legends!

 

Something was up with this deal. They sound like they wern't built correctly from the get go. When I hear piston wear issues I think not built correctly. Maybe not tuned correctly.

I've owned two strokes and 4 strokes all my life and have never had wear issues like your talking about. One of my blowers runs about an hour on a tank of gas. We run it for about 8 hours a day WOT for a week. It's about 10 years old and still runs like new and leaks down like new.

I have used outboards, that run WOT for hours. Never rebuilt them. Never leaked them down though. Never any power issues.