Please help!! I recently bought a 2004 Kawasaki Prairie 700 V-Twin and its smoking (white) and makes a knocking sound that gets louder when you rev it. Im trying to find out what i need to replace and where to start. I paid 700 and im praying its not going to cause me an arm and a leg to fix it. I can take it to the shop but cant afford to pay that kind of money they would want to fix it if it something simple like a ring or seal (if you know what i mean) plus im out of work for a couple months and figured this could be a nice keep me busy project. Please help me!! Have a blessed one people!!

 

Try to work out which cylinder is knocking and remove both head and cylinder, it will probably have seized and freed off. Check cylinder and piston for marks and measure both for wear. Work out if you need a re-bore and new pistons or just new rings. Fit new valve guide seals when rebuilding. A workshop manual is invaluable for giving sizes and torque settings. If it needs a re-bore you should do both cylinders. If it is water cooled, white smoke can indicate a blown head gasket, if so, that cylinder head and cylinder top will need to be flat before fitting back together.

 

Hi!! Thanks for the reply. I haven't got down to taking the motor apart yet but i know the knocking is coming from the front. How do i know if it needs re-bore? You also said if it does i need to change both cylinders. Are you talking front and back? Yes the bike is water cool. The cylinder and cylinder top your talking about would need to be flatten. Would that be the front one? Or can i just replace cylinders and skip checking for wear? Can you maybe give me a list of things i might want to get. Im just going back with new stuff. I have the book on the mechanic work for it. Im just green at this but believe i can get it done. Thanks again for your reply!! Hope you can help me more!! Have a blessed day and my God bless you!!

 

Bad scratches on the piston and bore indicate seizure. The book will tell you what size the piston and bore should be. If the bore is over the max diameter or so badly scored that honing won't take them out without going over the max, you need either a re-bore or new cylinder. If the back cylinder is OK it may be cost effective to just fit a new front cylinder rather than boring both cylinders and fitting two new oversize pistons. If the bore isn't too badly scored, but the piston undersize you will just need the new piston and rings. If the head and/or cylinder faces are not flat they would need skimming. This raises compression so should, theoretically, be done to both cylinders but I would take the minimum off and hope. You need to take a look before getting too involved in speculation about what you may require.