has anyone put an xr650l engine in a 400ex frame. if so how did it run and how much work? im dying to do this conversion i seen a warrior with this done and he was spanking raptors very bad thanks any replies will be helpful

 

There are a fair number of these around. I will try to find you a link. Try www.off-road.com they had pics of one (a desert racer) a while back. I know guys who have ridden the bike they featured, and they said it was geared strictly for top end and had nothing at all on the bottom.

 

Check in with East Coast ATV and see what they say or even Four Stroke Tech.

 

i have been wondering the same thing..im either going to use that motor or get a cr500 engine balanced so i can use that. can anyone tell us?

 

I talked to Ken at RockyRidge Racing he has done the conversion, he uses the xr650r liquid cooled motor he says they are awesom machines. It's better to buy the whole motorcycle and then send him the motor and he will weld the brackets for you and powder coat the frame, he can do anything you want him to do. As soon as I find an xr650r for a decent price i'm gonna go for it.

Thanks,
Mike

 

You gotta watch Ken at Rocky Ridge. Don't beleive anything he tells you about a time frame or getting the powdercoating done.

I contacted him about doing some work for me. I sent him a frame in August 2000 to get an RX conversion done. He swore up and down to me that if I didn't get the motor in right, it would throw the chain when the suspension compressed. He assured me that with his conversion, it would not come off. He also said I would have it back in two weeks fully powdercoated. Six months of constant excuses (he already had my money), and he finally sent the frame back- with NO powdercoat!!! Guess what? When I sat on the finished quad, the chain got WAY loose!!! You can already forsee what happened every time I rode it. I did fix the problem by tightening the chain as tight as it would go when there was no weight on the quad, and by modifying the swingarm to hold a chain guide.

The comical thing is I had a guy that wanted to do the conversion for me for $50. I didn't trust him and after talking to Ken, he made me feel like the chain would come off if this guy did it. This guy has now done numerous conversions and he did an RX for my buddy. The frame he did for him worked perfect.

I realize that this is back in 2000-2001 and Ken may have gotten his act together. I will never recommend him to anybody though.

 

It sure would be nice if Honda started making one themselves. I just don't understand why they don't. Hopefully, they've got something planned, they must be getting tired of getting their butts kicked on showroom floors all across the country. The 400EX is a great bike, and it's competitive with just about anything in the right hands, but most riders can go a heck of a lot faster on a Raptor, LT-Z, Predator, or DS!

 

i bet that would be a real potent machine cause the xr motor hase awesome torque and is very fast my dad has a 91 and it is unreal