I spent my whole weekend tearing down my 96 Sportsman 500 to replace the head gasket. I've had oil in the coolant and coolant in the oil. Got it all torn down, swapped in the new gasket, and reassembled. Well when I filled it up with fluids the first time, it was still blowing white steam and the fluids were mixing. So I drained the radiator, oil, and crankcase and refilled them. After that, no more steam so I finished putting things back together and loaded it up to take it home. When I made it home, I unloaded it, drove it 50 yards down the road, and it started steaming again.

So do I need to tear this thing down again and have the head checked? When I had it off, we put a flat scale on it and couldn't get a .003 feeler gauge under it anywhere so we assumed it wasn't warped.

The bike only has 1000 original miles and was garage kept so it's in really good shape otherwise. I want to try and do the work myself because I'm sure this would be a multiple hundreds of dollars job at any shop and I don't know how smart it is to dump that much into something that old.

Thanks for any opinions

Jason

 

Welcome to the forum!If you've gotten this engine hot in the past it could have a warped cylinder not just the head. Have a good machine shop check both for any warpage, plus if you can get any feeler gauge under .003 to slide under the head you still might have problems! Unless you have an absolute flat surface you may not be able to check the head and cylinder this way accurately. Machine shops can find this pretty quickly. PLUS you must bleed the air out of the coolant system when all is back together by leaving the radiator cap off and usually helps if you jack the front end of the atv up to help with the air purging. Also proper head torque is critical: Four main head bolts first tighten to 22 foot pounds,then 51 foot pounds, then loosen 180 degrees (1/2 turn),then loosen 1/2 turn again,then torque to 11 foot pounds,the tighten 90 degrees (1/4 turn),the a final 1/4 turn. The two 6mm head bolts torque at 6 foot pounds.This helps to seat the head gasket properly. OPT

 

I followed that exact torque sequence from my clymer manual. How much do you think a shop would charge to do the work? I looked at new heads and they are close to $500.

 

I.don't know much about this kind of bike but my ex had that happen to his can am and it was ended up being a waterpump seal. Could that even be a possibility on your model?