Two questions here. I'm trying to figure out what happeded to my 95 xplorer 400. I was riding and it lost power, overheated and died and hasn't started since. I thought at first that maybe I had blown out my reeds, so I pulled everything apart and checked them and they turned out to ne just fine. But there was coolant inside the reed cage where it meets the carb. I pulled the reed cage and I found a small hole in it right inside from where that small coolant hose (is that what its supposed to be?) that hooks up to the reed cage. Is that hole supposed to be there? And if not, could it cause any real problems?

Secondly, when I had everything pulled apart I noticed that what I could see inside the block looked awfully dry. I stuck my fingers in there and I couldn't feel a trace of oil anywhere. I'm begining to wonder if my oil injection went out. I just realized that for the five months or so that I've had the quad I've never had to add oil. I haven't ridden it much, maybe a total of six or seven hours, so i don't know if that normal. I'd appreciate any help. Thanks.

 

Well the hose in question looks like a vent hose from the carb. The pump may well have failed but they are usually pretty reliable. It sounds like you may have a blown head gasket if you have coolant around your reed block. The injection systems don't use a whole lot of oil so if it was full when you bought it then you probably wouldn't have to have put oil in it yet. Pre-mix some oil and gas and see if it will run . Is the machine locked up or will it turn over?

 

I'm Thinking blown head gasket as well. But did it loose power because the head gasket went or did it overheat due to another mechanical problem causing the gasket to go from overheating. The only way to know for sure is to tear it apart. If it has never been rebuilt or it has been a while since the last rebuild then it's time.

 

My first thought was head gasket too, but it wasn't smoking at all and the only coolant I found was right near the hole in the reed cage. Is that hole supposed to be there? I can't see why it would. Plus I wasn't really low on coolant either. I think that I may go ahead and pull the head off and check everything out while its semi-apart, since it was overheating and lost power.

Scrama- so are you saying that its a good idea to rebuild it every so often no matter what? As far as I know its never been done. Is it possible to remove the head without pulling the whole top of the quad off? And what about the block? If I'm going to pull it all apart and replace the piston anyway I think I will go ahead and get it bored out.

But could both of those problems (heat and power loss) be caused by no oil getting into the engine? Seems to me that if there was no oil, then that would cause it to overheat and possibly loose power. Am I right there?

 

ok, quick question. Is that small hose supposed to be a vent or is it supposed to run coolant? It goes from the left side of the reed cage to down to the block, about 4 inches or so. The bolt holding it to the reed cage has a hole running straight through it. If its supposed to be a vent, then I definatly have a blown gasket somewhere.

Also, is that little hole supposed to be on the inside of the reed cage or not? It doesn't look like it, but I have no idea. Its directly inside from where that hose I meantioned connects. I posted some pics of the hose in my profile.

 

that is your oil injector hose. the thing it runs to is your oil injector. i'm not sure how to tell if its working or not. if you didn't put oil in it for six months my guess is you ran it dry and burnt up the motor.

 

oops forgot you said you've only rode it for seven hours. you should have used a fair amount of oil in seven hours. did it drop any from the time you bought it till now?

 

I don't think that the oil level has dropped any. If it has its not much. I traced the hose that goes from the oil reservior down to the bottom front of the engine. This other hose that attaches to the reed cage comes from the back of the engine. Is there an oil passage through the block that connects them? It kinda makes sense I guess, if it mixes the oil directly with the gas at that point. If thats the case then there is definatly a blown gasket. There doesn't seem to be any oil mixed in with the coolant though.

Hmm, so maybe my oil injection isn't working anymore, and it caused pressure to build up in my engine, causing it to overheat and blow the gasket. Is that what I'm looking at? I can't say for sure, but I'm pretty sure it isn't frozen. When I did try to start it there was some compression pulling in from the air box.

Can I pull this thing apart without taking the entire top of the quad off?

 

I just looked at the coolant in that line. Its bright green, but seems thicker than coolant, and there is an odd smell to it, so who knows, maybe there is oil in there. In that case then why did the gasket blow? Doesn't really matter I guess. Looks like I'm going to tear it apart, and I may just end up bypassing the oil injection to be safe, unless anyone knows a way to test it.

 

ok, i looked at my 97 and the line comes off the lower left hand side of the reed cage then runs through a cable holder with the ground cable for the battery then runs behind the back of the clutch case and out the other side and into the top of the oil injector. it probably just looks like it goes into the back side of the cylinder. it should look like a blueish green color. i'm not positive but if it quit working there would probably still be oil in the line becuase the weight of the oil in the tank and the line going to the injector wouldn't let the oil in the line going to the reed cage drain backwards. somebody correct me if i'm wrong here, and let him know how to check it. if you have access to a compression tester you pull the plug out screw the compression tester line into the spark plug hole hold the throttle open and hit the starter. let it crank about 5 times. you should have around 110, 115 max. i'd say if there's coolent in the reed cage you've got at least a blown head gasket and the compression test isn't neccesary. are you sure it's coolant and not injector oil?