Alrighhhttt,

I was buringing coolant (White smoke), so I decided to tear down the top end. I got down to the head gasket and decided to check the cylander. Everything looks clean no scratches or markings on the cylander, it is a 1997 Big Boss 400l with 4000 miles on it. The piston has a layer of black carbon on the top of it. I just wanted to consult all of you first. Should I just replace the head gasket and call it a day? Should I Mic it and replace the rings accordingly? Should I send it to Rick Ritter to have it bored and put a new piston in it - for long jevity? What do you think the wisest thing to do it?

Thanks,
HoopD

 

w/ that many miles, i would be doing the whole thing as its well worth it if your going to keep the bike. is the head gasket bad where you can see where the coolant was leaking into the cylinder? imo

 

I have a 98 400 2 stroke scram and it was doing the same thing. tore down and put new head gasket but didn't fix it. tore down further and found out water pump had been leaking into counter balancer oil and had been doing for awhile and ruined bearings and it was sucking the coolant/oil into the crank seal. in the process of redoing it now but can't find a puller for the clutch to get motor out. hopefully this isn't your problem because it's a little money to repair.

 

Im hoping its not down in the water pump, but we will see. Im going to have the cylander bored out and replace the gaskets. Just a quick question where is the oil valve gaskets on this machine? I have a repair manual coming, just looken at the engine a little closer.

Thanks for the responses,
Brad

 

not sure about that, but check the counterbalancer oil for sure to make sure its no tin there as i do remember reading the waterpump issues. maybe someone w/ more knowledge of them can can you better for sure. good luck.

 

I have a book on it so i'll look it up to see if yours is setup the same way. To check mine you just pull the counter oil drain plug for 1-2 secs to see what condition the oil is in and see if it's milky with antifreeze. another thing to look at is to check to see if you have air bubbles coming up into your radiator possibly when it's running. Mine did. but it's a 2 stroke not a 4 like yours with all the tranny fluid. now that i think about it your problem could be a cracked/warped head or cylinder or bad head gasket. I'll check the book and post back.

 

Can you smell burnt antifreeze from the exhaust?

 

Yea, I could smell the antifreeze but not to bad. The smoke was very white. I decided to tear it down and have all the gaskets replaced, this way I only have to do this job once instead of twice (Hopefully). Its a two stroke 400l, not the four stroke - I think it was just the head gasket because before the plugs were quite dark, now the plug looked very clean which I think the anti freeze made the plug wash look the this. Thanks for all the help, any way to get these nuts off of in the front? Whats the best way to retorqe them?

 

what nut's are you talking about?