ok i have a 2001 polaris explorer 400 2 stroker, i went on a 5 hour ride and was fine on way home bike over heated, made it home but now bike blows white smoke and i lose coolant bigtime.. i changed head gaskets but did not help, im not sure what or where to look now?????? coolant is coming out muffler and recoil area HELP PLEASE !!!! thanks

 

Sounds like you have a cracked head or warped so bad from you cooking it that the head gasket you installed is not thick enough to seal the engine. Do a compression test to see what you have left. The engine obviously still runs but not great I assume.

You have a major problem and it most likely will need a set of rings at the minimum and a pressure test to see if the head is cracked and possibly a magna flux of the head to see where the crack is located. If it is cracked you will have to replace it.

 

welcome to the forum. agreed w/ the above post as i think the head is toast(maybe and hopefully not worse). you never want to drive very far if at all an overheated bike as it dont take long to do the damage. you also need to find out why it over heated. fan not working, radiator plugged? good luck and let us know.

 

thanks guys , i think the rad got dirty from the ride , we were in pretty deep at times , my buddies brand new grizz was haveing same probs, except his is fine,, my bike starts and runs same as before just lose's all the coolant and it comes out the muffler and recoil side, when the red light did come on i stopped and let it cool and checked the coolant level and it was very low so i added some and continued home stopping 3 times in a course of 4 hours to add fluid, last year i did a complete rebuild of this bike , so do you think the rings are still bad ???, im taking the head off today and taking it to friend that has a lathe , thanks again

 

A compression test may tell you about the rings provided the head is OK and the head is not leaking but at present I think everything points to a cracked head. You may not have taken the rings out of it as it still starts but most 2 strokes will run until you get down to about 90 lbs compression. The smoke is the anti freeze in the cylinder burning so you have to fix one thing before you diagnose the other. You may have saved the bottom end but I would not say the same for the top end. At this point it is a good thing it is a 2 stroke and not so expensive to fix.

 

what do you mean it comes out the exhaust(is it running out or just smoking) and the same for the recoil side is it pouring out the water pump area?

 

I just went back and re-read his post and he talks about the coolant coming out the muffler and recoil side so I assume that it is running down the side of the engine and from underneath the head so it may be a head gasket and not much else. It will be interesting to see what he reports.

 

ok guys so i took the head off and did the whole test with a marker and 400 grit sand paper, nothing the head isnt warped and the gasket is brand new,, what i meant by coolant in muffler is that when i go to start it there is coolant coming out of the muffler pipe near the motor , there is no coolant on outside of motor its clean .so my next step it taking the cylinder off and checking the top of it to see if its warped , im buying new head studs and nuts too, one of the studs is brown and white like it has heated up//

 

If the head is not warped the odds of the cylinder being out of shape is small in my opinion. What does the top of the piston look like for color, brown or black or look like new as it is being washed?

From what you say, I still say you have a leak somewhere either in the gasket or somewhere in the head. Not enough heat to warp the sealing face where it bolts to the top of the cylinder but something is not right. Is the new gasket exactly like the other one and if you can no longer compare, does it cover the cylinder so that the anti freeze ports are matching to the gasket? Just looking for anything out of place as something is causing pressure. What about that water pump and does it drive with a belt or from a shaft, if a belt is there a way to see if it still goes around. Try turning the engine over by hand with the recoil to see if the pump turns.

The head bolts being a different color may be a clue if 3 are one color and the 4th is not. Don't think a base gasket can cause your problem but when you lift the cylinder be sure to pay attention to the sealing surface. With some high temp silicone you can probably re-use the base gasket. Don't think you need to spend money on new head bolts though. If you remove the one that is discolore you can polish it on a bench grinder with a wire brush and re-install it with proper torque and I think you will be good to go.

If you do pull the cylinder then look for cracks there around any ports or connections.

Anybody else got any ideas or suggestions?

 

what i dont understand is that when i turn over the bike, coolant starts to come out muffler pipe at motor, my thoughts are that its in the head somewhere for it to come out so quik...also i was told that the head bolts can stretch so thats why i figured for 30 bucks i can get all new studs and nuts for it ..as far as the recoil getting coolant in it , my thoughts are that its running threw the crank and passing the seal ??? oh and the bike is chain drive