MGM,

Thanks for the response. My first wiseco suffered a mild seizure, whether it was a cold seizure or not I don't know. I'm on my second, with it set up right with RCR, and have hopes that it will last a long time. If it doesn't hold up well, I may go back to a stock piston since the only engine mod is the milled head. I just like to know if any people have problems with the stock pistons w/o any mods. If you were running the oil injection when sinking the bike, it was real bad on the piston. My understanding is that the oil injection is great, but if you sink the bike, water washes off the oil film on the cylinder, and the injection doesn't replace it quick enough to prevent rapid engine wear. That's one reason I now run premix. With the premix, the oil is mixed with the fuel, and replenishes the oil film between the piston and cylinder quickly. I've run Amsoil 80:1 since I got my quad back together, and have not fouled a plug yet. It will still die if I let it idle over a couple minutes, but it did that even with the injection. It smokes more at idle with the premix, but not bad. Right now, I'm guessing I've got 30 hours on my recent rebuild, as we've been riding a whole lot lately. Sorry for rambling.

Waylan

 

how much does the swain tech cost???

 

who here has the highest mileage on a 400 liquid cooled??after miles start racking up what troubles seem to appear???tbesides tierod ends/brake pads/chain and cogs..

 

I have 5300 miles on my 99 Xplorer. The front brakes & tie rods wore out at about the same time, and were the first things worn out. The rear brakes for me seemed to last a little longer. The belt went 4600 or 4800 miles, can't remember which, and might still be going if I would have given better directions to someone about using low range going through snow in 4-wd instead of hi. (I thought they would know better).
Chain & sprockets are still going (barely) at 5300 miles (I am VERY picky about lubing the chain & greasing), and the rear tires are about bald, but are holding air.
At 5200 miles, I thought I started to hear the piston going 'knick, knick, knick' at idle, so I got a Wiseco piston .020 oversized & had the cylinder honed by RCR.
Oh, and I replaced the headlight bulb on the pod right around 5000 miles.
Other than that, it seems to just keep on a goin'.
My riding style includes about everything but deep mud, if that makes any difference.
People might say I have replaced a lot of things in those miles, and others wonder how it went so far, but compared to the machines I had before, it seems to be holding up about as good. I do enough low-speed work with my machines, I never had a Honda 4-wheeler yet that wore out the rear tires without at least $1200 worth of engine work. (No more air-cooled engines on any new ATV I buy). To it's credit, the Honda has given me no problems now that I just use it for running around, and use the Xplorer for the work.

 

How much noticable difference is there in your machine after all of the listed mods?

 

Just a note about the Wiesco's....they are a forged piston as opposed to a cast stock piston. A forged piston expands more when it gets hot and should therefore be installed with more clearance than a cast piston. This is also why a Wiesco is prone to cold seizure....they must be warmed up properly before you throttle it.

 

DaveB,

Yes, this is true. Because the grain structure of the metal is alligned during the forging process the piston will expand more from side to side than the stock cast piston. However, if you bore the cylinder more than the .0037" that they reccomend, you will get piston slap and more than likely cause a seizure from the build up of aluminum on the cylinder walls. The best way to get around this is to go with a Swaintech coated piston. They use a creamic coating on the top that keeps the piston from building heat up too fast and seizing to the cylinder walls. This along with their Poly-Moly side coating makes sure it won't scuff the cylinder walls.