Is there fuel making it to the carb?

 

I think the little choke **** is for "winter" and "summer". You pull it out for one season and push it in for the other. Essentially the **** is a stop so you can only use half-choke in the summer.

Also, I doubt there would be too little compression to run. I've seen these engines have so little compression that the kicker would just about fall under its own weight, yet the engine ran excellent (minus the cloud of smoke out the back). I think you'd have to have a big hole in the piston to make it not run.

I would check the intake valve lash first thing. Just make sure there IS lash, get it running, then worry about setting it to the .001-.003 inch clearance. If there is no lash, the intake valve is open all the time, which reduces compression and makes for hard cold starting. But even with the valve open all the time, it will run pretty well. Just starting it is hard.

If the air filter is shotty, then I would be looking at that intake valve for certain. It's extremely important to have a good, well-oiled, foam air filter. (I don't care much for K&N paper filters).

I think the stock compression is right around 9:1, so ideally there should be good resistance in the kicker.

 

I don't think you need to worry about compression, but what I did was bust up an old spark plug and thread my connector into that with some teflon tape.

Once you get it running, if it smokes, then your rings are bad. These engines are notorious for smoking.

 

Only reason I was worried about compression was that a Honda 110 atc I had a few years ago had low compression and after a hone and a set of rings it ran like a top. It's possible I inadvertently fixed some other issue in the process that the low compression wasn't to blame for the no start...

Anyways. How's your 230 these days?

 

The thing about the 230 is the long stroke, so even if it's leaking a bit by the rings, the long stroke still makes for good enough compression. At least that's my theory

Another way of putting it is the 230 has a small piston, so it has less ring to leak around. The stroke is longer than the bore is wide and that's unusual in atv engines. Most manufacturers opt for big pistons so they have room for 4 valves.

My 230? Still squeaking lol. And it's making some clattering noise. Not sure if it's dieseling or if the piston is finally smacking the head (due to me tightening the head studs over and over and over and squishing the gasket down). Or maybe it's the piston skirt slapping. I know the bore was a .001 too big according to the guys at the shop, but they told me to run it anyway.

 

I can't believe the power it's putting out though. I'm running 13/36 gears (and I thought I'd NEVER run a 13 front again) and it's simply not tall enough to slow it down. I can stand up and lean forward, then blip the gas from idle in 2nd and it stands straight up.... with a 4 inch swingarm extension and never touching the clutch lever!

I won't say the power is too much though It's just too much for this engine I think lol. I have a lakota with the same displacement, but the engine is twice bigger. The lakota weighs 450lbs. The quadsport weighs a lil over 300. Both are 280-ish cc.

 

I think the gasket may be leaking between the combustion chamber and the cam chain... on the little sliver of head surface that's left. I'm probably going to have to tear it down and look.

First, I need to pop the mag cover off and rock the crank back n forth to check for rod bearing slop. Praying I don't find any! If I do, this engine is junk.

If that checks out ok, then I'll pop the head off and see where the gasket is leaking and if the piston is hitting the head. Guess I'll go from there.

 

I'll go back and look at your pics but I'm guessing that's where the cylinder wall is the thinnest. It held up in that spot the first time though right? I'm guessing you don't want to spend the time rebuilding this one again.

 

Yeah it's thinner there and probably has less compressive force because it's in the middle of the head. I can't see a place from the outside where it would be leaking, so I'm thinking it's inside where I can't see it.

 

Hey everyone, just a little update. The rear end of the lt230 is done. I have elka shocks all the way around now. The top a-arms are powdercoated with the bearings installed. I'm waiting on ball joints from all ***** and for it to warm up to paint the frame and bolt stuff up.