Well mine ended up being I set my valve exhaust TDC instead of intake TDC so I had about 1/8th inch of lash lol. But then my chain tensioner was clicking but that was easy to sort. Thanks for the help man, this site and the vault are freaking awesome! By the way, she runs like a scalded dog now.

 

There are a couple guys on here that really know their stuff. But im not sure when they will chime in.

 

Yeah, the thread did turn out pretty good, didn't it?

Congrats for figuring out the knocking issue. That would be a good one for the vault.

 

Yeah it would be a good addendum to the vault on valve lash, atvman29 does a fine job explaining, but says TDC compression stroke which is the correct thing, but that could be a little clearer. I had read something from the knowledgeable JustRandy that said to watch the intake valve go down then up, then TDC. That was my AH-HA! moment. When I saw how loose the valves were I thought this has got to be it and when I kicked it, boy that sound or lack thereof, felt good. lol I have some pics of the build and the quad but I haven't figured out how to get them on here for you guys yet.

 

Yeah everything was going good after the build untill my head gasket started leaking. I have the cometic fiber/metal "good gasket". I torqued it in sequence to the 18 lbs. This seemed light and the bolts took alot more than that to break loose but I chalked that up to them being on there for 18 yrs. Still, 18 lbs seems light. Should I crank them down to say 30lbs? Has anyone else had this problem? I have a three layer metal gasket also, would that be better, and if so, which side goes up?

 

I'm late to the party, but I've studied those studs pretty well and have tested exactly how much torque they will take before permanently stretching, so I figured I'd post a reply.

I wouldn't advise tightening to 30 because it wouldn't do any good... the studs will stretch permanently. The good news is even if you do stretch them, it's no big deal since they accept the proper torque over and over without further stretching. I think the farthest you can go is 22-24 lbs, which is probably why they recommend 18.

Upgrading my studs is where I left-off last year after waiting for ARP to call me back (still waiting lol). But I can't even ride gently without blowing by the gasket and have the same issue with the king when it gets hot. I really need something I can torque to 30-35 area.

 

Well I switched from the fiber Cometic gasket to the trimetal one and actually did torque them to about 25 lbs. Thats been since the first week in December 2014. My son rides the tar out of it every other weekend and I redline her alot too and have had zero problems. She'll pull the front wheels with just throttle (not popping the clutch) in first and again if you bang second and again in third if you pull on the bars bit. I wish I had a 37 tooth rear lol The stock gears go by quick until I hit that oddball 4th.

 

I can tell you've been reading

I like the tri-metal ones too. I blew a copper cometic right out of the head! Of course I'm running ungodly compression, but if you would have any trouble it would be in the form of a squeaking sound when the engine is pretty hot. It kinda makes you think it's a loose motor mount squeaking when you give it gas. It would also be at fairly low rpm. Once you get the rpms up, the cylinder pressure seems to drop and the squeaking goes away.

 

READING!!!!???? I spent months memorinzing and taking spec notes from the vault and off this site before I losened the first bolt! When you say unGodly compression, just what is that? It bruises my foot stompping that Wiesco 10.25:1 over, but it's worth it. I can feel the exhaust at idle 20ft away at idle. My other question is is and i can't seem to find it, "What is the stock horsepower of an '86 230s? Do you know?" I wish you'd been around when I was doing my engine build because from reading these threads you are the unofficial expert on the LT230s. You got an email address you check in case you dissapear again? Send it to me at tharp78@hotmail.com so a million people don't see yours, I'm not so worried about mine but as I get deeper into this bike I'm learnin lol. Thanks JR catch ya on the flip side.

 

Thanks man! If you read all that, then you know more than me.. I've forgotten more than I know But it's all written on here... somewhere. I think we lost the keys to the vault. Not sure who had them last.

Stock HP? I'm guessing less than 20. The LT-Z250 is 17.3 hp http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onroad/...050058_246.pdf I think you can hit 25 fairly easy and I'm pretty sure I've gotten it up to 30-35 by comparing to other quads (raptor 660, 300ex, warrior) and some math with numbers from timed runs.

A guy on here, Tomgodair, hooked me up with an old big bore kit that turned out to be a piston from a KZ1000 street bike (the ones from the show CHiPS). I had clearance issues galore! First, the big sleeve wouldn't fit into the case and I had to grind at the stud bosses until I almost ground through to the threads. Once I got the jug on, then the piston was smacking the head, so I had to get creative with head gaskets to get the right amount of squish without slamming the head too much (it doesn't hurt to hit a little). I'm not sure what the compression is, but it's as high as possible using a piston that would have been 10.25:1 in a kaw engine (that number changes if you change engines/strokes). I mean, I mirrored the head to the piston as much as I could so when at TDC, there isn't much empty space. So with the compression increase and substantial cc increase (280cc), it stretches the studs like noodles and blows gaskets.







I think the problem with me disappearing is I get an email notification and either forget to come see or I read it on email and decide I don't need to come to the site. Either way, if I don't come to the site after the notification, they won't send more, so I think nobody is posting here and I don't come back until I get bored... which turns out to be months later. PM's usually get my attention, unless my box is full. But I'll email you so if I get lost again, you can find me I'd rather keep the conversation here though incase someone else wants to chime in or follow along.

So what mods did you do? Wiseco 80 over? 250S cam?

Yup, the 4th gear is a pain... especially in the mountains!

Keep an eye on that intake valve. If it gets harder and harder to start when cold, I'd check that valve. Like you said, checking it is easy if you watch the intake valve go down and use a screwdriver to feel the piston come up to TDC. The hard part is setting it to .001 exactly. .003 makes a tapping sound, .002 makes a ticking sound and .001 is barely perceptible. I don't use a feeler, I just go by the sound and feel. It will run really good with negative lash (gives it more cam duration), it's just near impossible to get started when cold because the valve never closes. At higher rpm, it doesn't matter that the valve didn't close because everything happens so fast that there isn't time to leak around such a small crack. Kinda cool to think about.