I am in the process of buying a new quad(400EX or Z400), I haven't worked on any bike\quad motors since the early 80's. I understand the EX's setup, sleaved cyl walls and such, what about the Z400?

I read somewhere that the motor is off a earlyer production bike, also read that the cyl wall is aluminum with some kind of coating or plateing which inables the use of tighter cyl wall to piston tollerances, sounds a little scarry, I'm not knocking it, just now familuar with it.

So how long has this motor been in use,
any problems with the aluminum cylinder walls or rings,
does it have a removeable cyl sleeve?

Just a few questions, educate me...

 

The motor is proven relaible. It came out of their DRZ400S bike. The coating is Nikasil, correct? To the best of my knowledge, this stuff is great. The only problem is once you need a rebuild, it costs about $100 more to recoat the cylinder after a bore job. The Zook is definitely worth it over the EX. It is supposed to have a little better power than the EX, and handle just as good, plus you get liquid cooling and reverse.

 

This is exactly the stuff I'm looking for,

Rings don't last as long as the bore(normally), due to the cost and the thiness of the coateing , are you guyes boreing to freshen the upperend. Is this a motor built more towards the value of a high tec precision fit for performance, rather than the cost and abilitys of the average Joe?

Is the whole cylinder CNC'ed out of a block of aluminum? If you trash a cylinder wall, you have to buy a new jug?

I am not knocking the Z400, I just need to know what it takes to keep the motor up to par for the long haul.

I want to know "exactly" what I am getting into(motor wise), with my next purchase(400ex or z400), I will have spent 13k in 2 yrs on quads, it will be my last purchase for a looooong time, she has put her foot down(HaHa!)

Anyway, give me the facts
Thanks...

 

GTV, i have been around nikasil motors for years, arctic cat starting using suzuki motors in their sleds in 76 and they have been nikasil since then. the nikasil is very reliable, lighter than a iron liner, dissipates heat better, and creates less friction. nikasil seems to last forever, i have only had to have one of my snowmobiles renikasiled and that was becuase on of my piston ring locators(wiseco piston) actaully backed out of the piston(wiseco presses them in on certain pistons) and scraped the cyliner wall realy bad. i have blown other motors though and as long as you shut down the motor right away and pull the motor apart as soon as you can and clean everything really good then the nikasil will be ok. when i had to have my motor renikasiled it cost me around $180 a cylinder. as far as the aluminum jug getting damaged, even if it was they can bore the aluminum out even farther and renikasil it, i had my snowmobile bored from a 530 to a 580 and then had it renikasiled. as far as the z400 goes, i know for a fact that the motor can be bored all the way out to a 470 without having to do any case modifications. you can send the motor right out through your local suzuki dealer and it will be back within 3 weeks. i know my dealer doesn't charge any extra to ship the cylinder and only charges me the same amount that they are charged by the company that renikasil's them. my dealer said that since suzuki uses nikasil bore's that it is there responsibility to make sure that the customer is taken care of. goood luck with your z400, or ex, whatever you end up getting.

 

You all sound right so far, I had a DRZ for a little over 2 years, it ran flawlessly the whole time, suzuki knows what they are doing, the engine can be a 470 but it requires a sleeve, and the one they send is not coated in the nikasil I don't think.. but there are also tons of goodies for that engine on the bike that may work on the quad. Yoshimura would be the place to look, they know that engine very well, helped desing it origionaly i believe. As far as the bike went, add a pipe, open up the airbox a little and jet it and it makes great power gains! I am sure the quad is the same in that way, the stock exhaust they use was super restrictive... If anyone wants some of the links I have for web sites with DRZ mods that may work on the Z email me and I can hook you up, later guys..

 

it all depends on who's 470 kit you go with , some use a sleeve and some use nikasil, it really depends on the company who makes it.

 

<< This is exactly the stuff I'm looking for,

Rings don't last as long as the bore(normally), due to the cost and the thiness of the coateing , are you guyes boreing to freshen the upperend. Is this a motor built more towards the value of a high tec precision fit for performance, rather than the cost and abilitys of the average Joe?

Is the whole cylinder CNC'ed out of a block of aluminum? If you trash a cylinder wall, you have to buy a new jug? >>

The ONLY company I know of that is using billet aluminium cylinders is Vertamati.That is pretty exotic and exspensive stuff.As for the Nikisil,it is far superior to a sleeve.None of the true&quot;hi performance&quot; bikes or quads have sleeves,unless they've put in some type of big bore kit.As for reliability I owned a drz &quot;e&quot; with a few hundred miles and my brother has put over 2000 miles on his drz&quot;e&quot; and all he's done is change the oil and keep the valves adjusted.The &quot;s&quot; model/quad engine doesn't come with the same compression or carb,so it's toned down some and should be even more reliable.The only reason I traded mine was the dirtbike version was a little to heavy (for me)basically,I went back to a 2 stroke,but the DRZ has been pretty much bullet proof.Of course,you'll find quirks on ANY brand of quad/bikes. P.S.Just remember,sleeves are for diesels.[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]