2003 Kawasaki 650 Prairie Quad
I recently purchased this quad with 3500 miles on it. I thought I was getting a good deal for $1900. However I rode it for a week and it was overheating, the reservoir had coolant. I took it to a buddy to go through it. We made some minor repairs; exhaust bolts loose or missing, coolant return line rotted off at engine which we cut and had enough play to reattach, and flushed the coolant system and added coolant. That’s when it became clear something was broken. The engine struggled a lot to turn over, once it did I rode it around for a minute, had white smoke in the exhaust which smelled sweet. I shut it off and had to jump the battery to get it started again to load it back on the truck.
My worst fear is the block is cracked because of the drastic change in how the engine ran with coolant. If someone with experience can give some advice on the likelihood and if it could just be blown head gaskets, I would appreciate the advice either way.

 

Havent heard of very many cracked blocks in atv's, more likely a blown head (s) gasket.

 

That’s really good to hear, I haven’t worked on them so when I tear into it I can have some hope now.