I never had any trouble with my 03 Raptor 660 until about 6 months ago. Since then I have sunk almost $3500 in repiars. Has anybody else had delayed relieability probs w/ an 03?

I change the oil and do regular maintence often, but have had wheel bearings and chain continuously go bad and recently the piston skirt broke apart and ruined the piston, cylinder, crank and basically everything else in the engine.

 

Does your regular maintenance include a leak down test? Any engine eventually wears out and requires a rebuild.

 

Regarding the bearings and chain, are you replacing it with an O-ring type of chain? The non O-rings are junk in my opinion, they don't last long at all, stretch very easy. Are you sure that the chain is properly adjusted? Are the chain rollers in decent shape?

When it comes to bearings/sprockets/chains, I've found that you DO get what you pay for. Spending the little extra for the good stuff is worth it.


As far as the engine goes, sounds like tough luck to me. You gotta pay to play.

 

I finally did upgrade to a better chain and that has seemed to fix that problem. I regularly change oil, clean the filters, check all the fluids etc., but havn't done a leak down test. What is that and how would I do it?

Also, I can't believe that I paid over $6000 for this and only four years later it would need a complete rebuild, that just sounds rediculous to me, but I do put a ton of hours on this machine in the summer and spring, however it is rarely used in the winter and seldom in the fall.

 

Leakdown test: Start the quad and let it warm up for a bit until it idles steady. Then spray starting fluid around the head/cylinder area. If the quad revs up then you have a leak in the area and should more than likely to a full head gasket and piston ring rebuild.

What kind of oil have you been running? If you engine crapped out after only 3 years I would switch oils....

 

LOL....A leak down test requires a guage that reads cranking compression and compression loss over a period of time.....it screws in the spark plug hole. If either the cranking compression or the compression over a period of time are not up to specs the top end is in need of being redone. A leak down test would have determined that their was too much tolerence between the cylinder and piston.....avoiding gutting the engine when the piston skirt let go. A good leak down guage is available at most auto parts stores for around $40 or so.
He replied in another thread that he has been running Yamalube recently and has in the past used Amsoil. I could hardly restrain myself from replying "and yours blew up"....LOL.

 

That would be a compression test............ Call it what you want..........

 

Why would the engine need rebuilt if only the head gasket is leaking? Just asking......

 

It wouldn't. A faulty head gasket has nothing to do with worn out rings. All that is faulty is the head gasket itself. Somewhat simple fix.


If it were a faulty base gasket though, I'd definitely be going to an oversize bore or at least re-ringing while the engine is apart.

 

If your head gasket has never been replaced and is leaking, you are running lean. The odds are pretty good you should do a rebuild.