I am new to the forum and trying to learn a little bit.

I'll be buying my first 4 wheeler soon and found a pretty good deal on a slightly modded 2004 Kodiak 450 with 2000 miles/450 hours on it.

The only thing that I am worried about, is that the owner says on cold starts it will have a little smoke... but once it warms up it goes away.

Is this something normal or potentially bad with the motor? I don't want to buy junk.

He says the only mods on it are HMF exhaust and K&N filter.

If it is potential bad problems, I'll walk away no problem and move on to the next ATV.

Thanks

 

The oil is probably coming from the valve seals allowing oil to seep into the engine, and the engine burns off the oil at start up. Is that bad?. Not necessarily. You have a machine with 2000 miles on it, it depends if they are hard miles or easy ones. The key thing to look at is engine compression. Take a compression gauge with you and remove the spark plug and check compression. 100 or higher is good, lower is bad.

With the lower reading, the machine may have ingested muddy water, leading to seal and piston ring, and cylinder failure.

If its high, the machine may just be old.

In either case start it, and see if the smoke dissapears like he said.
Make sure it steers straight, check brakes and rotors for wear and scoring, jack each wheel and make sure the bearings and joints are tight. Check tranny for proper shifting, and operation. Make sure all fluids are full. Low oil can hide smoking, Low water can hide leaks.

If he protests any of these checks, walk away. If he doesn't have title, or VIN #, walk away. (could be stolen).

Good luck.

 

I have an 03 Kodiak 450 with about 6000 km on it, doesn't smoke at all and is all stock. Make sure you check to see if there is any play in the rear wheels (jack the back up and wiggle them). I ended up having to replace the rear axle and wheel flanges plus new bearings and seals in the piumpkiin because of a worn spline on one side of the axle. Other than that the machine has been reliable. It starts up on the second pull when cold, I'm tryong not to run the battery down because I have it up for sale now (need the $$$) and I park it in front of my house every day and put it back in the garage every night. I really like the machine and I'll hate to see it go.

 

I currently have a 04 Kodiak 450 with 2800 miles on it. I also had that problem so I had to replace my seals. But I have mine for sell too. My bike has ITP Mudlites 8*12 and 10*12's tires on ITP C-Series rims. I also have a new Wiseco higher compression piston, new Kibble White Intake and exhaust valve, cutsom cam gear and cemetric gasket kit.
I also have a webcam, K&N filter, with HMF Silencer pipe, high performance clutch kit with a Keular higher performance belt. I do have all the paperwork on my bike and it is garage kept. I want 3800 for mine.
Chris

 

Does it have heat tape on the exhaust pipe? if so there may be oil on that. it wouldn't really be bad if that's the prob just just rip the heat tape off.