KDXRIDER.NET

Good day all!

A brief intro for another former lurker and now n00b....

JohnG from Canton, TX here. 20+ years as a mechanic and now a factory rep (not powersports, sorry). I have been riding in the dirt for 25 years and have three children that do as well on their PW80. Youngest is getting lessons because he's GOOD and interested in HS/MX.

Just sold my street bike for the cash to get a KDX220. Despite lots of looking I got caught unaware of the piston problems, not at all happy about that. I've ridden Yamahas before and you just put mixed gas in them and rode 'em (ITs that is) with never a worry about failing anything unless it went bad-lean (yep, did that).

Spent a few hours on the "new" bike and it's a LOT better than any of the ITs I had of similar displacements and about the same weight and suspensions sure have improved in the last 20 years!!!!!

Nice forum, lots of helpful and knowledgable folks here.

Thanks,

welcome.
Just replace the top end, and u good to go

Welcome!

I'm not convinced there will be any problem. It is my *opinion* that bad gas (MTBE/Ethanol blends) causing excessively lean conditions coupled with oil mixing errors would be a larger player than a defective part.

Reasoning, I don't *think* Kawasaki would *knowingly sell* a bike with defective pistons and not be willing to deal with it. According to the forums I have read, there is no evidence by PN changes that KAW made a change, ever. Since so many bikes produced over the years ahve made it from one owner to another w/o any problems it would seem unlikely there is a defect. However, we can't see the brains of the CDI box or know the calibration of the KIPS has remained exactly the same either.

The crap fuel is a HUGE problem and I would be very interested to see if there is a coorilation to it by those that live in reformulated fuel areas vs those, like us, who do not.

I will keep a sharp eye and ear though and use extreme caution with jetting, oil and correct (pure) gas.

We know differently. The piston will implode.... the question is when. The 200 does not have these problems.

it's either:
1- the 220 stock piston are defective
2- all 220 owners (that had their piston fail) are stoopid and can't mix gas, can't jet, have bad gas... (I've never heard or even seen a 200 piston fail)
coincidence?

We'll let you decide...to each his own, you were warned.

Welcome to the site, lots of great info here. Nothing like tempting fate, I know what would happen to my 220 if I had the stock piston in it and made the statement you did. Hope yours works for you.

Yep, E10 does suck. So does the Pro-X (OEM) 220 piston.

howdy.

I didn't mean to start off a debate.

From an engineering perspective there are more factors in a failure than are often apparent.

There is no argument that the 220s HAVE a piston durability problem. There is also no hard data on the cause, it is believed to be a defect in the design or casting. I have to believe that if that were in fact the case, KAW would have made a change; or been sued, lost and then made a change.

That is not to say that KAW has no culpability, if Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki can build similar engines that do not have a well-earned reputation for failing pistons, certainly something with the overall design of the 220s is not quite right and Kawasaki needs to step up and take care of this.

With a 6 month warranty.... what is their motivation to do so? Also... the bike is out of production so it is a non-issue to them. Common across the board for any manufacturer. The piston skirts develop stress cracks and shortly after the piston completely fails. I have ran this site for 8 years and time and time again it has been documented on this site. To me... that is hard data. There has never been a Wiseco piston failure on the 220 to my knowledge.

You can believe what ever you want but we are trying to tell you something from experience. There is nothing saying you have to listen.

Too late.......... not in production any more......Kawasaki doesnt care.

Don't waste your time trying to convince him, he already made up his mind. Probably needs to justify "saving" the cost of a top end of "150 bux".
Yeah that's true there's not "scientific data" published but we have seen it more than once, + we have no financial gain when we tell you: "you ought to replace the piston before it goes kaboom and you have to get new top end, new head, new cylinder...."
We just try to keep a rider riding, if you can't see that, good luck with your 220, hopefully yours will be fine.
If it does go kaboom, don't call us when you get stranded 20 miles from your truck

If you change the stock piston twice a year, sure you will never have a problem. So yes, you could say it's lack of maintenance. However, if you put a forged piston in there you can run it for 5 years or more. So why bother? It's $130, just change it.

Congrats on the purchase, and welcome to the forum!

^^^^Great point. If you follow Kaw's replacement adgenda you'll never see a failure. Of course, one would be foolish to do so....Might explain some of the CYA aspect of the maintenance interval.