KDXRIDER.NET

Hey fellas,

I am going to send off my carb and head to RB for more POWA! I am familiar with carbs and have no trouble getting that in order to ship. The head, another story. I am mechanically inclined, but have never messed with a dirtbike top end.

Do I just remove the gas tank, remove all bolts holding on the head, and that's it?! Get head back, use new gasket, and pop it on? Seems too easy.

Thanks!
Jim

Its almost that easy. Dont forget to drain the coolant before you pull the head, or you will make a mess. And you will have to torque the head bolts when putting it back together. Make shure you take the bowl off the carb and spray some cleaner in there, he does not want any fuel left behind in there.

Good tip - the coolant. I would like to think I would have done that, but who knows. I get excited and just start removing things.

-Jim

Make sure the engine is totally cool before you take off the head or else it might warp. That's probably not a problem since it sounds like you already have the carb off. You'll want to loosen the head nuts just a little bit at a time in a star-like pattern like when you put on a car wheel. Once they're totally loose you can just take them off and lift off the head. Try not to get coolant or grit down into the cylinder.
When you put the head back on you'll want to clean the gasket surfaces really well with solvent and use a new gasket. Torque the nuts to spec in a star-patter in a few steps. Like snug them all, then go back around and torque them all to 8 ft/lb, them around again to 12 (just an example), then again to a higher torque until you get to the spec.
Good luck.

TheRadBaron wrote:Make sure the engine is totally cool before you take off the head or else it might warp. That's probably not a problem since it sounds like you already have the carb off. You'll want to loosen the head nuts just a little bit at a time in a star-like pattern like when you put on a car wheel. Once they're totally loose you can just take them off and lift off the head. Try not to get coolant or grit down into the cylinder.
When you put the head back on you'll want to clean the gasket surfaces really well with solvent and use a new gasket. Torque the nuts to spec in a star-patter in a few steps. Like snug them all, then go back around and torque them all to 8 ft/lb, them around again to 12 (just an example), then again to a higher torque until you get to the spec.
Good luck.

Great advice, thanks!

I am pretty sure the bike is on the stock piston from 1997 (pretty low hours). Compression came back at 160. Think I am doing myself a dis-service by going through all this right now, only to do the top end this winter?

Ideally, I'd like to turn this around fast, have someone gift me a piston around xmas, then do that :)

once you take the head off, you'll be able to see the piston and get a real good look at the cylinder. That is a good time to decide if you want to go to a new piston, just rings, or leave it alone. Also, since two strokes are pretty simple machines, you can actually replace the piston w/o removing the head again. So doing that later, if you choose that route, isn't really a big deal.

6 Riders wrote:once you take the head off, you'll be able to see the piston and get a real good look at the cylinder. That is a good time to decide if you want to go to a new piston, just rings, or leave it alone. Also, since two strokes are pretty simple machines, you can actually replace the piston w/o removing the head again. So doing that later, if you choose that route, isn't really a big deal.

Perfect!

Thanks