well it had to happen sometime .....rebuilding gurus needed!

ebayfreak

ebayfreak

Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2007
Messages
195
Age
54
Location
newfoundland, Canada
Just noticed today a rattly noise in the engine of my 1999 srx. Thought it was clutches but it's definitely in the engine. Shut it down and rocking the engine back and forth seems like an excessive amount of slop and noise in the rod bearing. It has 21,000 km so i figure it's time to dissect it and rebuild the whole thing. I done some research and I hear pro and cons of using wiseco piston kits.
I rebuilt my old formula plus with wiseco and never had any issues. I know OEM is the way to go ,but out here is so dam expensive for parts. Can anybody recommend a company that sells quality parts at fair prices!It's getting late in the season and would like to get this done asap without costing me an arm and leg.Any help would be appreciated.thanks!
 

spi pistons are decent quality and don't cost and arm and leg. you can get 3 pistons on ebay for like $150. or find some used OEM ones in the classifieds on here. plenty of people parting out engines these days.

people on here will most likely tell you that the spi pistons are junk, but they've probably never used them before. i've used them before in my ski-doo rev and other customer rebuilds and no issues at all. even thru a namura piston (make spi pistons) in my kx250 dirt bike and had no problems. plus the pistons come coated on the skirts.
 
i have ran spi slippery pistons never had a problem but i always properly warm my sled up everytime i know some ppl who have popped them takin off cold
 
Can i re ring my old pistons, i don't expect that i have any damage on them considering the engine never blew up or anything.





mopar1rules said:
spi pistons are decent quality and don't cost and arm and leg. you can get 3 pistons on ebay for like $150. or find some used OEM ones in the classifieds on here. plenty of people parting out engines these days.

people on here will most likely tell you that the spi pistons are junk, but they've probably never used them before. i've used them before in my ski-doo rev and other customer rebuilds and no issues at all. even thru a namura piston (make spi pistons) in my kx250 dirt bike and had no problems. plus the pistons come coated on the skirts.
Click to expand...
 
ebayfreak said:
Can i re ring my old pistons, i don't expect that i have any damage on them considering the engine never blew up or anything.
Click to expand...

Sure you can re-ring your old pistons, but you were talking about wiseco pistons and all, so I was under the assumption that you needed pistons.
 
i haven't pulled it apart yet but i figured that with 20,000 +kms on engine there might be wear on the pistons.I'm hoping that they will be ok.Hoping to get the engine pulled the weekend and see where the noise is coming from. thanks for your input!



mopar1rules said:
Sure you can re-ring your old pistons, but you were talking about wiseco pistons and all, so I was under the assumption that you needed pistons.
Click to expand...
 
You have to see if the pistons are within specs but with that many km they are probably not. When the piston starts to wear it rocks back and forth in the cyl and usually ends up developing cracks and possibly breaking.

I would replace the pistons/rings/wristpins and c clips while you have it apart then u know your good to go and you don't have to worry about a piston with 20000 km taking out your motor. Also I wouldn't go with wiseco pistons unless you don't mind really warming up the motor and doing a carful breakin.
 
I put wiseco in one of my 600 twins and spi's in the other 600 twin and I can tell you that the engine with the wiseco's has far more HP. IMO
I would go with wiseco on my next engine project.
 
i would replace pistons if it were me.. had a 700 with around 12,000miles on it with rings done at 6500miles. the skirt of the piston leg go and went out the bottom of the case and messed up the crank and everything.. just my opinion..
 
deffinately replace pistons with that milage i didnt at 6500 and she broke inbtween the rings and ruinned a decent cylinder little more $ now will save u later
 
mtnmaxman600 said:
I put wiseco in one of my 600 twins and spi's in the other 600 twin and I can tell you that the engine with the wiseco's has far more HP. IMO
I would go with wiseco on my next engine project.
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for whatever reason spi cut the boost port in piston smaller than oem, on the 600 twin pistons. wiseco boost port is probably closer to OEM size. the bit of difference tho in boost port size on the pistons, won't be noticable by the seat of the pants. maybe something else is going on w/those engines, to give one more hp feeling than the other??
 
I just did the top end in my SRX with SPI and it's been fine.Actually pulled the jugs at about 300 miles to check ring seal,etc.Was jetted fat for the temps I had been riding in so the piston crown was BLACK right down to the top ring and that was it.Zero blowby,seal was great.Coating on the skirts was pretty much intact.Make sure you scuff the cylinder with some sort of stone glaze breaker to seat the rings.I've used SPI in all my dirt bikes(76 YZ400,82 YZ490,83 CR480,84 CR500),never had problem and I ride the snot out of everything I own.Extremely rare for piston failure to be caused by the piston.There's usually some other contributing factor like leaned fuel,bad gas,foriegn matter,poor warm up and so on.Alot of that off-shore not-from-Japan stuff has improved significantly over the years.
 
Before you tear it appart, check your power valves. I broke a blade off one of my power valves 2 years ago and it was making a similar rattling sound.
May save a rebuild, even though it proably needs one with that kind of mileage.

Worth a look:

Bob
 
with the engine off it still seems like more noise than normal, would a powervalve make noise just by rocking the crank back and forth?I have to pull powervalves anyway to get engine out , so i'll do that first.thanks for the input!






sideshowBob said:
Before you tear it appart, check your power valves. I broke a blade off one of my power valves 2 years ago and it was making a similar rattling sound.
May save a rebuild, even though it proably needs one with that kind of mileage.

Worth a look:

Bob
Click to expand...
 
well got motor out and peeping through power valve inlet looks like a piston and cylinder is toast. all kinds of pieces of something embedded in piston.I guess it's not going to be a cheap fix after all.Going to get disassembled tomorrow and see what other damage is done.
 
i just priced out bottom end and rod bearings, its $1200+ for all OEM bearings and seals on the crank. holy s
 
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