SRX rebuild

bADa$$ SRX

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Joined
Jan 4, 2012
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363
Location
Stevens Point, WI
Welllll decided it was time to freshen up the top. 6500 miles on her and I decided to do a little preventative maintenance and put new rings and gaskets in her. Ordered all new OEM and took her apart today. The inside looked pretty good I was pretty happy, seems to be running fairly rich tho as you can see in the pic. My question is when you guys do new rings and gasket do you do any break in procedures. That half throttle stuff? Oil in gas? Wire oil pump open? Also what about bleeding the coolant system? Any help/insight appreciated guys. Thanks. :letitsnow unnamed.jpg
 
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I would change out the thermostat and check the hose that runs into the waterpump from the tank . they wear under the hold down brackets around the recoil.
 
Bleeding the air out of the coolant system is pretty easy on an SRX actually,take the seat off,raise the rear of the sled so the bleeder screw is slightly above the level of the filler cap.Take the bleeder screw out using a large head Philips screw driver,add coolant to the tank and slowly lower the rear of the sled down.Once you get it low enough you should be able to hear the air being pushed out of the tiny bleeder hole and then the coolant will follow so be ready with the screw to put it back in so you don't lose too much coolant.
 
While the system is empty do the Betheviper method and cut a groove lengthwise in the bleeder screw about halfway up the threads. Then you don't have to remove it to bleed the system. Way less mess
 
Make sure you inspect the pistons closely, use a caliper and check the piston for runout. Both my friends Vipers (7,000 miles) had excessive runout on the lower side of the pistons. No scoring, and they looked perfect to the eye. After checking them with a caliper the bottom piston diameter was out of spec compared to the top of the piston, specifically the measurement from the intake to exhaust side of the piston. It seems the pistons where polished from contacting the cylinders, and also could have had a little distortion from the piston cocking in the bore contacting the cylinder wall. I believe too much runout allows the piston to cock/slap the cylinder wall, which leads to the skirts breakings and grenading. Not to mention compression is lost from the rings not contacting the cylinder wall squarely.
Both vipers had no issues with the cylinder bore.
While you are their I would do pistons also :)
Looks like your power valves are leaking pretty good, if you have the newer cables make sure you get the orings that go on the end of the cable. Go to a newer SRX micro-fish, you will see what I am talking about. It made a huge difference on my 98 SRX 700.
 


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