I am looking at buying an 03 with high miles. Does anybody have experience with how many miles this engine will go before it needs rings and rebuild. The one I am looking at has 10,000 mi on it.
I have been trying to find one reasonable enough that I can put a wide front end, better rear suspension, and rider forward stuff on it.
I have been trying to find one reasonable enough that I can put a wide front end, better rear suspension, and rider forward stuff on it.
LazyBastard
TY 4 Stroke God
Valve adjustment at 25000 miles. Its 15000 miles left before it needs any work.
Red2003
TY 4 Stroke Guru
RedRX1 said:
By the time you do all that, you could buy an 05 with better ergos (seating position), suspension and less miles already.
Lots of the 03's had oil burning issues. Some as bad as a quart in 300 miles or so. Rings changed in 04 apparently.
STORM-CHASER
TY 4 Stroke Guru
RedRX1 said:
The big ? is are you buying it at the right price, I would not be affraid of the high milage as long as the price was right.
LB, I guess my biggest concern is the rings. That could be significant $$ if the engine needs to be opened up. Currently, the guy says it is using a qt/1000 mi which isn't bad. The risk is I will not know until I've used it next year and that will be too late. Do you have any idea what it would cost to do the rings?? I am assuming they can be updated to 04 with out new pistons. I could do the disassembly, honing, and reassemble the cylinders, but I am afraid of that valve train as I have never worked on a bike engine.
Red2003, I have an 05 and have made the front end change as well as the ergo changes. The only thing I wouldn't have to do is the rear suspension.
Storm-Chaser, Thats my goal, put together a second Rx afford-ably for the wife and daughter. Currently, they want mine when they ride!
Red2003, I have an 05 and have made the front end change as well as the ergo changes. The only thing I wouldn't have to do is the rear suspension.
Storm-Chaser, Thats my goal, put together a second Rx afford-ably for the wife and daughter. Currently, they want mine when they ride!
ReX
TY 4 Stroke God
1000 miles/qt is pretty bad in my opinion. My 05 was burning at about the same rate before it threw a connecting rod at 12,000 miles.
Having said that, everything has been accurately measured in my motor and everything, including the pistons & rings, all 5 crank bearings, and the 3 remaining big end con-rod bearings are within Yamaha's assembly specifications (one oil ring was basically at the limit though). After carefully inspecting my motor I expect, without something like a nut loosening off, these motors should be good for much more than 12,000 miles.
The only thing we can find as far as a source to the problem is a con-rod nut loosened off by 4 turns before all hell broke loose. My research has also found that this seems to be the way these motors go when they do, but there are very few cases where it has happened.
Now that I've been inside my motor to check things out I can say changing the rings yourself isn't that big a job. The biggest job is probably pulling the motor out and reinstalling it. The only unique things you have to pay extra attention to (compared to a 2-stroke) is getting the cam timing right when your finishing up and torquing the new rod bolts correctly.
The one major bit of bad news is Yamaha won't sell a complete motor and the parts are so expensive it will cost almost $14,000 to fix my motor (compared to buying a typical 2-stroke for ~$3500 or a typical rebuild for about $1000). If a motor fails in these sleds and you can't find a cheap used motor the sled is a write off.
BTW, the ring update was in 2005.
Having said that, everything has been accurately measured in my motor and everything, including the pistons & rings, all 5 crank bearings, and the 3 remaining big end con-rod bearings are within Yamaha's assembly specifications (one oil ring was basically at the limit though). After carefully inspecting my motor I expect, without something like a nut loosening off, these motors should be good for much more than 12,000 miles.
The only thing we can find as far as a source to the problem is a con-rod nut loosened off by 4 turns before all hell broke loose. My research has also found that this seems to be the way these motors go when they do, but there are very few cases where it has happened.
Now that I've been inside my motor to check things out I can say changing the rings yourself isn't that big a job. The biggest job is probably pulling the motor out and reinstalling it. The only unique things you have to pay extra attention to (compared to a 2-stroke) is getting the cam timing right when your finishing up and torquing the new rod bolts correctly.
The one major bit of bad news is Yamaha won't sell a complete motor and the parts are so expensive it will cost almost $14,000 to fix my motor (compared to buying a typical 2-stroke for ~$3500 or a typical rebuild for about $1000). If a motor fails in these sleds and you can't find a cheap used motor the sled is a write off.
BTW, the ring update was in 2005.
Boston RX1
TY 4 Stroke Master
FYI, I just had my rings replaced by the dealer and the cost would have been about $1,800.00 to do it. Mine was paid for by Yamaha.
Mark O
Expert
ReX said:
I wouldn't say that, scrap aluminum is worth about 65 cents per pound.
shanksRX-1
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generally you can get lots of trouble free miles out of these sleds. The first valve adjustment dosn't have to be done until you have 25000 miles on the sled. Of course there is a chance of something going wrong. I believe they changed the rings in 04 and again in 05. If I where you and the price is right on the sled I would get a set of new rings and get a repair manual and put new rings in it over summer. your oil burning issue would be cured and then you could concentrate on your suspension mods.
Even as Rex said destroying a motor at 12000 miles. 12000 miles is quite a few miles and this is an exception. I dont think most people have any problems with their motors for many more miles than that. I have owned 12 polaris' and only 1 made it until 6000 miles before blowing up and it cost a little over $1000 to rebuild with the nicasil plated cylinders. My last xc 700 blew up 3 times in 3347 miles and I was putting the best oil you could buy in it, premium gas, and just riding it like everyone else. If you figure out the down time durring winter and the hasstle getting it rebuilt along with the cost It gets to be quite a headache.
IMO, if the price is right you should buy this rx-1 and add a rering job into the mix of suspension mods you want to do to it and youd have a sled that would be good for several years to come...
Even as Rex said destroying a motor at 12000 miles. 12000 miles is quite a few miles and this is an exception. I dont think most people have any problems with their motors for many more miles than that. I have owned 12 polaris' and only 1 made it until 6000 miles before blowing up and it cost a little over $1000 to rebuild with the nicasil plated cylinders. My last xc 700 blew up 3 times in 3347 miles and I was putting the best oil you could buy in it, premium gas, and just riding it like everyone else. If you figure out the down time durring winter and the hasstle getting it rebuilt along with the cost It gets to be quite a headache.
IMO, if the price is right you should buy this rx-1 and add a rering job into the mix of suspension mods you want to do to it and youd have a sled that would be good for several years to come...
LazyBastard
TY 4 Stroke God
I definitely would NOT change the rings unless they proved themselves to be bad, which, despite what some people would say, is VERY RARE. All the problems get blown out of proportion on this site because people tend to show up when something goes wrong, most people withOUT problems (which is most of them) never show up. If you just run it reasonably hard and ONLY USE REGULAR GAS, then it should never have a problem.
Boston RX1
TY 4 Stroke Master
LB, what was I supposed to do? I tried Ring-Free, always use regular gas, run it reasonably hard and use 1 quart in 1-200 miles. Something is wrong.
shanksRX-1
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LazyBastard said:
I think if it is useing oil then thats proof enough for me that the rings are bad and since yamaha did change the rings between 03 and 04 then they are admitting there is a problem with 03 rings. If you dont mind putting oil in it then dont change em but a ring job isnt that hard especially when you have the entire summer. I definately WOULD change the rings....
Traildemon
Pro
Do compression & leakdown testing THEN decide. There's valve seal discussions elsewhere on this site I'd look cloesly there - does it smoke on start up ? I have 03 RX with 5000+ mi & no oil issues. Have used AMSOIL 0W30 since break in. good luck
LazyBastard
TY 4 Stroke God
Boston RX1 and shanksRX-1, you're absolutely right. It is the oil use that proves that the rings are bad. What I was saying is that if you DON'T KNOW if its burning oil or not, or if you KNOW that it ISN'T, THEN you SHOULDN'T change the rings. Correct me if I'm wrong, but this thread is about advising RedRX1 if HE should buy a high mileage sled and immediatly change the rings without knowing if they're good or bad.
