Tecate leaking, to ride or not to ride?

[kristofrogers]

Ok so I'm going riding in Glamis tomorrow one way or the other. I'd love to bring my Tecate (with the LT250r Suzuki engine) out for my first desert trip on a trike but I'm a little concerned because it is leaking oil from the crankcase. I road it up and down my street and each time there was bout 4-5 drops of oil on the bottom of the engine on both sides. Is it worth going riding this way and just bringing extra oil or should i not risk it? Also, where the exhaust connects to the engine its leaking oil out of there slowly because the seal is like non-existent if there ever was one...

A separate problem I'm having is that when the bike idles for about 20 seconds or more the RPM's will start getting higher and higher, I haven't taken the carb apart yet but I'm guessing it could be a float problem, what do you guys think?

I also have pics of the engine mounts because someone was asking how it was mounted in a couple days ago since its not the stock engine.

The bike is ride-able but I don't want to jack something up if I can help it


Oil around the wires?



Oil on the bottom of the case along the housing seam



Homejob engine mount? I could do better than that >,<



Other side of mount

[squirrel1182]

A little bit of oil like that isn't really a problem. If you want to "temporarily" fix the leak in the crankcase clean it up with acetone or carb cleaner and slap a lil bit of rtv on it to get you through the weekend. As for around the exhaust with it being 2 stroke its normal. My snowmobiles the same way but it dumps oil out the exhaust. Hope this helps ya!

[squirrel1182]

Oh and the rpm thing sounds like you got a vaccum leak somewhere. Spray some carb cleaner around the carb boot and anywhere it could be sucking air from. If it spikes in rpm a little bit when you do that you know you found the problem. If not tear down the carb and checker out.

[DixiePlowboy]

If the oil drips are slow and you keep close tabs on the transmission oil level, that wouldn't scare me. Cleaning and RTV'ing the spigot/pipe will stop the drool around the headpipe, no problem.

Rising idle could be from un-metered air(leak as suggested) getting in somewhere.....that would worry me if I couldn't easily find the problem and correct it.

[beets442]

+1 oil leak, RTV and RPM- intake leak

[kristofrogers]

Thanks for the help guys! I think i'm gonna work on this bike soon and get it to a level where i feel like i could ride comfortably before i take it out. If I'm not mistaken, to fix the leaking problem I could throw some new gaskets in there too right? the RTV is only a temp fix and thats cool but if I'm gonna fix it, I'm gonna do a permanent fix. I found some kits for that engine on ebay for pretty cheap, like 20-40 bucks. The only thing I'm sketched about is pulling the engine apart to put new gaskets on, I've never opened an engine up and I dont want to jack something up >,< I'll let you know how it goes though when I start working on it.

[DixiePlowboy]

RTV is an effective long-term fix as well. As a matter of fact, I usually put a very thin layer of black Permatex on just about every(non-fuel soaked) gasket I install or replace.

[3wheelmecca]

RTV is an effective long-term fix as well. As a matter of fact, I usually put a very thin layer of black Permatex on just about every(non-fuel soaked) gasket I install or replace.

I do that too, works. My friend thinks its useless with the gasket, but I think its best.
Permatex Red RTV is High temp, i use it on all my high heat applications and it works.

[kristofrogers]

So update on the situation. I took the carb off and cleaned her out thoroughly even though it wasn't too bad to begin with. I put all the clamps back on tight so as to not have any leaks, http://dirtbike.off-road.com/dirtbik....jsp?id=530821 fired the trike back up and the rasing RPM problem was gone! I rode it down the street and parked it ....and then raising RPMs were back. So after researching online I found out that my oil leak on the crankcase could be related, according to this article my oil seaping could be creating a vacuum >,< sigh.... This is why I like 4 strokes better hahaa... Whenever i hop on a 2 stroke it feels like its gonna blow up haha.. is it just me?

[factoryX]

its just you. This also happens to four strokes bud. And the problem with the crankcase idea is that it is completely sealed off from the cylinder(2 strokes are lubricated by the oil mix), so you either have a air leak around the crank seals, or around your carb boot.

[kristofrogers]

Well in all fairness I've blown up my 4 stroke but no 2 strokes yet so I'll give em that I'm gonna pull the case covers off and check the seals and replace everything, hopefully that'l fix my problem.

[nd4speed]

Well the way I see your pics is the leak is from the counter shaft sprocket seal and the oil is getting slung all over. Or is it from inside the stator cover? If counter shaft then no big deal. If from inside the stator cover then you could have an vacuum leak.

I would say a 2 point motor mount is not ideal.

[Dirtcrasher]

They ALL blow up......

The problem is that most people are TERRIFIED of splitting a case and should be because most people can't do it properly anyhow. No offense intended to anyone.................

It's like taking out the trash, we can ALL do it but some of us leave the lids off or let them fall over and dogs get at the rotted chicken meat

[kristofrogers]

Yea that what i was thinking nd4speed. I saw those and i was like... wow thats pretty cheesy. I'm looking into an add on Craigslist for a working "84/85" engine and he has the pipes and all that. If i can get a good deal for it i'm gonna either machine up or buy his engine mounts off the same guy and fit that all together. We'll see how it works out. I offered him 350 for the engine and pipe and he wants 475 total for them.

[kristofrogers]

Turns out that the guy with engine is selling the pvl ignition seperate from the engine as well....Says he wants 600 for the engine, pipe, and ignition... Sigh..