Flushing Crankcase. What's better and how long?

[tri again]

hey, my 2 cents, some of the engines that were stored with nasty oil in them may have carbon locked rings.
these may be helped by an oil additive. I have used marvel mystery oil for some of these with good results.
it should be left in or used for more than one oil change. just remember that atv engines do not use as much oil as larger engines, so
don't use the whole bottle. use common sense in large doses.

sickening and yes, I've seen it done.
Volvo dealership. Customer ran engine low on coolant, possible head gasket right?
had 20 lbs compression in one cylinder.
They sprayed wd40 in the spark plug hole can it actually came back.
I STILL don't believe it.
MAYbe some sort of solvent (an ounce or 2) in the combustion chamber to loosen
muck stuck rings that have been sitting but then spin it with the plug out to blow the stuff out.

Then there's the ol' Porsche trick NEW dealer from the factory trick to get the gd rings
to seat.
Rev it up and 'spray' comet cleanser in the intake to seat the rings.

I couldn't even bear to watch.

[audioworks04]

Alot of newer bikes specifically the crf and trx450's tell you to hold the hill switch down and kick it over while holding a rag over the drain hole to fully empty the crank case. This is in the manual, so I assue this would be a good practice on anything that is not electric start.

[DasUberKraut]

Took a nap with the boy and missed so much. Geeze, where do I start.

Yes the smoke is white. As far as I know there has never been a garden hose down the muffler. I don't even own a garden hose.
Before I owned it, it was stored in a far corner of a pole barn on a farm that didn't have any kids.
The dip stick does appear to be stock. Why would I want to tip it on it's side and drain oil out of the fill hole instead of using the draing plug?

No idea about the color of unburned fuel / oil? Also it's electric start so it doesn't have a kill switch to hold down. To drain the "hidden" oil I leave it in gear, hang a bucket under the drain hole and push it around the driveway for a few minutes. Yes, I let it sit for several hours to finish dripping.

[dougspcs]

Why would I want to tip it on it's side and drain oil out of the fill hole instead of using the draing plug?

I see many here like to do this also..I often ask myself 'why would they do that instead?'. But sometimes it's better just to smile and nod!!!

[Jon Boy]

I see many here like to do this also..I often ask myself 'why would they do that instead?'. But sometimes it's better just to smile and nod!!!

they can say what they want, but to me they do it for shear laziness.

[4cylinders]

hey, drain the oil from an atv, then check it out. see how much metal that collected in it. there is no filter between
the trans and the crankcase. drain the oil, drain the metal.

[DasUberKraut]

I see many here like to do this also..I often ask myself 'why would they do that instead?'. But sometimes it's better just to smile and nod!!!

I only ask because I've heard to the horror stories of people who did the "lawn mower draining" only to have issues starting their mahine or poor performance afterwards.

hey, drain the oil from an atv, then check it out. see how much metal that collected in it. there is no filter between
the trans and the crankcase. drain the oil, drain the metal.

On that note... Where can a guy get a magnetic drain plug? Do they use standard sizes where I could just go to the parts store and match the the threads up?
If I install a magnetic drain plug do I want to remove the filter screen from the crank case?

[Jon Boy]

as long as the plug is steel, have you tried to magnitize the drainplug bolt itself? all you have to do is drag a good magnet (speaker magnet will do) acrossed it or vice versa.

and no i don't recommend you remove the screen.

[Dirtcrasher]

If it got wet - run some ATF/10W40, flush and repeat.

If you just want to flush it, I have used gas for years, I just don't run it..........

[Jason125m]

I see many here like to do this also..I often ask myself 'why would they do that instead?'. But sometimes it's better just to smile and nod!!!

I know a lot of people who do it for the fear of the drainplug stripping...

[Dirtcrasher]

Well, if the meatheads wouldn't be SO TERRIFIED to strip their drain plug, maybe replace a crush washer on there once in a blue moon; Then they wouldn't be afraid of taking it out and putting it back in.........

[tri again]

I only ask because I've heard to the horror stories of people who did the "lawn mower draining" only to have issues starting their mahine or poor performance afterwards.



On that note... Where can a guy get a magnetic drain plug? Do they use standard sizes where I could just go to the parts store and match the the threads up?
If I install a magnetic drain plug do I want to remove the filter screen from the crank case?

A couple points to your couple points.?
The first time I saw the internal screen, I wondered why it sat above the drainplug with
chucks of stuff on TOP of the screen, which keeps the chucks from coming out the drain plug hole.
I like the magnetic plug idea too.

I ran across a couple busted speaker magnets that I stick to my regular spin on oil filters.
Why?
IDK, Can't hurt and may help?

We gave up on drainplugs altogether because customers would mess 'em up and then bring them to us
as IF they weren't stripped. A 6 hour oil change for $19.95.

The snap on guy came up with a powered oil sucker so that helped immensely.

I'm all for doing things right, but sometimes there are odd reasons to make exceptions.

If I have 5 machines to do, I might tip them all over.
If they don't run because of that, I'd want to know that before one gets rolled way far away from the barn for sure.

Now if they DID have magnetic plugs, I'd always want to see what came out.
so now why, if I may re ask,
is that matchbook sized filter screen sitting above the drainplug with crud on top of it?
Is that just to protect the oil pump pickup?
Should be cleaned as regular maint along with the centrifugal 'filter' by pulling the clutch side cover occasionally,? (90-110 especially)

[fabiodriven]

I like your posts Doc, but you are one strange duck...

[DasUberKraut]

I guess I've used magnets from computer hard drives on my vehicle's oil filters for years. Some of the strongest magnets I've ever found. I guess I could just stick one on the end of the draing plug.

Maybe the screen is just there as a means to accumulate as much debris as possible and hold it in one place with the flow of oil. I think I read somewhere every third oil change you're supposed to remove the clutch cover and clean off the screen. I know alot of people that take the cover off for every oil change. To me, that's just a little excessive.

Ok, honestly. Where is this centrifugal filter? I'ver searched the manual with no avail. I've googled it. Nothing. I've looked at the parts diagrams. Nothing.
Where is it!?!?!? Please someone, clue me in. If someone has a picture of it, that would be fantastic. I'm going to lose my mind trying to figure this out.

[Scootertrash]

It's the aluminum cover like object held to the centrifugal clutch by three bolts. There's a gasket in there too.