Mickey Dunlap Look

[Knips178]

I just finished getting my motor put back together by my Total Performance llc. and there is a weird ticking noise that wasn't there before. The engine guy is telling me that he called FST and was told that the noise is from using a crf450 cam chain on my 400ex due a difference in pitch. Is this right? I've looked all over and haven't seen anyone complain about a loud ticking noise from using a crf450 timing chain.

Need to know if my engine guy is full of it or not.

thanks

[wilkin250r]

It's Dunlap, not Dunlop ;)

[Knips178]

sorry, Mickey Dunlap

question still stands.

Mine didn't sound any different after I installed my cam chain...:confused:

If you had a wilder cam put in then I'd say that is what your hearing..

[Knips178]

i did add a hotcam stage 2, but that's not what this is. The noise is a more pronounced pinging noise and the engine guy found a small amount of metal shavings in the engine. He later found grooves in the valve cover above the cam chain and over time it has gotten quiter, which we think is becuase it has nocked off more metal from the cover to add clearance.

this whole thing sounds wrong to me and I'm wondering if anyone else has had a problem with installing a crf450 chain and noises or clearance problems??

[UglyMotha™]

just got done installin a 450 chain in my bike and it's not making any loud ticking noise, doesn't sound any different then it did before, the cam in noisey but that's all

[UglyMotha™]

sounds like and assembly error to me, it's not the chain, if installed correctly

[Knips178]

well, i'm frustrated as hell! :mad:

He replaced everything else and the only thing that isn't brandnew and specifically for the 400ex is the cam chain. So i think he's blaming it on that now. I swear if it's not one thing it's another. I just need for a Mickey Dunlap or another nationally known name to tell me that the crf450 cam chain will work with no problem in a 400ex motor so I can turn around and tell the guy he's wrong so fix it!

It sounds alot better if I tell him that I talked to Mickey Dunlap or Curtis Sparks and they said .....blah blah blah......rather than say yeah, a bunch of guys on a web page say your wrong. No offense!

So Mickey if your out there please clear this up for us.
Thanks

[UglyMotha™]

how bout if you call mickey, you'll get a heck of alot quicker response :huh

[Knips178]

Thanks, just did and he told me that he's read alot on the internet about guys running it just fine and others having problems. He said basically my choices are 1) buy a stock chain and by the time it wears out you'll have to rering the engine anyway or 2) buy a sparks or DID heavy duty chain. He thinks the crf450 has a slightly different pitch and that can create problems down the road, but he doesn't have alot of experience with using that chain so he's not %100 sure.

As far as the grooving in my valve cover goes, he said that one of links is broke and flipping up when it comes over top of the sprocket. It hits the cover and is wearing a notch into it and pretty soon the chain will snap.

So long story short, my guy is getting a stock chain in tomorrow and putting it in to find out if the noise stops. If it fixes the problem, then mistery solved! Sucks that i had to waste $37 to find that out though. everywhere i turn i'm pissing money away on this engine rebuild :mad:

[UglyMotha™]

http://www.exriders.com/vbb/images/icons/icon14.gif good deal

[F-16Guy]

LLC stands for Limited Liability Company; sounds like that's going to come in handy.:devil:
I have one in my quad, and I put one in my buddy's 406 when I built it; neither one make any noise. I would find someone who knows something about the ex motor and see if you can tear it down and find the problem. Definitely not normal.

[Knips178]

well, i've now talked to several places (tc racing, curtis sparks, mickey dunlap, and a couple others) and they all say the same thing. They haven't done enough work with the crf450 chain to know for sure, but from their different experiences the chain doesn't work well. One had a problem where it sheered the teeth off the crank gear from the pitch being wrong and other had both gears get messed up. The bottom line is that the chains aren't exactly the same so don't bother using it if you don't want to risk messing your engine up. Yes, there are cases of people running it with no problems, but there a ton of cases where it screwed there motor up and caused other problems.

I'm sticking with the stock cam chain and not risking my motor.

[Dunlap]

Good call!:)

[pnut420]

Let us know if the stock timing chain fixes it, I don't see how alot of people are running it and not having problems but you are. If you are hearing a grinding noise right away, then why havent others, I am just curious to see whats going on...

[cals400ex]

yeah, i would like to hear more testing on this too. i just put one in my bike and my friend has had one in his bike for several months without any problems.

if this is true, we might want to make an update in the FAQ section about the crf 450 timing chain.

[Juggalo]

hey gary maynard (owner of total performance) knows what hes doin. all his quads (and especially that lil "65" cc dirtbike kick *** at monkeybutt

[Knips178]

I'm going to post a poll for who has done it and had success and who had problems, maybe we can get a tally of the success rate.

juggalo, you've done work with gary?