KTM525XC motor trouble

[jcspark]

My friend has a 08 ktm525xc and it has no top end,the motor ticks really bad and goes through half a liter of oil every 4 hours does this mean????are the valves toast?

[aDviSol2y]

I would say his rings are bad.

[deathman53]

Valves toasted, valves badly out of adjustment, timing chain stretched/tensioner not working, or a combination of all the above.

[jcspark]

Is it hard to reset the valve and change the rings?

[aDviSol2y]

valve adjusting, no. Valve replacing, yes. Rings, yes.

[deathman53]

not of you the right tools, service manual and knowledge. To be honest....if you let it go that far, he has no belonging to do this, atleast right. The valves have little shims you use the adjust them. It very possible you need a pretty much a new top end, the only thing being left would be the head, cam, valve cover and small stuff. By letting it go, your friend really screwed up the motor, piston may also be cracked. Valve seats probably need to be re-cut, also. You don't know until you open it up. That motor only holds ~1 liter of oil to start with and if it burns that fast, wouldn't it be a clear sign something is wrong??? and he continued ride it further? There motors aren't a 400ex, aren't bullet proof, require almost constant oil changes and lot of attention to the valves. When you don't, things go very wrong.

[jcspark]

How should I go about doin the rings?

[jcspark]

Ya he hasn't done any work too it in like 3 months.he said he started to bag it right from the crate,I work on my raptor after every time I ride it.it ony take a couple of hours after every ride to keep your bike running like a top.maybe the best thing to do is get him to take it to a shop if its that bad.

[deathman53]

burning oil almost never is good, I've had 2 motors that burned oil, one is a 200x motor, it slightly burned some and didn't care too much about it. I'm sure it needed re-cut valve seats(or new), new valves, springs and such, to make it stop smoking and run right. The other one, crf450r motor, ended up costing me close to $1400. Another crf450r of mine started hard starts, bad performance, valves were going, timing chain shot and cost me $1200. You can get an idea, this isn't gonna be cheap.

[jcspark]

Lol I guess ill have to break the good news to him.

[aDviSol2y]

I want to know how he destroyed a almost new bike! If you spend that much (KTM's are not cheap) on a bike, you would think you would put some care into it!

[deathman53]

probably it happened because he didn't change his oil, dirty/un-seated air filters, maybe low on oil, crappy gas and didn't get the valves adjusted and when it didn't run right, kept riding it. You have to get the valves adjusted on a regular basis. I'm finding something that doesn't seam quite right, there wasn't a 525xc dirtbike in 08! The only 525xc in 08 was the quad and 07 had the 525xc dirtbike. Both are the RFS motor and they are really hard to kill. Valves are so easy to adjust with the RFS motors also. On my 450exc, rfs motor, I adjust the valves when it starts to get more difficult to start. I have 170 hours and 4200 miles on it, it runs how it did when new. I replaced the clutch(warped discs), the metals take a beating and so does the clutch springs.

[zrider91r]

may have a cracked piston.
KTM's are known to crack after about 30-40 hours of ride time.....

[deathman53]

Really, many have ktm rfs motors with 200+ hours on them. Some as high as 400+. Typically, 250 hours and the head needs to be redone, the rest of the top end is left alone. No damage or cracked pistons on them either. About the only way you will crack a piston is if the valves are way out of spec and/or timing chain stretched. Get your facts right. Ktm rfs motors are nearly bulletproof, you can even run them w/o oil for a few hours and you won't kill it immediately. It goes down to like what I and aDviSol2y, take care of your bike!!!! Let me guess, he didn't change the 2 oil filters or remove the screen and clean them out either? Or did he know they were even there?


Originally posted by zrider91r
may have a cracked piston.
KTM's are known to crack after about 30-40 hours of ride time.....

[zrider91r]

Ive done tons of research before choosing the quad I would Race in the Pro production class, and on the ktm forums i am reading about cracked pistons.
I dont know anyone personally who has had it happen, nor did I say i knew anybody. Get your facts straight.