First night out

[farmboy1]

Tonight i got the quad out and rode it for the first time since i got it back from getting new rings. Man how i missed this thing.
couple questions.

I made a wire coming from the header bolt to the clutch cable to keep it away from the header and motor. as i rode the wire got hot. and i'm afraid it's just going to eat away at the cable a little at a time. What should i do. had thoughts of wrapping some electrical tape around the cable and wire, or just the cable. any thoughts?

Also the guy that put my new oil rings in also put a new head gasket on it, but tonight being the first night i rode it, i noticed it was leaking a little oil around the head. It's not leaking much at all, not worried about loosing oil, but there is slight smoke. is the gasket just sealing up?

Thanks for your thoughts.

[ian0615]

gasket shouldnt be leaking at all, is it the head gasket or base/bottom gasket? if its your bottom gasket all i use is High Temp Silicone (the sticky get everywhere red stuff) that Honda makes or you can get at any auto parts store. using that on the bottom end will raise you compression a little also. not sure what piston you have in it. but no it shouldnt be leaking at all.

[nskukalek79]

It's normal for the exhaust to blow out some smoke while breaking in...and the oil on the head could just be there from when the mechanic assembled the motor. I would wipe it clean and watch if it leaks, if it dose then you have a problem.

a way to tell if it is leaking right away is have the quad turned off and watch where the head meats the cylinder and start the quad up. If you see a puff of smoke come out then thats bad, if nothing happens then you should be fine. look all around the gasket so turn it on and off a couple different times looking in different locations.

My head gasket leaked before and it was because the head studs pulled the threads out and made the seal start leaking. You may have this problem with a high compression piston

[rooster300ex]

wrap some heat tape around the cable