Maintenance schedules

John250

John250

PR Founding Father
A post over on vital has got me thinking. There is a discussion on buying a higher hour 450. That started a discussion on maintenance. There are opinions all over the place.

So a few questions.
What is your opinion on checking valves?
New too end?

How often do you change your oil?
How often do you clean your air filter?

I am talking about on newer 250 and 450 four strokes.

I know I've never put enough hours on any of mine to put a top end in them. There are guys with hundreds of hours on some. Friends of mine have tore down 450s with 125 hours, the valves are in spec and top end looks new.

I change my oil every 3 or 4 hours, and clean filters when they need it, I dont change an air filter to just change a air filter if it's still fine.

Would be interested in some of your opinions. See how they compare to some of the comments on vital
 
I change oil and air filter every time I ride. Much cheaper than blowing a motor. It might be excessive for a 450 but a must for a 250.
 
MX099 said:
I change oil and air filter every time I ride. Much cheaper than blowing a motor. It might be excessive for a 450 but a must for a 250.
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Seems excessive for sure. And not cheap. With synthetic oils today, there is no way oil needs changed every time you ride. Cars run for hours upon hours even at constant rpms on the highway. And some of the recommendations on synthetics in cars is way too high in my opinion on miles.
 
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I’ve learned that talking about maintenance is damn near like asking people about politics or religion.

I’m hard on clutches and I change my oil every 3 rides no matter what. If I ride in sandy condition 1 ride.

Change air filters as needed. The new Yamaha can get giant dirt clods in the airbox pretty easily, so I change it more than I like.

Valves get checked at every 20hrs or so.

I don’t keep a bike long enough for a new topend.
 
Oil every now and then, filters when dirty and just did a top end on mine at 200 hours, no blow by, cross hatch still in the cylinder and valves all in spec.

Husky 450
 
200 hrs? holy s**t.

thats like 5 bikes for me.. hahahaaha..

I do oil every 2-4 hours, really just depends on how or where i rode, conditions, etc (muddy/sandy, etc i willl do it sooner than later). Oil filter I do every oil change, they are cheap enough, why not... Air filter is 99% of the time every ride, i keep 5 sitting there so theres usually no excuse to not change one, unless all 5 are dirty, then i go find a new hobby for the day....

i definitely don't put enough time on them to need to do any other maintenance to the motor.
 
hershey said:
Oil every now and then, filters when dirty and just did a top end on mine at 200 hours, no blow by, cross hatch still in the cylinder and valves all in spec.

Husky 450
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This seems to be the more norm than not. And much closer to what I do. To me, just seems like your wasting your time and money if your changing your oil every ride or every other race. A good synthetic oil is lasting way longer than that for sure. And over on vital these off road guys are saying they have 150, 200 and more hours on modern four strokes when they put top ends in. One guy had over 300 hours on his, and said it was running great when he put a top end in his bike.

I think most of the guys that have internal motor issues are the ones that are not riding stock bikes, and have torn into their bikes before.
 
Change my oil every weekend, depending how much time during the weekend, sometimes every other weekend. Air filter, every day, I usually have 5-6 ready to go, sometimes during the day. Yamaha Valves? every six months I check them, if I re-shim them twice in the time I have it (3-4 years), it gets new valves. This hasn't happened. Honda Valves? Check them every month, hopefully they make it through a season or 2. Top end? If I'm seriously racing, I will do the top end 2-3 times per year, because I'm seriously riding it. Probably 20-25 hours each. If I'm just racing local and practicing, I can usually stretch it a whole season, but she's pretty done by then. Timing chain every year whether it needs it or not. Crank? every two seasons, unless its a Yamaha crank, see valve comments above. Clutch? I've had very good results from running a full hinson clutch, and my oil change schedule helps a bunch. I usually smell the oil, if it doesn't stink then the clutch stays in until I do the top end.
 
For my 144:

Top every 20. Top and bottom every 40. That might Be overkill but I’d rather not push the big bore long intervals like I would a stock 4 stroke.
Oil change every 3 hours.

Air filter 1-2 rides, sand every ride. Hard pack...2-3. Depends.

My husky:

Books says every 1.0 hours change oil. I use belray with ester. Top shelf s**t. Change every 3 hours. 1 hour it doesnt look used. Hell after 3 it comes out still mostly blue with a slight grey hue. Probably could get away with 10 hours with that oil.

Change oil filter with every oil change.
Also do the fuel filter with every oil change.

Same with air filters. Almost every ride. I have a couple of pre filters I use at sand tracks. Went up to Michigan for a weekend. Ride at suoercoop. Peeled the pre filter off when I got to Baja. Was like new. Changed again once I got home....but that was nasty sand. Around Ohio I don’t use pre-filters. And if it’s not dusty don’t really have to change every ride.

I’m gonna run it in my lawnmower. That calls for oil change every 100 hours. We will see how it holds up in the zero turn.
 
Ovibously oil and filter, clean air filter but think what makes the most difference is staying off the Rev limiter as kills the valves in no time.
 
I know little to nothing about 4 strokes but my 2 strokes get an air filter change every ride or as needed. I actually just looked at the manual for my 250 and oil change said every 10 hours I want to say. That seems a bit long but I did try it this summer and the oil still looked like it did when I changed it after 2 rides. Typically I try to so a top end about 35 hours on my 250. Top end on my 125 is usually about 25 hours. I try to feel the crank out. It almost always ends up being once every 2 seasons and I split the cases and check everything over. Anything that is worn or needs replaced gets replaced.
 
Change trans oil and air filter every ride in my 2 strokes..I run shell rottela 15/40 so it’s cheap...250 top end and clutch once a year..
 
jfalat said:
Change trans oil and air filter every ride in my 2 strokes..I run shell rottela 15/40 so it’s cheap...250 top end and clutch once a year..
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+1 for rotella. stuff holds up well and is dirt cheap! ran it in all bikes 2 stroke and 4 stroke, a few of my cars, a few motorcycles, and of course my diesel truck lol. lots of that on the shelf in my garage!
 
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