I keep going back and forth but I think I lean more towards 2 stroke these days! The 300 is a great machine!

L. L. I just mm. M m. I

Thanks!

I personally would not try to rebuild the head myself. To many things to go wrong especially when cutting the valve seats. I have been using FAST out of Utah and they will upgrade to the larger 2007 valves. They also use Del West valves which probably for the money are the best.

If you go to Rocky Mountain ATV or MotoSport they have exploded views in the OEM parts section that might help if you don't have a manual.

It's the OEM manual that came with the bike! Might still be available from Suzuki?

Everything turned out great! I noticed that too when I was putting it together but they wouldn't line up any other way so I think the drawing might be wrong. I can't remember but I think I found an actual picture of the engine that showed the indexing marks the way I did it and not how the drawing showed it.

@@peteregger7928 thank you for the prompt response. That is what I thought also. Love your videos.

Remove the timing port cover and the top engine valve cover. Rotate the engine counter clockwise until you see the flywheel timing marks inside the timing port. Line up the second flywheel timing mark as the flywheel comes around with the indexing mark on the timing port cover. Go to the top of the engine and inspect the timing index marks on the cam gears. There should be two small circular marks on each gear that are showing or you are not at "top dead center". Forward gear which is exhaust will have the left indexing mark aligned with the gasket surface of the head and the right indexing mark on the exhaust will be aligned at the 12 o'clock position. The rear cam gear intake will have the right indexing mark aligned with the gasket surface of the head and the left mark on the intake cam gear will be at 12 o'clock. Cam chain will have 15 pins which includes the pins that are aligned with the exhaust and intake cam gears at the 12 o'clock indexing marks. It is rare but most most brands press fit the cam gears to the cam shaft. The cam gear can rotate out of position on the cam shaft. It is very rare but does happen.

@@peteregger7928 okay I’m not good at doing that do you know someone that does that type of stuff or you can help me out

@@Lv.Chris17 I can advise and try to help you out online if you decide to try things yourself. I also only do actual work on my own machines for liability reasons. It could be I do everything right but parts are bad. If something happens was it me or the parts? Although there are some dealerships that actually know what they are doing your bank account usually gets destroyed. Most independent shops that are reputable will charge less, have insurance and a business license. This gives you some protections and guarantees if something goes sideways even if you end up in court! If you have the means there are a number of service providers that do good work such as ProCircuit but they're not cheap.

@@peteregger7928 okay do you know they are open tomorrow or have there address

@@Lv.Chris17 They are huge in the dirt bike industry and own a few MX and SX race teams. Just search online for "ProCircuit".

First adjust your pilot screw or what most people call the fuel screw 1 1/4" out. It's on the bottom near the front of the float bowl. After that start the bike and adjust the idle knob which is the large black plastic knob with a cable running up to the throttle valve housing cable pulley. You can remove the plastic cover and adjust the idle screw until it just touches the pulley and then go about another 3-4 turns clockwise with the plastic knob which raises the throttle valve. This is a good starting point. If the TPS throttle position sensor has been removed and wasn't marked this is another procedure that requires a multimeter to get it set correctly. Measuring across the carburetor connector pins BI + and B - it should read a total resistance somewhere between 4-6K ohms. Measure across Y + and B - with throttle fully closed it should read between 0.6K - 1K ohms. Throttle fully open it should read 3.2K - 5.0K ohms.

More than happy to help! If you run into trouble or have some questions just let me know!

@@peteregger7928 I have the bottom end rebuild and put back together but I am stuck at putting the rings on the piston to go into the cylinder

@@blakeingram1958 On the bottom groove of the piston which is the oil control rings install the spacer. Spacer ends will butt up against each other. The spacer ends do not overlap they just butt up against each other. Spacer gap faces forward in the cylinder. Install the lower oil control ring with the gap facing 25 degrees to the right of facing forward in the cylinder. Install the top oil control ring with the gap facing 25 degrees to the left of facing forward in the cylinder. There is no top or bottom direction on the oil control rings so just install them making sure the spacer is sandwiched in the middle and that the spacer did not move into an overlapped position. The top piston ring or compression ring goes in the upper piston groove and is directional. There should be a mark or letter near the ring gap and this mark needs to face up. OEM Suzuki compression ring will have the letter 'R" showing the rings top direction... the mark or letter facing up. Install the compression ring with the gap facing to the rear of the cylinder. Before installing the rings make sure that all your ring end gaps are correct. Manual states 0.08 - 0.20mm (.003" - .008") with the max limit at 0.50mm (.020"). I would try to split the difference at 0.14mm (.006"). The gap being more to the larger size would be my preference as you do not want the rings to damage the cylinder or piston if they can no longer expand from heat.

​@Peter Egger apologize for the inconvenience trying make progress I have bad ocd and me putting 25 degrees on the left and 25 degrees to the left I am beating myself up trying to make theses rings on the piston correctly first dirt bike I owned just trying to make it rite any more information would be helpful thanks again for everything

@@blakeingram1958 Doesn't have to be exact. Oil control spacer gap faces forward. The lower right oil control ring gap according to the book faces off to the right of center and the upper oil control ring gap to the left of center. The idea is that the oil control spacer, upper and lower oil control ring gaps are not aligned to control oil and minimize compression loss. The main purpose for these two rings and spacer is oil control. The very top single ring of the piston is only for compression and it's gap faces to the rear.

If you mean the cam buckets that sit over the top of the valve springs something is wrong. Wrong springs or buckets would be the only cause I can think of? If your not the original owner someone may have also done some custom work to the head using different size exhaust and intake springs/buckets and are no longer interchangeable. You may try swapping them around and see if that works. Strange case either way!

Well I took them off just can't get the two on the exhaust side back on

@@mattt5179 I would try the ones that you have on the intakes and see if they fit on the exhaust. Something weird is going on!

Its an 05 rmz 450. They aren't the same size

@@mattt5179 Sorry, it's been awhile. The exhaust and intake tappets do have different P/N's so it stands to reason they are different sizes. Sounds like you just have them swapped around?

Ha! Ha! Owned a brand new 2004 Honda CRF250R. That thing went through valves about every 20 hours or would have to be re-shimmed. When in perfect tune it would take about 30 kicks to start no matter what and if it was below 45 F, forget about it!. They may be doing better now though since they got away from the UniCam design. Once it was warmed up it would start within a few kicks. Owned two brand new Yamaha's and they both shit on me bad $$$! One of them within 10 hours and none of the issues were maintenance related. They make good pianos though. The 2005 Suzuki RMZ450 has actually been one of my more reliable bikes overall. It's probably got over 900 hours! On it's second crankshaft, third head rebuild and I lost count on top ends but I think at least three top end rebuilds. The KX500AF (aluminum frame) has probably less than 300 hours but is on it's second crankshaft and has broken every spring there is to break on the clutch side, but not all at the same time. It snapped a water pump drive gear off the crankshaft which also required splitting the cases. The cases had to be split so that Electro-Discharge-Machining could be performed to get the broken piece out. The original cylinder plating wore out very quickly and it's on it's third piston. My oldest KTM was purchased brand new in late 2010 which is my 2011 450SX-F. I've got well over 400 hours on it and haven't even had the valve cover off! I have done nothing to it! It's been 100%. My 2012 KTM 250SX has about 300 hours on the same piston ( I know... I need to change it soon!). Replaced the pipe because it kept cracking at the spring eyelet but other than that it's been 100%. My 2015 KTM450SX-F has over 300 hours and the same story as my 2011. I have done nothing to it! 100%. In my experience the Japanese bikes have all failed at a much higher rate whether 2 stroke or 4 stroke. If I buy something new it will be another KTM or Husky 2 stroke because so far they just hold up for me. They all fail eventually but in my experience it's much cheaper to maintain or repair a 2 stroke when they need routine maintenance or repair from a catastrophic. These are just my experiences.

​@@peteregger7928 Fair enough! It is all relative to personal experience for sure. One of my best friends just finally sold his 2006 YZ250F he bought new and has been riding ever since. He never kept up on the maintenance well, rode the shit out of it everywhere trying to keep up with 450's, never had to open the valve cover and the thing fired first kick hot or cold and had over 500 hours on it. Truly incredible, especially for a small bore like that. Before that he had a '98 YZ400F that was the same story. I'd be interested to know what problems you had with your Yamaha's though. I believe 2004 was the first year of the 250R and yeah, that's about the least reliable bike I could have thought of for a Honda haha. It was terrible. The 450X I truly believe is one of the, if not THE, best desert bike ever made in terms of it's reliability and power delivery (once uncorked) and after putting about 5 hours on a new one, I decided to stick with my 2009 for the next few years. Really I think if you take care of anything it will take care of you, but shit does happen I guess. I race long distance stuff and am hard on my bike but it's the most solid bike I've owned so I'm a believer in Honda probably as you are rightfully with KTM. You're one of the few who still ride in this heat, I got your number maybe we can ride sometime this summer.

@@dougmcgill9294 Anytime you want to ride!