Hello Glenn, yeah i thought it seemed to be a little bit to "hollow" when i banged on it with a stick. But after taking it apart it dawned on me that this probebly isnt that unusuall on an ATV , you should be able to submerge the ATV fairly high up when you drive cross over streams and such.. so i guess no part of the engine can let water or dirt get into the system .. Me just using it as a tractor at the homestead never tought that much about it before , but it didnt seem that far catched when i got to think about it.