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Advice For Restarting An 2-stroke Engine That Was Run Without Oil


bwc352
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I'm trying to help out a kid who recently acquired an air-cooled 2-stroke trials bike and then ran it without any oil. His father assured the kid that the bike was a 4-stroke because he found a plug that said "oil" in the engine. Of course, that was for the transmission oil! So, the kid filled the tank up with straight gas and started the bike up. After a while, he apparently became worried about the strange popping and pinging noises he said he heard coming from the cylinder. At that point he shut the engine down. He later called me to see if I knew why his engine would be making such strange noises. Adding to the problem, was the fact that the bike had been previously drained of all it's fuel because it had been put in long term storage. So, there wasn't even a little bit of premix left in the bike's carb. I don't know how severe the engine noise was, or how long it was run, or whether it was truly shut off, rather than stalling or seizing. He said it was shut off, so if true, it at least didn't seize. The kid doesn't have the means or ability to easily take the top end apart. He just wants to now add premix and try to start it again. I suggested that he wait while I tried to track down some advice for him. What's the best approach for him to take right now? I'm thinking he has to not only drain the tank, but also the carb bowl, to speed up the delivery of oil to the engine. But are there any other steps that could easily be taken by a kid without much mechanical ability in this situation that would help lessen any additional damage to the engine? Maybe something like dropping a few drops of 2-stroke oil down the spark plug hole?? I'll relay whatever advice I get to him and hope for the best for him. Thanks.

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Most trials air cooled 2 stroke engines have had a fair bit of abuse in their life and a little rattle is quite normal. In this case drain everything and use 40:1 mix for aircooled. Take the plug out and give a couple of teaspoonfuls of oil in the head, ease the kicker over slowly and allow the oil to seep past the rings and line the cyclinder and piston. Of course it will smoke a bit on start up but then should settle down.

Tony

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If the engine still spins and there is compression there it probably isn't that bad. Usually the result of no oil is a stuck piston and or damaged ring grooves causing the rings to stick. The above advice is about all you can do short of a teardown for a look.

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Thanks all! Your advice and optimism meshes with what I had been thinking. I'll relay the advice and hope he does OK with it. He's a nice kid and it would be good to have another rider in our general vicinity.

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