Hello, John Talley here with partzilla.com.
Today we're going to be looking at the top end on our 2003 Honda Rancher 350.
Now what's going on with this one?
Well, actually when she gets warmed up, starts to blow out a little bit of blue smoke.
So something is going on either with the head or the piston and rings.
So what are we gonna do?
Well, we're going to crank it up, let it warm up, and then we're going to go ahead and do
a compression test.
That'll kind of give me baseline as to what's going on with it.
After that, we're going to go ahead and pull the plastics off, get the fuel tank out of
the way, and then start tearing into the engine itself.
So if you're ready, let me go grab a couple of tools and I'll show you how to get it done.
Alright, this is gong to be a skill level three, but don't be afraid of it, it's not
going to be that bad.
Let's go over some of the tools that you're going to need to get this pulled apart.
First you want to get a couple of good ratchets, a 3/8ths and then a 1/4 inch.
You also want to go ahead and get a big breaker bar because I know from experience that those
head bolts are on there pretty tight.
other than than, you're going to need a full array of different extensions whether they're
half inch, or 3/8ths, or 1/4 inch.
It'll just make life a lot easier when you're trying to get the ratchets down there with
different nuts and bolts.
AS far as the different sockets you're going to need?
You need a range from an 8mm up to about a 14.
Beyond that you'll need a spark plug socket and then a 6mm Allen.
As far as regular wrenches, just need a 10mm, a 14mm, need a couple of good screwdrivers,
a flathead and a Phillips.
A little bit of a prybar, probably going to need that to bring up the cylinder.
Other than that, a set of side cutters, a set of needlenose pliers, and that'll be good
to go on the tools.
Now if you would, go ahead and go to our website and reference our exploded diagrams.
That'll give you a really good picture of everything we're going to be taking apart
so you won't leave anything out.
So, once you have your tools together, you've got your computer open and you're looking
at that exploded diagram, we can get started.
Alright, we've got her up to temp.
What we're going to do is go ahead and do a quick compression test on it and just see
where it stands.
I'd say we're definitely going to find an issue in here because this plug is jet black
with a fair amount of oil on it.
So there's definitely something going on in there.
What we're looking for here is gonna be something north of 90 PSI.
So, what we need to do is hold the throttle open, crank it over about four or five times,
and see what we got.
Alright, looks like we settled in at about 65, so, evidently there's something going
on on the inside of that engine.
So, we're going to go ahead and continue on and get the plastics off, get the fuel tank
out of the way, start bringing it down.
Step one, let's go ahead and disconnect the battery.
what I'll probably do is just go ahead and remove it all the way, put it on a trickle
charger.
That way, we're absolutely sure that we've got a hot battery when we go to restart.
Let's go ahead and get some of this plastic out of the way.
As you can tell, this plastic is looking a little bit rough, but that's going to be for
a different video.
We're not concerned with that right now.
Let's get it running right, and then we'll make it look better.
I'm just using a set of side cutters to very carefully just pull these little plastic rivets
out.
These things are really inexpensive, so when you get ready to order your parts, don't forget
to add this to your basket.
Something I haven't mentioned yet is we can start getting to the different sections you're
going to want to start bagging and tagging your different nuts and bolts because it all
seems really easy right now.
Everything is going to come flying apart on the machine, but when it comes time to put
it back together, you're going to look at this particular nut or bolt and go "now where
did that go?"
Well, let's go ahead and get the airbox.
you just need to loosen the clam going to the back of the carburetor in this air induction
channel.
Then there's a hose going down to the crankcase for its vent and then there's just one 10mm
bolt on the very bottom of the air filter box.
You can actually get to it going straight through here and it's down there at the bottom.
Go ahead and pull this intake rivet right here so once we got those the unit will slide
back and we can just lift off the whole thing as an assembly.
Alright next, let's go ahead and turn our fuel off.
Now we can disconnect our fuel line.
You may need to put a drip pan under it because I would image a little bit is going to dribble
out.
Get these vent lines up and out of the way.
Get this removed.
Let's go ahead and take off the fuel line.
and then there's one electrical connection for the carb heater.
Reach under that edge, there's a little tab that you pull up and then it'll release.
Let's loosen up the clamp that goes to the intake boot on the front of the carburetor.
And she should just pop right off.
After that, grab a 14mm wrench and we'll take off the choke and we're going to pull this
cover.
There's only one Phillips holding it, and that'll shed the connection to the throttle
cable.
We can push this little boot up, and get a 10mm wrench.
Break that loose and then we just unscrew it until it clears.
Pull it up through that little channel, bring it around, and she's clear.
Alright, let's go ahead and get the fuel tank off.
Basically there's just three 10mm bolts holding it in place.
Two up front and just one dead center in the back.
Actually I need to go ahead and pull this little handle off because it actually goes
through a piece of plastic that goes to the turnoff valve for the tank.
That needs to go ahead and get unscrewed and taken out before we can lift it out.
Make sure you feed your hose out.
Bring it back and then lift it out.
Good grief the thing was about full.
Next, let's go ahead and get those permanent zip ties disconnected and that'll release
all the cables.
Then there's a couple of more rivets that need to come out and we'll lift out this plastic
shelf.
We are about to open up this engine, so if yours looks worse than this one as far as
all the mud and everything around it, get it cleaned up a little bit before we actually
open up the engine.
I'm just going to clean this up with a wire brush and then we'll start to get the exhaust
off, and go ahead and start to pull the engine down.
It starts by just removing the muffler.
Basically you've got two bolts that are attaching it to the hanging points on the frame itself,
and then there's a clamp that you just need to loosen up and we should be able to just
shimmy it off.
Alright, let's get the head pipe removed.
There.
Then just pull it straight off.
Alright, and we're going to pull the valve cover.
And then we're going to pull an inspection plug down at the bottom and we're going to
bring it around to top dead center.
And the reason I'm doing this first is it's the only way I can tell if I'm on the compression
stroke is to see if there's any tension on the rocker arms.
Alright, the only way we can get the engine to turn over is to use this recoil starter.
And what we're looking for is to bring it around to that timing mark.
This is going to be just a bit tricky.
Alright, there it is.
Hear that?
Now it's just set to the tolerances, so that's top dead center on the compression stroke.
Alright, let's go ahead and remove that top motor mount, which is actually going to the
head.
A couple of 12mms that go in and then there's going to be a 14mm that goes through that
top section, which is the rubber insulated part.
Need to go ahead and get these-- this 10 and this 12 out.
Alright, before we get those four main head bolts, two 10mm ones on the side-- go ahead
and get those released.
That way the only thing left holding it down are there four.
And what we need to do is bring those off a quarter turn at a time going in a criss-cross
pattern because that's going to relieve all of the tension that's holding the head down.
Alright we are almost there, I just need to go ahead and pull the intake so it'll clear
this cross member on the frame.
Not looking too bad but it's awfully oily in there.
Something is letting oil get into the combustion chamber.
I'm betting the piston rings at this point, but we will be taking a look at the valves
and the seats as well.
Let's go ahead and get the jug off.
and see what she looks like.
Carefully reach up under here and see if we can get it to break loose of the base gasket.
There we go.
Dont' pry too hard you don't want to break off one of the fins on the cylinder.
And there's two more dowels down at the bottom.
At this point, I highly recommend that you go ahead and get some of your shop towels
and place them around the crank area because it would not be pleasant to drop something
in there right now-- like a nut or bolt.
Let's go ahead and remove one of our wrist pin circlips, that way we can get the wrist
pin pushed out and take the piston off.
There we go.
Alright, from the looks of the piston, looks like a fair amount of oil was getting pushed
by them.
I'm looking between the rings, so I think that's what we were running up against.
Taking a peek at the cylinder itself, it's actually not in that bad a shape.
I don't feel a lip or anything down at the bottom from where the piston rings travel.
What I have notice, there's a few wear marks right here, so could I get away with just
putting new rings in it?
Well, probably, but since we're in here and honestly the parts aren't really that expensive,
I think I'm going to go ahead and bore it probably one or two sizes over.
Well alright guys, that pretty much wraps this one up.
All that's left for me is to get on partzilla.com and start ordering some parts so we can get
this thing put back together.
In the meantime, going to go ahead and send off that cylinder, get it bored out, probably
going to go ahead and replace at least the valves and the valve seals.
So, if you would, while I'm getting those parts ordered at partzilla, follow us over
to the next video and I'll show you how to begin to put this back together.
and until next time we just want to say thanks for watching.