I cant remember exactly where it cracked but I do know it cracked into the water jacket in the upper portion of the jug not into the crankcase of the lower skirt. I think it may have been either at 10 or 2 O'clock looking down on the cyl from the rideing position. I dont have it anymore. I sent it to Bill Blue. Bill confirmed the piston and rings pretty much escaped unscathed although for safe measure one would want to replace the rings.

Cheers, Jim

 

Waiting to hear the outcome of this situation. If it is true that he only had 400 miles on the 351 kit.....well.....at least the cylinder came with a warranty....right?

 

4,000 smiles on my 351. Zero problems. Rear tire wears out quicker.


David

Edit:

I bet Bill could press a new sleeve in.

 

I'm still waiting to hear if merickk will be able to tell which came first...the boilover or the crack. We have very little detail on any of this and hopefully will get more detail when he's back home and has a chance for diagnosis. It's possible that he may not even be able to tell exactly what happened. It would be great if Bill Blue could see the pic. Anybody who did business with him on a 351, maybe they could send a pic?

 

merickk has updated his thread over on ADV-Rockies section with some good pics. The bike never "blew up" apparently. It sounds like Bill Blue has his cylinder. I'm still waiting to hear about the overheating issue.

 

I read where a higher bar radiator cap can help with boil overs/loss of coolant. Interesting to see if he was experiencing any steaming/boiling issues before it happened, what conditions he was riding in.

 

IF your cooling system is up to par, the cap will not help. If not, it will contain the coolant to a higher temperature before it can get out. Which also could result in the coolant escaping through a hose or radiator tank in a hurry!

David

 

We got back from vacation late Sunday evening. I dont have Merickk's cylinder he cant send it to me until later in the week. I will look at it to determine what happened. There was one other sleeve that cracked it was one of the earlier number sleeve there has been no changes to the configuration of the sleeve from number one to the current sleeves I am at number 187.
Bill

 

I took my Bill Blue Big bore kitted klx & te450 out to Ocotillo/Plaster City/Superstition mtns two weekends ago. Ran it in 106* heat had no boiling over issues/coolant loss. Was only miserable when stopped. Ran great I am stoked at the immense power improvement with the big bore kit.

 

merickk updated his post on the Rockies forum. Though not crystal clear at this time, it's sounding a bit like an overheat at some point that didn't result in an immediate failure of the cylinder but may have set up the eventual crack. Maybe Bill will comment more here.