I grew up on a dairy farm where we strctly ran Yamaha Wolverines and they worked great. We never had any trouble with them even after an occasional roll over. After moving to alaska i jumped at the chance to buy a used wolverine but there are some problems with this one.

I purchased an 04 wolverine with a 350 that was supposedly built .060 over. The engine runs really well except it smokes a little bit. It seems that it gets hot after running for a while as well. It runs really well but it burns oil, smokes a little, and there has been oil getting in the air cleaner box. I do not do wheelies with this machine and have not rolled it at all. Which a technician told me could be why the oil is in the air box. I was also told that if a head gasket is put in that is only .040 over or less the gasket will stick out and cause oil to get by the piston. I have rebuilt severeral car engines but haven't worked on atv's much yet. I was planning on getting a gasket set for the top end of the motor and rebuilding it. Should I look for new piston rings and do that at the same time... or should i just go all out and buy a complete rebuild kit and rebuild the whole thing? I could use some ideas from anyone who knows more about this than me.

I have also been using the pull starter for the machine which works well. But when i use the electric start the starter grinds loudly. It wasnt too bad at first but the last time i tried to use it the starter wouldnt spin and seemed to bind up. I was told that these machines make some noise at start up when it is cold out but this isn't normal. I was told that this is simply an $80 starter clutch but i dont know... any advice would help.

Other than these problems the machine does very well and is a work horse. I used it to skid logs for a cabin i am building and it worked great. I would like to get tihs running top notch so that I dont have to worry about it quiting (hasn't yet) on me when i am hunting 10 miles or more from the truck and 100 or more from town.

 

I wonder if the rings are letting some presure get by and that is cousing presure in the bottom end of the motor, Is there a crank breather hose going to the airbox. Maybe the leaking rings are forcing oil into the airbox. If that is the case I would rebuild the top end.

 

As far as i remember the only opening into the air box is to the carbuerator. Does anyone else have any ideas?

 

<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: TRLYFZ450

I wonder if the rings are letting some presure get by and that is cousing presure in the bottom end of the motor, Is there a crank breather hose going to the airbox. Maybe the leaking rings are forcing oil into the airbox. If that is the case I would rebuild the top end.</end quote></div>


There is a engine vent hose that runs from the cam gear cover to the airbox snorkel.
It is baffled very well on the inside of the cam cover so it would have to have a lot of blowby past the rings to force oil up the hose to the airbox.

 

I have talked to a few other people who have suggested I tear the machine down before ordering any thing. I also talked to someone who told me that they dont make kits for anything built over .040 and that I would need to shave a head gasket from a normal kit to .060 to prevent any over lap and seal the gasket corrrectly. I guess I am planning on buying a complete rebuild kit and new .060 rings before I tear it down and if I encounter any more problems I can order additional parts. Any one out there have any additional suggestions or ideas? I appreciate any input. Thanks

 

well if you decide to do a complete rebuild talk to Mickey dunlap at FST and you might end up with a big bore kit instead of just a stock rebuild kit.