Wow! its been a while since i posted that! I use my k 5 for ice racing only and since that post I never touched the engine. Two winters of burning tranny oil. But beleive it or not that bike still runs strong and is the only kx 500 out of about 8 other kx 500's that hasnt seized or blown out crank bearings. I havent fixed it because of time and finances ,but I still show up when the lakes freeze and the bike goes like a freight train . In fact it burns so much oil that Have to check it and add aproximately 400-500 ml of oil within about two hours of track time. This is quite the torture test I know, but the bike just wont quit. of course its sluggish off the line but at 95 mph + down the straights on a half mile ice oval it still rips. I jokingly call it my oil injected KX 500 I was thinking of putting two stoke oil in the tranny (just kidding). One other thing is that I only ended up using a 172 main jet ! even though the temperature was almost 30 degees colder than summer time! I know you will all think Im some kind of nut sack but its almost become a mission to see how much torture I can bring on this old 97 k5.
Oh did i mention that since Ive owned the bike since 98 its only had one new piston and rings installed! and thats being ridden for two years of mx and four years of ice racing.
Just goes to show you how tough thes bikes are.
I will be looking into doing a complete rebuild this fall however ,The whole works , maybee even rebalancing the crank for a higher rpm range we are also doing some engine theory on shortening the stroke and upping the bore dia .Yeah we think a little differently up her in CANADA.
Like the old saying goes "run what ya brung" and our fovorite "I dont give F&%K how they do it in CALIFORNIA.
