P500 P500 Cylinder and Piston Question

[Keebler]

Anyone with experience on a Niche top end rebuild kit. It appears that I can get a Cylinder, Piston, and gasket kit for about $135 while other kits can cost about $500. My two rules of thumb are "If it is too good to be true it is not true" and "you get what you pay for", do these rules of thumb apply? I like saving money but I don't like doing the same job twice.

 

[Admin]

 

[Mudder]

Anyone with experience on a Niche top end rebuild kit. It appears that I can get a Cylinder, Piston, and gasket kit for about $135 while other kits can cost about $500. My two rules of thumb are "If it is too good to be true it is not true" and "you get what you pay for", do these rules of thumb apply? I like saving money but I don't like doing the same job twice.

Maybe @906UP can chime in, an expert mechanic on these.

 

[906UP]

I've heard of Niche on Amazon, seems like a Chinese knock off company like Vevor, might be OK.....might not. How much risk are you willing to accept

 

[futzin]

Anyone with experience on a Niche top end rebuild kit. It appears that I can get a Cylinder, Piston, and gasket kit for about $135 while other kits can cost about $500. My two rules of thumb are "If it is too good to be true it is not true" and "you get what you pay for", do these rules of thumb apply? I like saving money but I don't like doing the same job twice.

Is your buggy sick?
Are you still attending MOM?

 

[Keebler]

My buggy is sick and I removed myself from the MOM registration a couple days ago. When I first bought my P500 in 2021 it had 500 miles on the odometer and I decided it didn't have a hard enough life so I took it swimming. After clearing the water from the cylinder and changing the oil and gas it ran good until about 6 months ago. Now with 2500 miles on it burns oil so I am pretty sure my oil rings lost temper when hit with the cold water and are probably stuck in the ring groove now. To be safe I am going to replace both the cylinder and piston. I am hoping to have it ready for the Hatfield and McCoy ride the end of October.

 

[futzin]

Sorry to hear that, brother.
Hope you get it lined out without issues.

 

[906UP]

My buggy is sick and I removed myself from the MOM registration a couple days ago. When I first bought my P500 in 2021 it had 500 miles on the odometer and I decided it didn't have a hard enough life so I took it swimming. After clearing the water from the cylinder and changing the oil and gas it ran good until about 6 months ago. Now with 2500 miles on it burns oil so I am pretty sure my oil rings lost temper when hit with the cold water and are probably stuck in the ring groove now. To be safe I am going to replace both the cylinder and piston. I am hoping to have it ready for the Hatfield and McCoy ride the end of October.

From what I've seen, these little engines are more likely to burn oil from bad valve seals than rings. How much oil are you burning/losing?

 

[Hello_Darkness]

Niche and Caltrac are literal garbage

 

[ODAMO]

Niche and Caltrac are literal garbage

That’s what china is best at. Filling our landfills

 

[Keebler]

I've heard of Niche on Amazon, seems like a Chinese knock off company like Vevor, might be OK.....might not. How much risk are you willing to accepNot much, I don't like being stuck in the middle of nowhere. I am now looking for a good machine shop to tell me if the stock cylinder needs to be bored and then what size piston to buy.

From what I've seen, these little engines are more likely to burn oil from bad valve seals than rings. How much oil are you burning/losing?

About 1/2 quart in 200 miles of trail riding.

 

[906UP]

About 1/2 quart in 200 miles of trail riding.

Any smoke from the exhaust? On acceleration looks at the rings, on deceleration or on cold start up look at valve seals.

Have you checked the airbox lately? Any oil in there?

 

[Neohio]

After recently working on a 500, if the cylinder is bad, look into boring it out. Honda has oversize pistons and rings available for this engine. But stick with @906UP he will get you steered in the right direction.

 

[Jerryg]

Always use OEM parts

 

[Keebler]

Any smoke from the exhaust? On acceleration looks at the rings, on deceleration or on cold start up look at valve seals.

Have you checked the airbox lately? Any oil in there?

Smoke sometime at startup and decelerating with a lot of engine braking. I did have oil in the airbox about 1000 miles ago but I attributed that to over oiling the air filter. I cleaned the oil out and cleaned and reoiled the filter with much less filter oil and no repeat of oil in the airbox.

 

[906UP]

Smoke sometime at startup and decelerating with a lot of engine braking

That screams valve seals


Also, too much or too heavy of oil on the air filter can cause excessive vacuum in the airbox and pull oil out of the engine through the vent tube, especially on long, high rpm runs.

 

[Keebler]

That screams valve seals


Also, too much or too heavy of oil on the air filter can cause excessive vacuum in the airbox and pull oil out of the engine through the vent tube, especially on long, high rpm runs.

Thanks for all the info. I have decided to use Honda parts. I will take the cylinder to a machine shop and let then determine if I need a bore or just a hone. I do plan on replacing the piston and rings since I am already have them out and the engine has previously be flooded with possible

 

[DRZRon1]

Thanks for all the info. I have decided to use Honda parts. I will take the cylinder to a machine shop and let then determine if I need a bore or just a hone. I do plan on replacing the piston and rings since I am already have them out and the engine has previously be flooded with possible

life is about decisions - u made a good decision not using china crap