2007 Honda foreman 500 4x4 es smoking

[Ejwill]

Yeah, they say it’s really pretty down there. Would love to see it but I think it would be a difficult drive. And I can’t afford to fly. Maybe they’ll build a bridge someday.  Boy that would be a long ride. Guess I’ll just have to look at some of the hunting shows from down there.

[Gwbarm]

Which rebuild kit did you end up going with or did you use OEM parts?

[Mech]

The south island has all the really spectacular scenery EJ. I'm in the far north of the north island, lots of white sand beaches and "alternative lifestyle" people..  haha. I live in a shed and haven't lived in a house for.. er.. forty-eight years..  Shed, boat, shed and now this shed..Most of the sheds and the boat didn't have running water or heating. The climate's mild though. I'm free-hold, don't get a power bill, the sons pay the rates/land tax. I have my two sons, their wives and partners, and three grandchildren all living on the land..  Life's simple and good to me. Now, if I can just get over this bad hip..  haha.

[jen]

LOve too see pictures of that....WOW  

[Ejwill]

I’ve run into a bit of a problem. I managed to get the piston in the cylinder and was trying to get it on the crank. The four long bolts that have to go through the cylinder just would not go. After looking at it a few minutes, it appeared the four bolts were all leaning the same direction, not straight up and down but not really bent. I checked them with a torpedo level and they were level front to rear. They were a little over 1” left to right out of level. So I put the level across the crankcase flange and it was out of level a little over 1” left to right. So I may be wrong has happened before, the engine is out of level left to right. Right after I got it I was servicing it and noticed the top motor mount didn’t have a bolt in it and was about to come apart. Is there any way the motor could have shifted. The cylinder is hitting the side of the frame on the right side before it will line up with the bolts. Anyone seen anything like this. Or have any ideas on making the bolt holes in the cylinder line up with the bolts in the crank. Hope I haven’t totally confused everyone, if I need to try again I will or answer any question to clear up what I’m trying to say. Thanks for all your patience and help.

[Ejwill]

Ok got the cylinder on with some shifting around. I got it to the point I needed to put the piston rod through the crank. There has to be an easier way of doing it. On two different occasions I tried to push the pen through the crank and missed it both times. I can’t see it so I have no idea if it’s lined up with the piston rod. With my diabetic neuropathy in my hands and having no help it has about worn me out. Am I doing something wrong or is it hit or miss? Thanks for your help.

[Gwbarm]

The way i do it is put the pin in the piston about half inch line up the holes and push it through. The part im not following, you say you have the cylinder on, how do you have the cylinder on if the piston is not attached to the crank rod yet.

[Ejwill]

The manual I’m using had the piston in the cylinder and then attach it to the crank. I looked on YouTube and saw they put the piston on the crank arm then fed the rings into the cylinder as it went on. I did it that way I have the cylinder and piston on, and moving on to the valves. I’ve got to wait on some parts mainly the valve stem seals. I had ordered a part that I didn’t really need for this build, it was out of stock so they were going to wait for it to come in before they shipped the items I need now. I called them and told them I needed those seals yesterday. They said they would ship the items that were in stock now and ship the other item when it came in. With the humidity and temperature it’s a feel like temp of 110. It feels worse than that in the garage. I’m going to work on the valves in the house in the A.C. Before I have to go out and put it on. I use a box fan in the garage, but all it does is blows hot air. Sorry for the mixup, I think I’ve got it straight for now. It called for non hardening gasket sealant on the cylinder, should I use it on the other gaskets too? It didn’t say one way or the other. Don’t guess it would hurt.

[Gwbarm]

I figured you must have put the piston in first after i did the post,, never tried it that way, it might be easier that way, then you dont have to tilt your neck at weird angles to see if the rings went into the cylinder. It is definately a good idea to do the valves inside, we are also having some of those 110  heat index days, it so hot out there is hard to breathe and concentrate.

[Mech]

It's always best to fit the piston to the rod first, then center the rings on the piston, then lower the cylinder down onto the piston. As long as you hold the piston square to the cylinder the rings will compress and go in with just a bump of the hand on top of the cylinder. One way to make sure the piston is square on to the cylinder is to put two bars across the crankcase under the cylinder and sit the piston down on them. The bars aren't generally required for a single cylinder but they help a lot on twin cylinder engines.

For gasket sealer I highly recommend loctite master sealer 518. It doesn't start to harden till you actually clamp the two surfaces together. That means that if you have a hold up, or want to stop for a few hours, it will sit there waiting for you to bolt things up.If you buy a small syringe of it. it will last for years on the shelf, and it's extremely economical and clean to apply and wipe off. Most sealers, once you open the tube it starts going hard in the tube and so you need  new a tube if/every time you need  bit more a few months later. If you do a search in here for loctite you will see me enthusing about it at length.. I never use anything else.

A possible reason for the engine leaning over might be that it's rubber mounted and the rubber bushes are worn.. That would be unusual but..

[Ejwill]

Yeah, I got the loctite 518 when you mentioned it before. I put it on both sides of the gasket. I’ve had good results with it. I think you could use it without a gasket if you had to. But I use a gasket plus the 518. Everyone should try it, it’s good stuff. Mine came in a tube couldn’t find it in a syringe. But it still applies easily and like you say it’ll be there when you’re ready to start back.

[Gwbarm]

Sounds like your moving right along with the rebuild, did you put it new piston cylinder and rings or just rings. From what i remember from one of your earlier posts you only had a bad oil ring.

[Mech]

#101  Yeah I've noticed that it doesn't seem to get packed in the syringe in USA. Here though, the syringe is the most common way of finding it. And yeah, it seals just fine case to case, with no gasket. 

[Ejwill]

On 7/26/2025 at 1:32 PM, Gwbarm said:

Sounds like your moving right along with the rebuild, did you put it new piston cylinder and rings or just rings. From what i remember from one of your earlier posts you only had a bad oil ring.

I’d like to be working on it now but the place I ordered the valve stem seals from, they’ve had the label produced but haven’t got it to the usps, today is the third day that they have failed to get it to the post office. I live about one hour west of Savannah, Ga. And the parts ship from Albany, Ga. With usps packages leave Albany, go to Tallahassee Fl. Then Jacksonville Fl. Then to Atlanta Ga. Then back to Macon Ga. Then to Statesboro Ga. I’m almost to the point of driving over there and picking them up. I ordered two circlips for $2.80 and shipping was almost $9.00. But it’ll get here eventually.

[Ejwill]

Well, I got it back together except for some of the plastic. I cranked it and let it run a while. I checked the compression it was 170. Can’t ride it to see how it does, I’ve got two flat tires that need new valve stems. Tubeless tires got to break the bead to put the valve stems in. I know they make the kits you can put the valve stems in without breaking the bead, but I’ve got the wrong size for my rims. When it was running I really couldn’t see smoke out the exhaust like it was, actually couldn’t see any. There was some smoke coming from the motor but I think it had some oil on it and had to burn it off, which I believe it already has. So far so good, just have to fix these two tires so I can see what it will do under power. Thanks for everyone’s help, couldn’t have finished with out your help. From mechanical help to emotional help that picked me up and gave me the Desire to keep on going. There’s not just one reply that solved this, but a combination of replies. I know when I started the top end rebuild, when I got down to the valves the exhaust side had a large amount of carbon buildup on and around it in the combustion chamber. So I checked everything pretty close on that side. I lapped the exhaust valve twice just to make sure it was ok. I also lapped the intake valve.Used the blueing to check the seal and it looked good. I poured solvent in the exhaust chamber, behind the valve to check if it was letting the solvent leak by it didn’t so I was satisfied that the seals were mating up good. Just have to wait until I get the tires fixed to check the power out. When I get them fixed and ride it some where I can open it up if it operating properly I’ll post that it’s still going ok, or if it doesn’t work out I’ll post that also. Hopefully it’ll continue running good and has stopped smoking so bad it looked like I was leaving a vapor trail.

[Gwbarm]

Thats great! Got it back together and running, excellent accomplishment, smoking stopped,sounds like it was the oil ring . Iv got to tackle some tires myself been putting it off, other projects are taking priority, i just decided if i have to break the bead just go ahead and put on new tires and paint the rims while off and also valve stems.