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Perhaps the most convoluted oil change I've ever done (KTM)

oldGSfan

oldGSfan

Forum Sage
Past Site Supporter
2003 KTM 450 EXC - RFS (racing 4 stroke), they are tough engines, but given their intended use, the factory calls for oil change every 15 hours of use. 1.2L of synthetic 10W-50. That said, for a bike that gets fairly sedate use on streets and trails, and is never pushed to extremes, the interval can be stretched out.

There is a drain bolt at the rear of the engine, a short screen/screwed plug at the center of the pan, and another longer one on the side of the sump. There are also two filters, one long, one short, above the countershaft sprocket. Access to all is no problem, so that's good. The FSM says to lay the bike on its side and fill the oil filter housings half-fulll, saturate the filters, then assemble. Oh...Kayyy... done.

A 50HP single in a 250lb bike is mighty fun, but the oil change, wow.

T0GcZNF.jpg
 
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Good luck with your bike!

I've read way too much about various KTM bike engine failures to be comfortable buying a KTM. The LC8 engines are particularly prone. KTM seems to push power to the max, but there is a downside to that approach. Hopefully, the singles are better than the parallel twins.
 
Nessism said:
Good luck with your bike!

I've read way too much about various KTM bike engine failures to be comfortable buying a KTM. The LC8 engines are particularly prone. KTM seems to push power to the max, but there is a downside to that approach. Hopefully, the singles are better than the parallel twins.
Click to expand...

True for some of their engines, but not this one. The 'RFS' singles from '00 to '07 are said to be KTM's most robust. They evolved from Husqvarna and then Husaberg. Later, KTM acquired Husaberg for their 4-stroke tech. They have an enthusiastic following. Many put in a manual cam-chain tensioner, and they can run out of valve clearance fairly soon. It's a pretty short list of problem areas, and some have racked up high miles (like over 40K), but it takes more work, and lots of oil changes vs say, a DRZ400. It runs fantastic, carburets perfectly, and rips! Oh and it was $2,000, with clean title and current CA street registration. Sort of a unicorn. My son found his friend a 2003 low mile DRZ400S. Nice bike and good value, but it's porky, slow, and badly suspended compared to the KTM.
 
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There are anomalies in many vehicle repairs.

The most complicated that I ever encountered was not a motorcycle but a 1986 Toyota 4-runner that had a failed water pump.
Nothing to it...right?

Drain and remove the radiator, the fan and its belt, and get to work..

Remove the bolts at the bottom and sides of the cover, find a good place to pry and it pops off.

Nope. It does not come off because there is a bolt at the top of the cover that fits tightly against the cylinder head above.
You cannot even see that bolt, .......but the cover will stay in place until that bolt is removed. .

SO....you search all over the head for a means to get that bolt out.

You cannot find it easily, so you reason that you may have to remove a few other things to get at it.

First, you remove the shroud of the air filter, then the body and hoses.
Then you loosen and remove the fuel injector system....all of it.
A few more parts that have hoses, wires, springs and other bits must be removed, along with the valve cover.
And ......the plug wires have to come off before you pull out the distributor......no, I am not kidding.....mark its position before removal.

That bolt is still invisible.

You know it is at the front of the cylinder head., but it still cannot be seen.

So...take off the cam chain and the cam keepers...again, do not forget to mark the cam position before removal .....then take the whole cam shaft completely out.and set it aside....

And..then.........there it is!

Nestled in a little cavity at the front of the cylinder head, totally inaccessible until the cam shaft is removed, is that pesky bolt that MUST be removed in order to take off the water pump cover that sits outside the engine!
 
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Just wait Tom, it'll be worse the next time they make a change... Also the wife's 2000 Camaro fuel pump went out. The fuel tank is directly above the rear differential so to replace the pump remove rear exhaust system so you can remove the differential so you can remove the fuel tank so you can replace the $300 fuel pump... I'm still in the days of a $20 fuel pump from Western Auto, 2 bolts and 3 fuel line connectors under the hood, A 1 hr. job for less than $30. I guess those days are gone.
 
rphillips, I found a video that may help you. Not sure what language he's speaking. I'm guessing you may understand his dialect better that me. ;)

This guy got at it from above. Some fancy dremelling involved. If you can follow along w/out getting motion sickness from the slick camera work. I couldn't.
 
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Draining the engine oil on my K16 is no walk in the park.

It has two drain plugs, the normal outer plug, then the inner plug.
The inner plug is inside the engine about 3 inches from the outer plug.
​​Using a 5mm allen wrench you carefully unscrew the plug.
Hopefully it doesn't come off the little wrench, or you'll be searching for it with a magnet inside the engine.
God forbid you strip out the hex in the plug, then you're totally screwed!

A fellow on the K1600 forum makes a custom plug.
​​He welds on a small 1/4 inch drive socket to the plug.
Then you use a 3" long 1/4 inch drive extension to extract/install the plug.
It's still a very messy job...
 
My '14 Grand Cherokee has been a very reliable vehicle (believe it or not), but I'm a bit miffed at having to change the oil pressure sender.It reads 100 and showed up on OBDII as a sender fault, not the pump. Rather than mounting on the side of the engine as has been done for ages, they put it under the intake. I have to remove the manifold (replace the silicone gaskets). There are countless fiddly electrical connectors to get to it, and it needs a special thin-wall socket to remove. I don't think it'll pass smog with the check engine light on.
 
You'd think they need to think hard to do things that stupid.... One of Ford's new engines has the water pump situated so if a seal goes out in that pump, the water goes inside the crank case and mixes with the oil instead of leaking out on the ground... I think the folks at Ford have forgot their old ads, from yrs. ago, that said "Ford has a Better Idea"... Who has Ford hired that would think water inside the eng. oil was a "Better Idea?... Maybe it is better, I've just not seen it yet.
 
Yeah the Husky TE610 had a couple of filters etc etc... pain in the butt. :)

The Tenere is no more difficult than a GS (or the KLR) and the air filter is just as easy if not easier too. I like that part for sure. :)
 
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