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went to local moto shop, told me they never even heard of piston failure on 220 and that the skirt cracking is from improper break in technique and not letting it get warmed up when it is getting cold outside. any of you who still have the oem piston in your 220 how long have you run the piston for. anyway my dad says that 2 stroke pistons need to be replaced every few years, so he says we will do it next winter since nothing is wrong with it right know. i think he is crazy, but if my piston does go eventually it will any way but if we open it up and there is a bunch of metal in it, i am going to say "I told you so". any way i ordered a v-force 3 reed cage mechanic says it will make a world of difference over boyessen power reeds. i dont know whatever.

While you live under Dad's Roof, becareful with the "I TOLD YOU SO"

good advice.

Just my observation, but it seems the pistons fail most often, if not exclusively, on 220's that have been modified. (Such as VForce reeds, for example)
You may want to hold off on hop-ups until you get the piston replaced.

trail rider, i am most likey in the situation you were in, im not sure if you cant ride right now becasue of snow or if you can ride all year round. But like ski said, i wouldnt modify your bike untill, you get your piston kit. go to rockymountainmc.com, get the weisco kit, thats were i ordered mine two days ago. It comes with the piston, circlips, rings, and piston pin. It doesnt show the piston pin the the pic but it says it comes with it in the description. Dont forgot to order the wrist pin bearing though. That does not come with the kit. There $80.00 for the kit is the cheapest you will find by far.

to tell you the truth mine looks fine also but why take the risk and when you replace it you will probably increase your compression anyway. This will also be a good time to clean your power vavle, use your manual and clean everything, there was soooooo much spooge and oil on mine, now it looks like new. I used some cleaner and a wire wheel on most of the parts with carbon build up, some people think it was a bad idea to use a wire wheel because it may damage the parts but mine are fine, you just got to be carefull.

i dont like ordering it offline. but i will take advice, i will substitute the v-force for the boyeseen and get the wiseco kit and gasket kit, my dad was so afraid he asked them how much they would charge to jet the carb, the guy even said the bike is jetted lean from factory b.s. i am also get a manual. hey does it tell you how to do a piston and rejett the carbeurator and diagrams and stuff to help you out. try to convince dad that yes they do blow up and that the wiseco is insurance against future motor failure. thanks.

you know why hasn't kawasaki fixed this problem after all these years and they know it is happening.

the manual does tell you how to rebuild you top end. It is very easy after you do it once your a pro!!!

as far as jetting they really dont tell you much, you would have to us on here. They can give you a good idea. Jetts are very cheap anyway, so if you need to try three or four sizes it is not expensive. have you had your rear shock refilled with nitrogen, and a new oil change, i just did that today all by myself with the manual, it was kinda confusing since it was my first time with no help, but if i can do you can to, now all i have to do is bring it to a shp to have the fill it with nitrogen, that costs $15, and the new shock oil was $13. So it cost me $28 to clean the rear shock and put in new oil and nitrogen. The shope wanted $70 to clean and refill with nitrogen, if you need help ask i should be able to help you, if not there are many super smart people on here.

sounds like a manual and a wiseco kit with the bearing and the gaskets is what i need to do then. gosh the guy at the store was telling me a bunch of stuff like, i have never heard of that before and he would gladly take a hundred bucks from me to screw in some jets and reset the needle. about how his boss rode a kdx 220 for almost 10 years and never had a problem with it except he replaced the stock piston after a year of racing and never had to replace it since, was a wiseco though. makes me mad though that my dad says you dont need a piston. ughhh

Some people don't have a problem with the piston. Some people have it break. Some of the piston failures have caused the cases to be destroyed, which is outrageously expensive to repair. For me, $100 is cheap insurance.

The guy at your dealership sounds like someone I wouldn't let touch my bike. I say this because he is oblivious to the 220 piston problem, and he says the bikes are jetted lean from the factory. The story about the 10 year piston is amazing. Sometimes really amazing stories turn out to be BS.

The first thing you should buy for your bike is the service manual. Yes, it tells you how to do practically everything to your bike. There are a lot of knowledgeable people here that are very willing to help people, but answering tons of questions that are well covered in the manual gets annoying. But, I know you wouldn't do that.

If your bike is new, there is no reason to change the oil in the shock unless you ride a lot every day. There is every reason to flush and refill your fork oil though, since Kawy doesn't put real oil in them at the factory. You also need to tear down and grease your suspension linkage, and steering stem bearings (if you have any left). Notice I didn't say "re-grease" them? Cuz Kawy doesn't do the job in the first place. If you never greased yours, you may well be replacing them.

Anybody that rides a dirt bike should learn how to jet their bike on their own. It's easy, and crucial to get any kind of decent performance out of it.

Do not even think about changing your piston without the manual. If you do, you will most likely screw up your bike and make your dad consider doing horrible things to you. Make sure you have new gaskets and a torque wrench available too.

wow that was great advice, will do on the manual, and i agree with you that the mechanic is just someone who works on kawasakis but not on the 220.

you know something funny the mechanic also said that you will not notice a difference when you put in the power reed plates, and that i would only notice it if i bought the df 3.

finally ordered the manual from kawasaki, does it go step by step how to do a top end and how to put it all together, putting the kips back together seems kinda hard and putting it together right seems harder. does it tell you how to take apart the carb and clean it put it back together. putting in the jets i get (not hard) but putting it all back together right may be another story if it doesn't tell me how. any answers on this will be appreciated.

There's a site called http://www.justkdx.dirtrider.net where a complete step-by-step, along with photos, of a KIPS and topend dissassembly and assembly is detailed. When you get to the main site, click the link called, "KDX Tech Tips" located on the left side of the page. From there, click the "Top End Pictorial" link under the "ENGINE" header.

BTW, check out all the other stuff there. It's worth an afternoon to study and read it all.

hey how long should it be for the manual to get here anyone know. on the west coast oregon washington border for reference.

well if you got it from kawasaki it is in michigan, it took them forever to get it to me because they said they had them it stock 2 times but they didnt 2 times, so for me it took about 3 weeks. It should only take 5-7 bussieness days tops if they have them in stock, i think.

ok thanks i think i can wait that long

the trail rider wrote:you know something funny the mechanic also said that you will not notice a difference when you put in the power reed plates, and that i would only notice it if i bought the df 3.

Is this Mechanic SNIFFING Contact Glue??

yeah, definately buy the manual but i would get the 220 supplement, it's like ten pages and costs like ten bucks, nothing new in it really, i'd just buy the 200 and ask guys like skipro if you have any other questions. I have a 220 and haven't replaced the piston but i plan to soon.