DS450 Engine rebuild (with pictures!)

[BigRon]

hey guys, its finally time i decided to rebuild the engine in my '08 ds450. im doing it myself because i have lost all faith in dealerships and it will be much cheaper this way. (cant be much different than rebuilding a 13B-REW rotary right? )

so heres the story of why i am rebuilding it... once upon a time my clutch exploded. 2 of the plates shattered, so i took it to the dealer and had them replace everything that was broken. also they did all the updates including the flywheel update. since they were going to have the clutch out anyway they didn't charge me labor to change the clutch. thinking this was a great deal i took it to them.
a few weeks later i got it back. i drove it slow for about 5 minutes to warm it up and boom! rod-knock

i call them immediately after explaining the problem, and took it back up there (about a 1 hour drive one way). they call me back explaining how it wasn't their fault and i would have to pay an insane amount of money to fix their mistake. their excuse for what happened was "it didnt say that in the service bulletin", instead of cleaning out the crank-case by hand they flush a quart of oil through it and called it good because it "worked in the past".

long story short, it sat in storage for a while until eventually the mechanic (and a few other people) were fired for various other reasons. now under new management i negotiated its release. my conditions were that i receive a factory service manual free of charge and all parts that are deemed necessary to replace (also free of charge).

i got my precious machine back last week and since then decided to tear it down, im still waiting for the FSM but ill make due. im just too bored and anxious to wait...


so far, i have all the plastics off, rear subframe, throttle body and intake manifold off, the coolant is drained and all hoses removed. most of the wiring harness is removed.
its almost down to the bare frame with the exception of the fuel tank and engine.






ill add more updates and pictures in the future.

PS: does anyone know how to remove the fuel tank?

[hcomras]

wow congrats on undertaking the task yourself. i too have lost ALL faith in the dealerships, its good too see someone that wants to do the work themselves...good luck on the rebuild...now would be the chance to do some improvements on the motor lol (cam, piston, head work lol)

[Henriksen2001]

surprisingly the ds is very easy to rebuild the motor on. Its not even hard to tear the motor down those mechanics were incompetant!!

[5852jake]

Not sure if you are using the service manual but a lot was removed that was not necessary. I replaced my cases myself when it cracked and it was surprisingly easy.

[BigRon]

yeah i know, i tend to do alot of unnecessary things to make it go smoother in the end. i did the same with my RX7. plus, it keeps me from getting bored. and i dont have the service manual yet, i have to check with the dealer and see if they got it yet.

i took out the rest of the wiring harness today, and wrestled out the fuel tank (i needed to drain it because its full of 1 year old fuel, and my jeep is out of gas lol). its pretty much down to the bare frame now. i just need to drain the oil, pull off the chain, then the engine is out.

EDIT:

i decided to pull the engine tonight to avoid doing homework, and its out! although i snapped the oil line fitting on the oil tank (the only plastic one).

[crums8]

good stuff mate. i have the top off mine and it isnt hard at all. looks alot like a KTM up top . when u look at the head, intake, piston, u will see why they like to rev .hay what are those tyres on ya bike and are they on standed rims?

[fast507]

The Can - Ams seem to be an anomaly in this industry. The engineers put together a bike that seems relatively easy to work on. Those tires look like Duro Brand Scorchers. Are they D.O.T?

[BigRon]

the tires i have on are the stock size on the stock rims, they're about $60 per tire (almost half the price of the stock tires) the street tore up my stock tires within a few months, these haven't worn at all from what i can tell. also, they're not DOT approved.

once i clean up my garage and my work bench, i should be able to open this thing up and see what went FUBAR, and inspect any work done to the engine.

one more thing, i noticed a lot of people were having trouble with their cases cracking. i guess a way to avoid this is to put a steel insert in the rear engine mount? i noticed that there is one in my engine. the dealer said they did a engine mount recall but i didnt get any specifics. if they did this then it requires the engine to be removed completely right? if so, they could have split the cases in a hour or so...

[TNT]

The steel sleeve needs to be bonded in w/red loc-tite or will crack your case possibly, there is another 2010 update 3- peice but imo BS! I recommend building up the case rear surrounding the swing bolt split with Devcon or JB or Permatex and adding additional gasket material to the area at the split where there is little gasket and I have seen a few leak from the enlarged hole/bulletin. Also add some epoxy to the area where the crack occurs..

Bond in your cyl wall oil squirter too, we had one break ruin tranny gears, etc, expensive!

[CANAMracerdad]

Good LUCK!
the can AM is not horrible once it is out of the frame!
The MAnual is pretty good w/ alot of pictures which help .
Then you have us , Please ask us if it does not "fall " together.
Sorry about your Dealer issues , sounds like it was a bad deal
PM me if you have any issues I have built a bunch of them !
thanks for all of the pictures