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I think at one of the "other" rides they had stunds pull out of the cases. You don't hear much about it cause it may hurt business.
Was that you? What happened?
I did not have any trouble with any of my stunds, they all went off without a hitch
I did have trouble with two
studs pulling out of the cases though. One was a relocated stud, the other was a stock position/untouched one. You haven't heard much about it because it was due to my stupidity...I blame it on lack of sleep
I had to rush to get things together in order to make this trip and should have paid more attention to my building of this engine. The cylinder was bored for a Honda piston, but a Wiseco went in. I did not have a Honda one and could not get one in time, so I went with the Wiseco. I had about 5 hrs on it around home and it worked fine. But climbing the mountain in Coal Creek proved to be too much for the piston/cylinder clearance. So on one high speed climb up the mountain it seized. I went back to camp and started to tear it down. I had another piston and cylinder ready to go, so I planned on just swapping top ends. Here's where the stupidity really kicked in. I did not conclude that the seizure was due to the clearance issue and just went ahead and replace the top end with another of the same setup....wiseco in a Honda bore. So the same thing happened....it was then taken apart and PilotHawk cleaned up the piston and made it possible to re-install it and use it again. When it went together this time I had an air leak that I could not get rid of. It was at the base of the cylinder, so I ended up over tightening the studs to try and get rid of that leak. We got it to a minimal leak and jetted rich and were going to run it that way....headed up the mountain and then the cylinder started to rock! The reason that happened and the reason there was an air leak was the the replacement 500 cylinder I out on was a different year and the tangs for the cylinder studs were different thicknesses. The air leak was due to the fact that the cylinder nuts were bottoming out on the end of the threads on the studs. Because of the air leak I over tightened the studs and hence started the process of pulling them out of the cases. The compression of the 500 cylinder did the rest. DH and PH helped me out again and we put heli-coils in those case stud locations and ran it again..only to seize again due to clearance issues. So there was a lot of wrenching going on
You don't hear much about it cause it may hurt business.
If that was referring to the story above, that statement is way off and just another show of people spouting opinions when they don't know the facts.
As far as the other statements, yes I agree, kind of confusing. Why put the 440 in if the 400 had power to top out the pilot in suspension, braking, etc. I have not followed hoser's build up of this transplant and why he choose to do so, I thought I heard/read it was gain reliability not power, but I'm not sure on that.
I have had a 400 built up that was I consider pretty much done up as well. It had a MacDizzy ported cylinder, shaved and re-chambered Dizzy head, a carburetor bored by him....he actually built the entire engine. It was piped and clutched and would stand on end and do wheelies on pavement or burn the tires on pavement depending on the clutching. That engine was very reliable, it met it's fate after 2 seasons (~120 hrs) when the oil plug came loose and it lost the counter balancer oil, otherwise I believe it would still be running now.
I know have a 500 in my pilot. It's a totally different beast. I have not had the time in tuning the 500 that I had into the 400 yet, so I may get more/better response out of the 500 yet. As is now, my 400 would easily match the 500 off the line, and maybe beat it in a 1/4 mile. I cannot (yet) get the same "snap" out of the big bore, and maybe I never will....that 400 "worked"
But the 500 carries more power all the way up to top speed, and has a slightly higher a top speed. You can break the back end loose in the 500 at much higher speeds than on the 400. Because it "rolls" onto its power smoother than the 400, it's power is deceiving....like I said, it's a totally different beast.
In my opinion, had I to do it again..I probably wouldn't do it, I'd stay with a built 400, due to the price, and only the price factor. It's too damn expensive...but if money is not of concern, it's an awesome power plant in my opinion.