Is my spark plug in expected condition after 300 miles?

[patthesoundguy]

Pull the head and look, that will tell the story. The low psi is an indication of issues. The bore is likely worn shiny.

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[Pancake Sauce]

Remember how I said I worked on an aero where the guy used motor oil? Well guess what's back in the shop. Not running right. Pulled the exhaust check out the buildup. Compression check is next.

This is what motor oil does to a two stroke.

Yea I pulled my exhaust off to look for a washer (didn't find one) and in the port I had the same thing. I couldn't see the piston but the buildup felt like crumbly stone or some poorly mixed cement. I actually have a few questions. Firstly I would like to pull the head off for photos but I want to confirm that the gasket(s) can be reused. Can I reuse the head gasket(s) on my spree?

I think that my spare spree is also an 86 because it had the same bystarter connector and a kick start. The plate is missing from the forks that tell the year but I think it's an 86 too which means the gears are compatible. The gears on my minivan oil spree are terrible with lots of play in every direction so I would also like to swap out its gears. Is that difficult or can I just pull the cover off and start unbolting the gears to swap them? Is that gasket reusable too?

[Pancake Sauce]

the head gasket can be reused. Maybe your exhaust is so caked up your bike can't breathe. This one just registered at 110 psi, which is lower than I'd like. Its most likely your bearings, not the gears themselves.

Do you happen to know if the gearbox gasket can be reused if I swap those bearings? I guess I should pull the muffler off again because I couldn't see a combustion chamber or piston by looking in the exhaust port. I suspected it was the design of a spree that made it curve but maybe I am totally wrong and instead it is caked minivan oil.

[Pancake Sauce]

You will need a press to swap bearings out. You will probably need a new gasket or use rtv. Although the rtv tends to leak.

UPDATE: SPREE FIXED!!!
I took off the muffler and my exhaust port was blocked just like the picture on here. I used a couple hex keys and scraped it as clean as I could by crumbling chunks off as good as I could without putting much pressure on the piston. I took pics of the whole process and I cleaned out the debris frequently with carb cleaner including several times at the end. It was hard to start at first so I pulled out the spark plug and let it all air dry out. Started up and...

MY SPREE IS FIXED. 30 top speed. Super good acceleration. 20 mph up that big hill. Thank you and your customer.

Now I would like to know something. Is leaving the bearings alone until they fail a safe thing to do? Can I just swap them out after they fail or will that cause irreparable damage? If I cant I guess I will have to order a gasket and find someone with that tool you mentioned.

[mmeadows]

if your bike is back to running, put 2 stroke in it and be happy lol.

id burn out your exhaust if i was you. its virtually fool proof and you need it based on that picture. 30mph is the stop spree speed i think so maybe you are fine as is.

[Pancake Sauce]

if your bike is back to running, put 2 stroke in it and be happy lol.

id burn out your exhaust if i was you. its virtually fool proof and you need it based on that picture. 30mph is the stop spree speed i think so maybe you are fine as is.

I already burned the exhaust last week so that is taken care of. It was pretty dirty but not clogged. It probably dropped in weight a bit too. I'm hoping to drive the snot out of it now but I would hate to do perm damage by ignoring the gears/bearings because something is clicking mega loud in the rear and it's not my clutch or belt from what I can tell.

EDIT: I isolated and corrected the loud clicking problem. It was a clip missing from my kick start mechanism that keeps one of the gears from spinning out from vibrations, causing it to contact the points that engage the kick start. I swapped the clip in from my spare spree and the clicking is gone. Perhaps this means my bearings aren't as bad as I thought.

[patthesoundguy]

Wow was the exhaust port completely blocked ? The proper way to do that really is to pull the head, and cylinder and clean it right. The head will be a mess as well if the exhaust port looked that bad. I'd soak the combustion chamber with seafoam and let it sit for a few hours and do the same with the exhaust port then clean it right, with out damaging the piston and rings. The ring grooves will likely need attention as well. Baking the pipe is a must now. The scooter may go 30mph but it prob won't for long of it is that caked up. You will get detonation on long rides if the head is as caked up as the port was.

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[Pancake Sauce]

Wow was the exhaust port completely blocked ? The proper way to do that really is to pull the head, and cylinder and clean it right. The head will be a mess as well if the exhaust port looked that bad. I'd soak the combustion chamber with seafoam and let it sit for a few hours and do the same with the exhaust port then clean it right, with out damaging the piston and rings. The ring grooves will likely need attention as well. Baking the pipe is a must now. The scooter may go 30mph but it prob won't for long of it is that caked up. You will get detonation on long rides if the head is as caked up as the port was.

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I will snag some seafoam when my new spark plug arrives. I will also pull the head to be on the safe side now that I know I can reuse the gasket. Stay tuned because there will likely be more scary photos.

Should I just poor seafoam in the spark plug hole and let it sit? Will it even break up that crumbly, rock-like buildup? I'm not too sure how I could get seafoam to stay in the exhaust port to be honest. Plug the exhaust port, poor seafoam in spark plug hole and crank the kickstart a few times? I don't have much to speak of for tools so taking the engine apart is probably not a possibility for me.

I did take a couple pictures of the piston through the spark plug hole and it didn't look bad so hopefully everything gunked up in the exhaust port only.

[patthesoundguy]

Pull the head and soak the combustion chamber with seafoam it will help dissolve the junk, choke/carb cleaner will be helpful as well. There is no easy way to fix it other than good old elbow grease. You will need something like Popsicle sticks to scrape the head without damaging it. You will need to soak then scrape, repeat. A new base gasket and a new set of piston clips would be a great plan so you can pull the cylinder and piston and service them as well. Like I said the rings should come off and the groves cleaned. The only way to clean the exhaust port is to remove the cylinder. But the head is a good start to get the head and cylinder doesn't require too much in the way for tool, you need 8mm socket, 10mm socket, 12mm socket and 14mm socket. A 1/4inch drive socket set with an extension is your best bet. To pull the head you should pull the shock out of the way, then pull the shroud over the head and cylinder and the fan cover, they both use 8mm sockets. You can do it, the manual will help guide you.

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[patthesoundguy]

Even if you left the piston in place and pulled the cylinder, you could put rags in the crank case and spray the rings with choke carb cleaner and make sure they move free. That would be good. Would save the pain of new piston clip.

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[ClemSpree]

[/quote] Is there a good, common oil that will be at every walmart/kmart/meijer or a common enough place that one will be near me? Convenience is worth the extra cost but I would hate to have to order some super oil from somewhere or have to sniff it out of a haystack if you know what I mean.[/quote]

Walmart sells gallons of boat oil and Kmart stocks Pennzoil multipurpose for relatively cheap. Neither would be considered high end but either would be better than motor oil. Ive never had any problems with any kind of two stroke oil and I've got many, many hours on them. Correct jetting goes a long way to keeping things clean. Some get decent stuff, some get better depending on their worth/value. All run well, even the weedeater that I ran all summer on vegtable oil mix:)

[Pancake Sauce]

Remember how I said I worked on an aero where the guy used motor oil? Well guess what's back in the shop. Not running right. Pulled the exhaust check out the buildup. Compression check is next.

This is what motor oil does to a two stroke.

Did you end up taking his engine apart? If you did, what can I expect to find? Do you have pics?

[Pancake Sauce]

Its getting a top end rebuild. I expect to find a lot of wear on the cylinder walls. If you think about it, that ash that saint breaking down is floating around your cylinder and doing nothing but breaking down surfaces. I have to heat up his exhaust as I know its clogged too.

My exhaust didn't appear to get clogged before I baked it so hopefully the non-burning ingredients that built up just stayed in my exhaust port but I know it's wishful thinking after 2800 miles of 10w 40. If you are doing the top end rebuild can you take pictures for me? It will certainly help me with my next course of action for my spree. Tell your customer I feel his pain! For now my spree has been running amazing with 29+ mph everywhere.

[Pancake Sauce]

I think my spree died. I was finishing up cleaning out the exhaust port via the same method before, when suddenly gas started pouring from the belt casing. I took pictures of the thing it was coming out of, as well as pictures of my other spree which is probably how it is supposed to look. Needless to say... my spree's compression is gone to the point that my thumb over the hole isnt pushed off and I hear liquid swishing sounds when I crank it over. You can see from the pictures that my minivan oil spree's gasket is warped. I also noticed that my replacement petcock was now shooting gas just like the other one was... without suction.

My questions that come from this are:
1. Was it overheating or possibly carb cleaner that killed the gasket or was that not even what broke?
2. Is my spree engine dead? Like... is that gasket thing replaceable if it's the problem?
3. How much would a compatible engine/tranny/tire assembly swap from a better moped cost?

[Pancake Sauce]

A good/budget motor swap would be under $100 for ac 85-87 honda aero. Way faster right from the start. But if your seals are bad, its probably $10 fix. Carb cleaner is a big no-no on a two stroke. Also, your crank gaskets will not cause low compression. If they were leaking, you probably caused a lean condition, burning up your piston, causing no compression. How did you clean the port? When the piston compresses down, it compresses the crankcase fuel/air mixture. if your seals are shot, its most likely forcing air and gas out of those seals. find a cheap/free used spree piston/rings, get two $5 seals, and install it. id advise you watch a few youtube two stroke videos to learn how they work


Looking closer, you really beat up your piston trying to clean the port. You spent three hours trying to clean the port, when you could have popped the four bolts off the cylinder head, and done it in half the time. You really need to learn your motor. With a 10mm/8mm, phillips/flat blade you can rebuild a spree top end in less than an hour and a half. Dive in man, these bike parts are cheap, and its fun! I have so many elite cylinders and pistons, i'd send you one for learning, unfortunately I don't have any spree stuff, most of it goes in the can.

I have certainly had fun so far with what I have done. I found myself popping in headphones and going to town for hours looking over stuff. Really what has been holding me back is the difficulty figuring out what gaskets need replaced and trying to find them being sold on websites. Also, I have to weigh in the cost/risk if I don't get it figured out before I invest. I don't even have a ratchet extension so even the simple head removal you speak of is a new level of difficult for a first timer like me with my half-complete kmart tool set. When it comes to me we need to think outside of the box in terms of how pathetic I can be. Even when we think we understand how poor and new I am, I will not fail to surpass that. Ultimately, I think I should start thinking about investing in a new moped because the minivan oil spree has likely had enough of me.