Dual-sporting a 2010 TE 450, with cheap tricks

Went for a dirt ride with some friends and had to come home early, bike died, wouldn't start, ran the battery flat, kicked it until I was a goner, reached down to choke it, man, the throttle body feels loose, yeah, the intake manifold was toast.





I rode it out after applying alot of black tape to it, ran fine the 20 miles home. Now my friends know why I carry the entire roll of tape and not just a few strips around a tire iron.



Just last week I had to replace the water pump seal and the pump shaft, I guess I just let the bike get a little too hot one day, bad on me....I found a used water pump shaft for $30 so it was not too bad. Starting to feel like I shouldn't have bragged about how tough this bike is, I think maybe karma is biting me on the ass....

Something finally gave way with thoes big engine vibes. I wouldnt get down about the bike having a breakage, after all a race breed bike with 6K+ on it is luck.

I actually glued the intake back together with hi-temp silicone and I will ride the bike tomorrow, I might just put the new one that I ordered today in my backpack and ride this glued one until it rips again.

Is this problem known for other year models? is this an x lite powerplant?

I have not seen the intake split on any other 450/510 EFI bike, that's 2008-2010, the Italian motor. Not an X-lite motor.

Gotcha! thanks. I'll keep an eye on mine.

O.H.R., This is the beast thread I've read! Thanks for sharing the adventures (and showing that it's not just me who has misadventures when modifying my bikes). I'm an Austinite as well (living in indonesia for the last 13 yrs.). Just recently bought a TE 250 and can see that some of your mods will be useful for me. The closest place I have to ride is a motocross track only a mile or so from my home but there's a fantastic trail network through a teak forest about 20 miles away. I've been reluctant to ride there with these Michelin knobs on my bike so your advice on tires is really useful to me. Hoping to get out there next week as I'm still waiting for my registration and plates to be delivered. I'll try to post some pics as soon as I've been to the forest. Peace
P.S. Can you still ride at City Park? I used to ride MTB there back in the 90's.

Now called Emma Long, guys still ride the steppes there, MTBs and motorcycles.

Good report! but I wouldn't put too much faith in glue and sealants lasting and would be concerned the intake would suck in the glue/sylicone chunks/flakes as it begins to fail followed by the dust.

The hi-temp silicone was applied on 2 surfaces (see yellow lines), both of which are not exposed to the intake air stream, the intake boot itself was in great condition as regards the air stream, it's just that the metal bolt-on and the rubber boot separated, without damaging the air stream portion of the boot. I also secured the throttle body to the head with some zip ties, to keep the intake boot pulled towards the head, if it managed to separate again. I thrashed it Saturday and all was good.

Love the Emma Long pic. Sure I have one in that exact spot, doing the exact same thing (but on a Klein hardtail with rim brakes, oh how technology has changed).

I had ordered a new intake manifold boot on Jan 27 and I will be installing it when it gets here, I will keep the old, repaired one as a back-up. I will also be tying the new one to the head as I have done to the repaired one. Anything to reduce the amount of shaking around the throttle body does should help the boot to last longer.

On TT, there are a number of failed intake boot stories over there, on 450s and 510s. I got my new boot yesterday and I put it on, just so I would have the best part available on the bike, I will definitely keep the old one as a spare. You can see in the pic that the repaired one had a good airstream surface, the only damage was the mated area to the flange. The new one actually looked like a used one and I had to clean it up a bit, some loose rubber bits in the airstream, and swap over the O-ring from the old boot.

7,000 mile report

Well, yeah, had some major problems since 6000 mile report, none of them the bike's fault: water pump seal failed, I probably rode 200 miles with coolant in the oil. Split open intake boot. Loose head bolt. Leaky rad hose, replaced with a $1 piece of auto heater hose (see pic below). ALL of these problems caused by me running the bike completely dry of coolant, and then riding the bike 50 miles home. Yeah, this bike IS indestructible. It was being cooled by the Mobil 1 15w50 oil and air and it was hotter than hell. I can't believe this bike survived my stupidity but I've put about 500 miles on it since the high heat incident and it runs as good as it ever has. extremely fast. Got in some trail riding with some buds today out at Lake Travis, west of Austin, bike ran flawlessly, now that all the problems have been ironed out.








I even figured out the ADC, completely, I can teach a class on it now. I had to replace the spring because I ruined the original one when I was trying to cure the starting problem that was caused by using the marks on the cam to time the thing!!

Excelent! If you wanted to start teaching especially with that pic you just posted, Im listening.(reading) I wouldnt mind learing more about the ADC.

Mine broke as well at about 6,200 miles on my 08 TE450. I finally ordered a new one from an automotive company for less than husky had to offer. Exact replacement too... I had safety wired it by drilling small holes in it then used JB weld to re-create the little arms. It finally gave up completely so the new one was a must. I am thinking about making an aluminum housing to hold the fan in place with the three screws on the back so I have a back up fan.

WOW, great to read these bikes are resilient!

I had the same issue with the previous owner running my bike a few miles with no coolant in the rad.

When I added new coolant to the dry rad, I noticed it got a bit cloudy...Did you have this issue?
The bike runs well, and I have no indication of coolant in the oil, water pump seal or other failure.

I'm just curious since you had the same thing happen to you if you could provide any input?
And if you performed any maintenance once the pump seal was repaired other than what you described?

Thanks a lot

The coolant may have been a little cloudy when I re-filled the rads, I have since drained them and re-filled with new 50/50 SuperTech AnyColor cheap coolant and it's been a clear, clean green/yellow since then.

I changed the oil several times after fixing the water pump seal. I used some oil on sale at the auto store, $1.39 a quart, some of it was 10w/30, I only ran it for a few miles, enough to get the fan to come on and then change it out. I am back to Mobil1 15w50, which I swear by now that it saved me from the high heat episode.

I ran 350 miles in East TX this past weekend, as well as some day rides before that, I am up to about 1000 miles since the high heat incident, not burning oil, no other problems.

Ah lot's of interesting things on this thread. Thanks for taking the time to post. I noticed you changing your rack to a little larger one. I thought I'd show you mine. I bought it from Dan at moto exotica but can't remember the name ( Sorry ) It comes with side racks. one clears the pipe, the other straight down the side. It fits a top bag and side bags. Same as you'd use on a street bike ( gortex or cordura ) but it would be perfect for bolting on your auxiliary gas tank. I made the braces out of 1/8th aluminum. I bent the pieces to fit the span. Then beat them to be sure rear wheel had no issues with clearance. you can just bolt it in using the stock sub frame holes. It's as strong as you could ever need. I'll try to post up some images later of the bike loaded/both racks and find the name if anyone is interested.
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I love that rack, I was gonna get that one, when I thought I could ride my TE 400-500 miles to off road locations, when I realized that wasn't gonna happen PLUS I read about people breaking their sub-frame with too much weight, I decided to go for a smaller rack, less weight, and carry more stuff on my body. Here I am with 3 pounds in the tail bag and 20 pounds in my back pack, 15 pounds in tools around my waist, 2 day ride, 350 forest road miles..