Not long after my last post my 03 640 Adventure suffered a major failure. From what I could see it started with a broken piston ring and went from there. I completely stripped the engine down to nothing and started replacing the damage. The list of parts is as follows:
complete set of gaskets
new crankshaft
new crank bearings
new crank seals+ keys and end nuts
cylinder replated
new piston kit
cylinder head remachined to remove pugmarks {from piston hits crunching ring debris}
complete valve job {new seals +2 intakes and 2 exhaust guides}
I feel KTM is extracting to much performance out of this engine at the cost of reliability and have done a couple things to change that:
#1 Had the machine shop take a little extra material out of the combustion well to reduce compression a wee bit {could also be done with a thicker base gasket}
#2 I switched the ignition to the low octane setting for a softer hit and will leave it like that.
With these changes I hope to make it past 100,000 KM without to many more problems. This is a mark that seems rare for the LC 4 engine to reach without having some kind of major meltdown sometime before it's reached.
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