(now w/pics) powerful kodiak suggestions wanted

i just bought me a 2003 450 kodiak it has full skids, Four Stroke Tech big bore 500cc stroker engine, hmf exhaust, modified grizz aftermarket bumber, 27x10x12 mud machine tri-claws front and 27x12x12 rear, fully snorkeled. it is awesome, but with the high comp the starter has a hard time turning it over, what do ya'll think i should do? anybody know of anything else i can add to this kodi to make it better??? i'll post pics soon.

Only thing I've ever heard about stroker motors is that sometimes you have to run dual batts to start em.

Might look into that?

Would a starter from a larger displacement engine work?I would think that their is a chance it could. How about having this starter rebuilt? What about a manual compression release?A delay in the spark is another possibility. Hope this helps, Ken

got some pics,

i'm thinkin i might run dual batteries, what is the best way to do this? kenskip my starter is the same part # as the grizz 660.

hey kenskip1, do you have any info on doing a manual decompression, i few of my dirtbikes had this just never looked at how it was done. it keeps the exhaust valve slightly open right.

You want a parallel connection -

When connecting the batteries in parallel the positive poles are connected to each other as are the negative poles. The voltage does not change and the capacity (Ah) will be the sum of the connected batteries.

The hard part is finding a place for a spare battery and running all the wires (large gauge copper aint cheap these days)

Let me know how it goes... curious to see some pics of this when finished.

Nice lookin bike by the way!

thanks, i've found a racing battery "16v", will this cause any problems?

i'm gonna put some roll on bed-liner on the bumper, make another roll bar to protect the radiator and find a piece to go in front of it to protect it from tree limbs. i also want to shorten the snorkels a few inches.

i noticed today that it's hard to shift into park, how can i fix this? also does anybody have any ideas on what i can put in front of the radiator for protection?

when are you going to try it out in hanceville? If its like the 660 try adj the shifter arm to go into park

Honestly.... not sure how the additional voltage would affect the starter.

Also not sure the other devices on the machine can handle that sort of increase, an increase in amps is no big deal... an increase in volts is a whole different ball of wax.

This is a Yamaha trait... if you pull the side covers, you'll find that the linkage has an adjustment setup (nut at either end at mid-linkage shaft) loosen and move in either direction until it shifts correctly... then tighten back up.

yeah i think your right 16v may burn up something. if i run my stock battery (which is 250 cca) and a high performance one (300 cca) , that i ordered last night. will this double my cca or just my amp hours? i'm thinking about going to a larger cable to my battery and starter.

i hope to go there the 29 of this month.

The two combined batts (if both 12V) will remain 12V if connected in parallel..

But the amp hours will combine creating a (theoritical) 550 cca... and significantly higher amp hours as you'll be pulling from both the batts simultaneously.

The same objective can be obtained by eliminating the stock batt and the extra batt... and installing one large marine deep cycle batt... but the reason for not doing so is (obviously) size/space restrictions.

i.e. (I have a marine deep-cycle trolling motor batt under the seat of my Rhino to run the winch and other after-market accessories)

that should do it, i wish i had enough room for a big battery. i'm going to have to put one in the stock location and put the other in the tool area under the seat which is just aliitle bit bigger than the battery. thanks

Tough looking machine. On higher compression Harley engines alot of people use decompression valves.Some require the head to be drilled and tapped to a 12 or 14mm hole to thread them in. When you go to start it you just push in the end to open it and when it fires it automatically closes.I would imagine it wouldnt be much $ to do it on your quad. If you go to Customchrome.com go to their online catalog pg 9.30 and you'll find them there.Then if you go to GoPartsDirect.com and enter the pt # you'll find it much cheaper.Just shop around though customchrome is a little pricey.They also have a set made by Spyke that you thread into your sparkplug hole then your sparkplug into it. I'm not sure if that one would work on your machine or not, but its worth a look. Oh yeah these valve are all sold in pairs so you would have a spare if needs be. A cam with more valve overlap (more degrees of camshaft rotation that the int+ex valves are both open)might help it turn over easier because it bleeds off a little compression. Let us know how you make out.

it does good now a put another battery and swapped the #6 gauge starter and battery cable w/ #4 turns over fine now. i'll post pics tomorrow. thanks

batteries setup.

We used to put 12 volt batteries into old VW Bugs that were 6 volt. Everything still worked fine except the electronics would run fast as crap, turn on the windshield wipers and you had fast and DAMN. But everything did work, if you had a clock in it, give up on keeping the correct time.

Good looking machine you have there.

LMAO!!!! I needed that.

Glad it worked out for you

crap! my belt came apart this weekend. crazy thing is i thought i must have got some water in it, but when i took it apart no sign of water anywhere in the houseing.

Belt may have just been old.

the sheave's inner splines are busted, missing almost all of the teeth, and the snap ring behind it was worn badly. the shaft looks good and the pulley on the transmission looks good. the guy i bought it from gave me an extra belt. so i've just gotta find a sheave and snap ring and find out if there is a spacer that goes behind it or in between it and the clutch pack. figure out how to get the belt cord out of the pulley.

In time you will fry the starter

cause of my double battery setup????

Not true, unless the starter was already on it's way out.

If the batts were hooked up in series... which would give 24volts... then maybe.

Additional amps don't hurt the device (starter in this case) it's too many volts that cause damage.

Think of it this way (if you're familiar with RV's) you can run a 30 amp RV through an adapter from a 50 amp connection. The only thing the adapter does it kill the 2nd leg (220 volt) connection to drop it back down to (110 volt).... it's still 50 amps (or more)

Amperage isn't your enemy... amperage is simply the amount of force behind the voltage.

You should be fine Bama... you're on the right track.