Hey man nice vid! A coworker of mine gave an ‘88 CR500. She’s in pretty rough shape so I’m trying to do a full rebuild. Wondering if you have any suggestions on best place to buy parts or any lessons learned from your rebuild. This is my first time doing a rebuild and I’m a bit nervous about ruining a beauty like a CR500
HELLO! Ok so try to keep in mind that they don't make these anymore... and so you want to really do your best work. Now, that being said, there are numerous companies who make parts, (bearings, gaskets, seals, etc) but try to get OEM. I spent about $1,000 just on OEM parts from Honda via Rocky Mountain ATV/MC. Just follow the steps and you'll be good. If you can afford it you should get at BUILIT-500 Crank. I have some resources if you need cylinder work. What color are you going for? I Cerakoted the cases and it turned out so sick. The 1988 CR500 motor was all black. Let me know if you need help with that. Also all bare aluminum would look sick too. Ok another thing, do you want a stock motor or one with a crap ton of power? For reference, a stock CR500 will be slower than a modern 450, so maybe that helps. If you want more power, or like a race motor for climbing big sand hills then you need to plan for that and I can help you get your motor to deferent shops to help you accomplish that. Let me know!!
@@DBT-Nick dang thanks for the quick reply and awesome info! I was looking on RMATV and I unfortunately couldn’t find an engine rebuild kit for the ‘88 and I’m weary of other websites. Did you buy a kit or individual parts? I was for sure planning on cerakoting it and I was thinking about doing black but I also kinda wanna do something a little flashy just for fun like red or a brass color. I’m not a super experienced rider so the stock power already is a bit intimidating for me. I haven’t ridden in about 5 years and my last bike was a CRF230. I basically just trail ride so I think stock power is already a bit much for the kind of stuff I’m capable of hitting for now. I haven’t gotten the engine torn down yet, but I have gotten the cylinder head off and the right crank case off and it looks like the coolant system is pretty shot. There’s white deposits throughout it and sand looking stuff all in the water pump. I’m guessing the last guy either didn’t use distilled water or used an oxidizing coolant. Any ideas on how to deal with that?
Alright, so I just bought individual parts, and with exception of the crank I bought the best. I have a new “Hot Rods” crank. Don’t try to get a Wrench-Rabbit kit or anything like that…try to get OEM seals, bearings and gaskets. Most of that stuff is still available from Honda. Your stock crank might be ok…don’t assume you need a new crank for now. You’ll want a Weisco piston, but don’t buy it until you measure the bore with calipers and check back with me or work with a machinist who’s well experienced. You have an iconic engine so make sure you don’t just give your cylinder to anyone. Cerakote, let me know if I can help you in any way with that. I can cerakote it but you need to pull all the bearings yourself and grind out the casting imperfections if you are about that. CRF230, those are so reliable. I had one until recently. We called it the Turd-30. Water Pump, so I believe your engine had the magnesium right case, which suffered from corrosion if the wrong coolant was used. I believe you can use a right cover from later years and get around it. They’re available from Honda for about $180.
Not true stock for stock a cr500r still beats modern 450s unless it was a crap driver... will it absolutely smoke a 450 no... but still faster then 450s (with a healthy stock cr500r)... now if your talking about more technical riding yeah a modern 450 will probably beat it due to better modern suspension and being a bit more controllable. Cr500r will still pull ahead on straight aways tho
