I Installed The CHEAPEST Big Bore 440cc Kit On My Honda 400ex (For Testing Purposes) 

This probably isn't the smartest idea, but I have always wondered how these cheap 440cc kits hold up on the Honda 400ex's. Here is the kit for it if you want to test it out yourself: amzn.to/32uML4d Please SUBSCRIBE and LIKE the video if you enjoyed! It really helps me out a lot! Instagram: 2_vintage_ Thank you for all the support!

Yo - hope you’re well man. Just throwing this out there - the harbor freight motorcycle lift changed the game in my shop. Best 400 dollars I have ever spent. Absolute back saver, and once you have one you’ll wonder how you did without for so long. Can’t recommend it enough. Super durable. I’ve had mine for a year now and I beat the shit out of it. Never changed the hydraulic oil and it still performs great.

I put a niche piston and jug on my 1996 Yamaha badger 80cc, and I have to say I’m impressed. Me and my friends have been doing wheelies and abusing it for atleast 150 hours with no smoke or hiccups. I’ll be buying from them again

Rag under the head holding pressure on the valves and use a socket with extension in it on the valve retainer hit with hammer. Fastest way to remove keepers.

I gotta say buddy after watching you work on these bikes for so long you gave me so much more confidence to work on my own machines. Great work and im surprised you haven't started your own shop working on these machines. Appreciate the great work.

I like how you show all the details in all your builds most people would just time lapse the whole thing and say there it is all done in 5min great video 🤘

Joe, your videos are like a van gough painting. 😊 Every year that goes by people realize more and more how valuable they are and when it comes time in years to come when you're no longer here and neither are we our kids are going to look at this as priceless information. priceless

I tell ya, I have built a lot of quads, and oem,and wiseco and proX ,are definitely good brands and last a long time, idk if anyone has used niche or not, but a friend of mine was hard up and bought a big bore niche 440 kit in 2015, we installed it and he’s run the guts out of it and it still runs strong to this day, good luck and I enjoy your videos! And what we did also was we re jetted the carb and ran a bigger oil cooler, 400exs run very hot, idk if that’s why it’s lasted so long, but I fig I let you know I have had some experience with niche, and before that I would have never used them on my quads, but now after my friend has put countless hours hard hours on a niche 440 kit I would probably use them if it was all I could afford.and I think Rocky Mountain ATV, HAS A VIDEO also of installing a after market affordable kit like your using, and they had good things to say about it, good luck ,

Great content again joe loving the vids at the moment will be interesting to see how it works out take care mate 👍🔧🔧🔧👌

Hey bro, thanks for these videos. I'm subscribed and enjoy watching them. I once had a 2008 trx 700xx quad. If you can find one , get it. It was a beast! Even if you sell it, I'd love to see how it stacks up against other machines. Anyway thanks if you can, and be safe!

Great vids man I love your content very informative and it’s really been making me really think on getting some of these quads around my area in roughy shape and make them live again some projects with my kids and get me one to ride with my kids I just don’t have the funds but if and when I do your videos wil help me so much

I learn so much seeing you pull things apart, fix them, and put them back together. Thanks for posting!! 💪

I’m glad your testing this kit I didn’t have enough trust in it to try Keep us updated

440 kit is ok. 426 is a ton more reliable and equal results. The only issue with 440 is much heavier piston which causes crank issues long term and the main issue is they generally blow head gaskets very fast. If doing a 440 you should get oversized head studs. The niche cylinder is great. Never had problems with them. The rings aren’t always the greatest and the cylinders aren’t always perfectly round. Out of 36 niche cylinders I’ve used personally 3 have had to be sent back and exchanged.

Great video, definitely a good way to find out for yourself if these amazon kits are worth it. I feel like these reviews are based on how well someone put it back into the machine. I’m sure you got guys who just throw them in with no concern and they blow up. Then you got the guys who do it by the book and have no issues. Then you got the reviews from a completely different item mixed into the reviews. 🤣

I've been here sence the start your skills have come a long way great job young man. I didn't see you put the springs and locks back on in the video I'm guessing u had a wild time getting the locks to stay in place.. I ve been rebuilding heads for years if you put a very small dab of axle grease on the valve lock's b4 setting them in place u might find it helps u greatly.. keep up the great work

You have done a great job👍 your shop looks nice. I wish I had one that big.

Was gonna make a joke bout that "sizzle sound" & what ya said AFTER but.. I will keep this PG-family. Build her good Joe!

Go up a few jet sizes to allow for the big bore kits and filter, nice work

The niche kits are ok. Like you said you do have to spend some time cleaning them up to get the most out of them. Good video.

Had a niche jug on a 1999 polaris 400L 2 stroke, was great just didn't tighten the lower jug nuts enough, one cake loose and it cracked the ear. Otherwise 20hrs, cylinder walls still looked new.

Great progress!!

Yup those kits are good although as you found the gap was tight and most people put them in without checking its it blows up.... blame it on the kit..lol

Good job can’t wait until the next video!

The 400 I had was a hi compression 416 w cam and head work done, the first 8 to 10 in of the head pipe would glow unless you were riding at hi speeds and wouldn't slow down any. It was name brand stuff and held up really good just had to put 2 head gaskets on it over 2.5 yrs I had it. It would run w yfz 450 thru third then he would pull away some but the power off idle and the grunt it had was great versus having to rev it's guys out to make power like some of the four strokes are.

Ran a Niche 440 kit in a XR400R for years of hard riding and never a single issue. She ran perfect and never had a single oil leak from the kit. I bought the bike cheap as dirt smoking like crazy and done the big bore kit and replaced the valve seals(pretty sure they were the source of the smoke as they were dry and cracked).

I like watching your videos 2Vintage just because I know how to do it myself and it’s anyways entertaining to see how other people rebuild/do things, I like your videos fella your logical and I like it, the green wire you put a female end on when hooking up the ignition was the same as the stock wiring I believe I may be wrong im sorry but it looked like you put the same end on as the stock one just hook it up to the stock one if I’m right if your compression isn’t higher than 11:1 your stock studs are good I’m interested to see how it goes for you buddy good luck hope it runs good for you

Great job I did one of those niche piston cylinder kits on my quad in July and still lasting at this point if it blows up I'll just get another kit

Rings will work great the way they are, dont chance breaking one... good job.

Thank you for showing us how you clean up all that old carbon build up on that head! I appreciate it!

Seat cover should give 2 mph,😂

I have the niche cylinder kit on an old 225dx trike. Its on its 2nd season so far with no issues. Piston felt real cheap but seems fine so far. If I did it again I would get an own piston and just use the jug. Hasn't blown up yet though and me and the MX buddies all thrash on it.

I was hoping u went this route, because I was gonna do the same thing 😬💯

Great video man

Fantastic videos fella hope you had a nice Thanksgiving 😀

Ide love to see a review on the cheap eBay cylinder heads, thanks for the video!

So I installed an eBay Niche 440 kit. I measured the valve cutouts on the piston crown and found that they are different sizes. Since intake valves are larger I've installed the piston with the arrow pointing toward the intake. So far runs and rides perfectly apart from needing re-jetting. Only real concern is the sleeve thickness at bottom is only about 1.3mm. Engineering shops don't like anything less than 1.5mm however I have heard of guys machining down to as low as 1mm without any dramas. Not what I want to risk in my pride and joy.

I have recently ran up on your channel by trying to look up things about my childhood dirtbike that I thought was super fast and different from my friends bikes at the time. I had a 1981 suzuki RM80 that was a full floater and had a 6speed. My bike was much faster than my friends that had newer nicer bikes. My friend had a 1990s CR80 that my bike would smoke it. A friend of mine ended up going and getting a brand new RM80 which I believe was a 1994 and my bike still out ran his on top end. Oh well, enough history about me. I wanted to say I like your channel a lot and plan on trying to do some work in flipping stuff here soon. One problem I have so far is finding these bike like you find. In my area I can't find a bike or quad for less than 1,000 dollars. Where and how do you find these bikes for 100-500 dollar range. I have seen clapped out quads that are missing plastics and aren't running with major issues, like needing a complete rebuild and people want around at least 1,000 for them. I'm going to keep looking but not having much luck right now. Wish I could find my childhood RM 80 that I had also. Great work and thanks for the learning experiences I'm taking in so far.

Should be interesting to see how that kit holds up, specially with how you tend to over rev the engines. Just curious if there is a reason you didn't check the oil till after you rebuilt the top end in case you saw something you didn't like with the oil?

Great job 👍 all in a day's work!!

Do you think one of these kits could fit on the xr250 Honda the motor's look pretty much identical. What a cheap upgrade... Love the channel Joe, cheers from Australia.

Pretty curious myself. 🤔 I think it has a lot to do with the build. Hope it works good so we can see the stage 2 cam go in.👍

Those kits are matched up, don't need to check rungs either. Been done.. They're nice!

Interested in seeing how the kit works. Im thinking of big boring my wolverine

I installed a niche cylinder with a wiseco 89mm piston and so far I haven’t had any problems

As a shop owner, my biggest gripe to clients is always, "check your oil" change it regularly recommended yearly before riding season starts, can save massive destruction from happening. We see a lot of oilrelated failures, som bad, some starting to get bad.

Wouldn't be a 2vintage video without your phone going off lol

I ordered a $200 Kinston, cylinder, and head out for my 350 rancher. They didn't send the wrist pin clips... I had to use my old one and bend a peice or wire to use on the other side.... but its held up for the past 2 months and iv put it through hell with the valves ticking still

Yes always wanted a good pov on a 440 kit

I have a question, my 01 400 wont stay in gear unless i either hold the shifter up or hold it down... just thouht id see what you had to say about it. Shift forks? Shift drum? Springs??? Thanks for your time and you have great videos.

Can you please provide a link to the paint finger used in the video i cannot find it anywhere :P

Use a magnet to get the "keepers" off the top.of the valves, much easier

I knew you was gonna cut it without starting it 😂😂😂 topical RU-vidr feel like am watching tv allways leaving ya on a cliff hanger

Good job Joe ! I also have heard negative things on the Niche kits but, let's hope this one holds up. If it were mine, I'd get a few quarts of oil and do an oil change after each heat cycle to ensure the metal shavings from break in stay out of the engine.

I used the same kit 3 times the first 2 times it blew up within a couple hours of riding then I figured that the oil pump went out and replaced it so I purchased the 3rd kit and it worked like a charm after replacing the oil pump no problems! Still runs to this day!

Do you think it would of been good to pump some new oil out through the filter housing for peace of mind ?

Niche is actually been really good for me I picked up a cylinder piston kit (a valve broke and it destroyed the engine but piston and cylinder held up well) and many other parts like cv axles, bushings, crank... Just giving my 2 cents

Going to be a sweet ride when your done with it!

I installed a niche kit on my Raptor 660 and the cylinder sleeve dropped causing the head gasket to fail. This is a common failure mode for the Raptor kits. Hopefully your 400EX kit lasts.

How long did it take you seed the valves with that little wooden tool ? Would appreciate it. Thanks

Just a question on the piston orientation. Most have IN stamped on the crown for the inlet side but these have an arrow. So does the arrow face the intake or to front of the engine?

Doing my carb on my xr250r tomorrow and also sorting the beta 300rr out u got a lovely collection of bikes mate I post videos on my channel aswell Joe no where near as good as u mechanically but riding 🤣😜🤪

Just to throw this out there when I did my big bore on my eager I used the cheap namura piston and didn't care at all to align the rings or make sure they were facing the right direction didn't do anything but the bare necessities really like timing and lubrication slapped it together and she ran perfect I gave that thing hell everyday she never gave me any problems then I sold it

I always thought you were in Wi. Then i talked to the guy who bought the kx125 lol. Howdy neighbor

didnt mike sabo did a ebay 440 big bore kit and cam shafts? on his 400 ex ? i remember him racing a stock 400ex and a 450cc forgot if it was china big bore and dont know if it still works today

I have a idea joe you should do a restoration video where you build a quad up and put aftermarket parts and make it fast and mean what do you think?

Great video

Really great video! I was wondering - when will Quadzilla be up and running?

When I lap valves on these I put the compound around it and hook drill to stem and spin the hell out of em. When done I put Prussian blue around seats to check for good seal. You did a good job on those, hell I'd hire ya. Your getting some great skills bud, keep up the good work.

Niche is a hit or miss . Sometimes they last sometimes they don’t . But they need to be lubed heavy before install 🙏

How do you find all of your projects I have been looking for one and can’t seem to find any

So I was thinking about doing this swap and I'm too nervous how many hours do you have on the new setup I'm thinking about just spending the money getting a weisco piston and then having a sleeved

Do u know if they have a big bore kit for a 250cc liquid cooled qwaud

Yessss.. He used the piston 👏🤙

Just an observation. The ring gap on the standard black piston ring. The tolerances from .012-.014. Why did you take it out of spec to .017? It was already on the high side unless I'm taking what you said wrong.

I like these videos bro mabee you could cut the front fenders to give it the agressive look

Mine did that, after the lower fitting on the oil tank cracked. I was pulling kids around my pasture in the snow, when, unbeknownst to me, the oil tank drained out all the oil ! Sad day!

Hey, been watching for a long time, try to find a 250 big red 3 wheeler I have one with low compression… so if you find one with low compression I want to watch you do the top end on it

What cam bearings do you recommend?

is that silicone on your cam chain, or grease?

Honda express in the background use to have a few slow but fun its own way

Love your videos Joe but please invest in some proper terminal crimps.

I know niche CYLINDERS are quality I’ve got one on my 416 but I don’t know about the other parts.

I build them to owners' specs as best we can. Never know what kit we'll end up with. Always works out.

Why do you need more lash clearance with after market cam?

Set your valves @ .005 in and .006 out, they will "pound" in when you get it lit off.

nice job.

I’m a clean freak, hate seeing a nice clean air filter going into a dirty airbox. Please give it a clean out just for me.

Like to use Mobil 00W40 full syn for break in on top ends.after 10 hrs change it out to 10 W 30 syn.

wondering if the niche kit would hold up for a honda XR 70R ? someone know ??

Stage 2 hot cams are only $75 an they give it a lot of power I can’t keep the front end down on mine the game helps out a lot with them 5th gear wheelies

What was the liquid you put inti the valve seal just before you put them on. ( oil for lube to slide on easy, or something else to make it stick?)

nice electrical pliers

Where are the head dowel pins the hed gasket was flopping around on the studs

What clutch cable did you buy?

Probably should have mentioned the o ring that goes on the base of the cylinder, and theres the orientation of the rings beings 180 degrees from each other. Another good think to take note of is the stud height... cant really trust the cylinder threads to be drilled to the right depth.

Is it rare to have stock blue a arms on a Yamaha blaster

I like your videos

Niche is not as bad a people say I had a trx 300ex with well over 300 hours of beating without smoke or it losing compression.

So that tool that you you scrape the inside of the silinder