'97 Honda XR200R won't idle and will only push-start

I just bought a used 1997 Honda XR 200R dirt bike (4 stroke). The bike ran fine, but would not idle until we ran it for a little bit (about an hour or two of nothing extreme, just riding it on the street a *** So after riding it around I then wanted to hit the trails with it to see how it did. A cousin of mine was riding with me on his '90 Yamaha Blaster. We noticed after about an hour of riding the 200R started to smoke a little bit; it sounded, ran and idled fine though. We then brought them both back because my cousin had to pick a friend up from work, so we noticed that the XR200R was smoking a little bit (unusual for a 4stroke). I kept riding until he returned. I rode it for about an hour in the cornfields and opened it up to it's full potential in 6th gear on a private road about twice. Everything seemed fine though it was still a bit smokey. We continued riding for another 2-3hours on the trails/cornfields and then brought it back. I wanted to then see how well it stacked up to my other cousin's Yamaha Raptor700. He tore me off the line and i tried to keep up the best I could, but to no avail, he smoked me (which we all figured anyhow).

Before I was gonna call it a day, I figured I'd open it up once more before I put it away. I had it in 6th gear, topping it out (but not overly doing it to where it was whining too loud, just barely got it in 6th) and it cut out on me, the entire engine shut off and I simply coasted, so I tried to kick/push start it as I was still going about 30mph or so. It refused to kick back on, so I simply put it away. It seemed as if I blew the motor because it smelt funny, but we figured maybe some of the water from riding in the cornfields against the hot motor just steamed up. The next day, we checked all the loose connections and we replaced the oil and spark plug in it, but it still wouldn't turn over (both with choke on or off). So we had my uncle pull me on a tractor to get it to push start and it would only pop in 3rd gear. It refused to idle and would only start if we push started it by the tractor, it also sounded very clinky like there was something rattling around in it. Not to mention it smoked like a chimney, we're gonna take it apart this weekend to see what may be the problem, but does anyone know anything that could be wrong with it?  

sounds like major issues.  you should never run it if it's smoking like that...especially that hard.  if you knew something was wrong why'd you kept riding it anyway?...kind of sounds like you ran it out of oil....you probably destroyed your engine...

good luck fixing it...someone more knowledgeable than me will be able to help soon enough...just sit tight.  
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"Only the desert has a fascination to ride alone in the sun in the forever unpossessed country away from man. That is a great temptation."
--D.H. Lawrence

uhhh agreed. you were burning oil... so like Sully said you likely ran it out of oil.

can you kick it over? does it have compression? did it make any strange noises? pull the oil drain plug & measure the amount of oil if any that comes out....was it running really hot when it quit? also pull your oil filter & see what in it. i think that oil starvation is the culprit....you may have fried your crank bearings
DavidS  
i take a lot of pride in what i am

___________________
ride: 02yz426
local: north east Oregon

terrain type woods with lots of roots & rocks

Good catch csully, he ran it low on oil. besides that the valves and camchain needed adjusted. when he ran it low on oil it froze up the oil ring on the piston(its a 4stroker). hence the smoke. Now it needs alot of work instead of just a tune-up.  
My sponsorships Winners do it in the Corners!

Your gonna need an engine rebuilt. A piston and rings will do the trick.
But if when you kick it over and feel that the piston is moving freely up and down then you will only need new rings and add oil after that. It happened to me on my 1982 XR250R it smoked a *** load everytime I rode it. I didn't care, but now its R.I.P.  

When I first got it, it didn't smoke. It progressively started smoking as I rode it. Before it conked out on me, it was mildly smoking (would only smoke a little bit when I'd rev it). Now we can't kick start it, we have to push start it (drag it behind something going fast enough, about 5-10mph, for when I pop it in 3rd gear the engine wants to go and it springs to life).

There's no way we can kick start it, can't kick it that hard to turn the motor at the moment. And yes, I do think I ran it low on oil, right before we started push starting it we filled it up with the recommend amount and type of oil to see if maybe that was the problem first before we tried anything. But now when we push start it it sounds like around the carburetor there is a sort of rattling noise, possibly we did fry the crank bearings. But right before it conked out on me in 6th gear the engine was running hot. We do get compression when we try and kick it, just it's definitely not anywhere near enough to kick it over (we'd be sitting there all day and it wouldn't). Like I said, it will only come on if I get pulled by something, hold the clutch in, shift into 3rd and when I get to about 5-10mph I let the clutch out and then get dragged about 3-5feet and the engine will come on and it'll want to go, so I'll hold the clutch in and shift back down to first and simply rev it enough to keep it going, since if I don't, and try and let it idle, it will conk out on me.  

dude we told you im sorry. you starved your engine for oil, thus killing a nearly unkillable bike. the rattleing is likely intake noise. or the sound of your crank.
DavidS  
i take a lot of pride in what i am

___________________
ride: 02yz426
local: north east Oregon

terrain type woods with lots of roots & rocks

You suffered a melt down.  Take it to a shop to see if it is even worth repairing now.  

Bill H.
Temperance, Mi
2000 CR250R
1991 YZ125

And since nobody has said is yet, stop pull-starting it. In fact, stop starting it. You will just do more damage.  

We obviously stopped starting it once we found out how it was sounding. We only push started it once and after we ran it for about 20minutes, and heard what it was doing, not wanting to idle, ect. We stopped after that and put it away for another day. Again, we only push started it once, and after that haven't done it again or even tried kick starting it (like the motor would actually kick over anyhow).

So we're gonna go through the bike and see what we can do. We only push started it to try and get it running to make sure the CDI box or anything didn't blow.  

Also, the carburetor was probably running too lean and that will cause the piston to overheat and scald the cylinder wall and ruin the piston. It doesn't necessarily have to be run low on oil to damage the cylinder and piston and overheat. Just too much friction in general can cause this. When you pull the cylinder jug off you will see the damage. I doubt that you have hurt the crank unless you ran it completely out of oil. The carb running too lean acts just like a blowtorch on hot steel and aluminum.  

my bike did the same thing and i put new rings in it and did the valves but still has no compression  

yo i have the same bike xr200 but a 85 and ran it low on oil now makes knockin noise and wanna no if tht will stop it from runnin in the future like it runs fine except 4 the noise