2007 CRF 250r WON'T START

Probably all of the above. Take it down and see what all came apart.

I suggest you take it to a qualified mechanic that you trust because you have some major engine problems. Also be sure you have between $1500-$2500 to cover the cost of repairs. Your issue can't be properly diagnosed over the Internet, without tearing into the engine all anyone can do is guess.

thats a good two stroke donor bike now

Pull the head and cylinder off and inspect. Then sell it and buy something else....

Unless there is something special about the bike, it probably won't be worth the cost of repairs. Sounds similar to what happened to our 04 model.

I agree. No easy fix for that. Even if you don't know a lot, you can take it apart, if you have tools or can borrow them, and maybe enlist the help of a friend at the track that knows more. The next part is easy. What ever looks bad, is bad, and most likely, it's all bad. That era of Honda had bad valves. Old guys on our track that just ride for fun would even need a head job every year. If you can do that,at least you won't spend any money. You can go on Motosport and look up the parts, there's pictures and prices in the OEM section. Valves and head work is expensive, and you can't do it yourself. Cylinder plating isn't so bad, but if it's torn down that far, you need to do the crank and bearings too while it's apart. If you don't, and the lower end fails, it can kill what you did to the top. But at this point you don't know if the lower or upper is the trouble. But once you get into these things, you need to do it all. You're looking at at least 2 to 2.5K to rebuild that motor the right way. For that money you can find a decent used 250 2 stroke and add a thousand and have a beautiful bike that will last forever.

Honda's never had bad valves.......I wish people would quit circulating that rumor. Honda used the same intake valves from 04-09 on the CRF 250 and 02-08 on the CRF450. The only problem is poor maintenance by the owners sucking dirt through their motors...........anywayz.......... If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm pretty sure I can help you figure out whats going on. My guess is you lost your lower rod bearing and that is what caused the motor to lock up. The easiest way to check is to pull your oil filter cover and your oil filter. If you have a bunch of copper looking metal flake on the oil filter and in the oil filter cavity, you have lost your lower rod bearing. This is a common thing for Honda's with a lot of time on them. That would be my first check. If your motor is stock you will lose a lower crank bearing before you will need to replace a piston. As long as you are using quality oil and changing it frequently ever 7-8 hrs. However, if you lost a lower rod bearing, the engine will need to come apart and completely cleaned. Your oil pump will need to be inspected and cleaned. All the oil pump passages will need to be cleaned and blown out with compressed air. On your ignition cover there is a oil pump check valve that will need to be removed disassembled and cleaned as well. This is on the back side or inside of the ignition cover/oil filter cavity. As far as parts go. You will need a crank kit, piston kit, Oil Filter, Top/Bottom Gasket/Seal kit (included in HotRods Crank kits) and a countershaft bearing. The metal shavings from the lower rod bearing will have scared up the piston pretty good and it will appear to have trashed the cylinder, however the soft metal normally will not be able to damage the nikasil plating. A good honing should clean the cylinder back up and looking like new. It is very rare for the cylinder plating to be damaged. If it is Millenium Tech, or US Chrome can replate it quickly and relatively inexspensively. $200-$220 usually. The absolute best way to go with parts is all OEM Honda parts. It is more $$$ than aftermarket, but not much and far more reliable. Most people are surprised how cheap OEM Honda parts are!!! If your on a budget then I would suggest a HotRods Crank kit and OEM Honda Piston kit. OEM Honda Piston kits are cheaper than aftermarket and last longer. High compression pistons are more expensive and do not last!! Under no circumstances should you buy a Wiseco crank kit!!! Yes, I know they are cheap, but there is a reason!! They are made in China and I have seen a 100% failure rate with these cranks within the first 20 hrs!!! So if you want the most reliability use all OEM Honda parts.....if you want to save a litte $$ go with the HotRods Bottom End and the OEM Honda Top-End. As for oil initially I would recommend Maxima Break-N oil in the Engine and Honda GN4 in the clutch and tranny. After the initial break in, switch the engine oil to Honda HP4M 10/40. Use this oil in the motor only and never in the clutch/tranny. It's what the Factory boys use in their motors. I've had excellent results with this oil. Tearing engines down for inspection at 80-100hrs and the moly coating on the piston skirts is virtually untouched and the piston/rings look like new. That's my .02 I hope this helps. Oh, and it will not cost you $2,000. You are looking at $650 in parts and if your cannot perform the work yourself a competant mechanic should be able to do the work for about the same $650 or less easily.......if you have any further questions please feel free to PM me!

Oh.......and it will not cost you $2,000!!! Your looking at maybe $650 in parts......labor if you cannot perform the work yourself will be about the same. If you have any further questions feel free to PM me.

And I wish people would quit circulating rumors that it was bad maintenance that caused so many valve problems with crf's. I bought a 2008crf 250 brand new and at 22 hrs the valves were toast. Bought a 2007 250x new, brought it home and put SS valves in it before it was even started. I sold that bike to a friends wife, and the bike is still running on the same valves today. I maintain my bikes very well.Had various 2003-2006 crf 450's ALL of them had valve problems until I changed the valves from the oems. Since I bought a 2009 crf450 and a 2010 crf250 and now a 2012 crf 450 NO valve problems what so ever. So if it was a maintenance issue I would still be having valve problems according to your theory.

No, no theory here, just facts. As I stated Honda used the same valves from 2004-2009 on the Honda CRF 250R and from 2002 to 2008 on the Honda CRF 450R. If you follow the rumor mill (aka forums) People state all over the internet that Honda's valve trouble period was from roughly 2002-2005, 2006ish........but they got it figured out by 2006 or 2007 depending on whose post your reading. If this were true then why do all these bikes up to 2008 (CRF450) and 2009 (CRF250) share the same valves after the problem was supposedly fixed? The 250X and 450X to this day still use those same valves and the era of bad valves is over? With the new engine design came new valve diameters. Does that mean Honda switched valve suppliers? Doubtful, but possible. The valves themselves are still titanium they still appear to have the exact same hard coat on them as all the previous valves. So my thought would be other than dimensions the valves are still being produced by the same supplier using the same Titanium and hard coat process. I myself have owned a 2004 CRF250, 2007 CRF450 and currently own a 2009 CRF450 and 2010 CRF250. The 2004 had over 200hrs on it when I sold it with the original stock valves in it. They were still in spec. when it left my garage. I sold it to an 18 yr old kid. Needless to say about a month after he bought it, he was calling pissed at me because the bike wouldn't start. He swore up and down he cleaned the air filter and changed the oil almost every ride, so I must have sold him a bad bike. I told him to bring it over and I would look at it. First thing I did was take off the seat and pull the air filter. What did I find in the air boot after taking off the filter? Dirt. Of course he still claimed innocent and he did everything right. Next bike to go was my 2007 CRF450. Sold it with 120 hrs again, never had to adjust the valves the entire time I owned it. The guy I sold it to rode it for another 40hrs over the course of the year and blew it up. He brought it back to me and asked me to rebuild it for him. Since I had sold him the bike I did the labor for free and he paid for the parts. During the tear down I made my usual inspections. I pulled the air filter and checked the air boot. What did I find?? No dirt! As I pulled the Top-End down I checked the valves. Both intake and exhaust were in spec. the same as the day it had left. I explained maintenance to both buyers. Most critically air filter maintenance. The difference was the adult that bought my 450 listened to what I had to say and had zero issues up until the crank went out. The 18yr old kid chose not to listen and as a result had valve issues and decided to blame me and the bike instead if considering that it might be his own fault. After rebuilding KXF's, RMZ's, CRF's, and a couple YZF's from complete motor rebuilds to valve jobs I will say valve issues are not limited to Honda's alone. Nor, are valve issues limited to the older carb models. My boss raced his 2012 CRF450R all last year and had zero issues all year. He sold it early spring. The guy who bought it, just dropped it off at the shop........can anyone guess what's wrong?? When I state poor maintenance, the first thing most people argue is how often they change their oil or air filters etc. I am sure most people who still experience problems do their routine maintenance as they should. When I state poor maintenance, what I am saying and what I find is the manner or lack of attention that goes into the air filter changes or cleaning, etc. Throughout all this I have found other factors that play a role. The type of air filter oil someone uses. The most common thing I find with the majority of the bikes that I see with valve issues is the owners are using NoToil on their air filters and greasing the rim of the filter. The problem I am seeing is the NoToil oil not setting up and sticking to the filter, but instead once the filter is installed all the oil is running to the bottom of the filter and dripping off into the air box. I am not saying NoToil is a bad product, I know several racing families that use it religiously with absolutely zero issues. I prefer Maxima, Silkolene, or Bel-Rey myself. However, my findings lead me to believe it is not the product being used, but the manner in which the product is being used. Somewhere, somehow, there is a critical step being missed......I dunno if they aren't washing the cleaner out thoroughly or are they not allowing the filter to dry completely?? What I do know is when I question people about what I find, it is never a question if they themselves are doing things wrong or right........it is always from their point of view obviously the product is the issue and not them. Are we seeing a pattern? More and more we are seeing the type of fuel being used attributing to valve train, EFI, Carb, internal motor and other issues. Ethanol fuel is a major issue. As is the grade of fuel being used. Grade meaning both the octane rating and from what station or Brand is the fuel. All too often I am brought bikes with runability issues that are traced back to either low octane or fuel coming from Costco, Safeway, ARCO, Wal-Mart or some other discount fuel station. I've seen quite a few issues in bikes and snowmobiles stemming from the use of Shell gasoline. Use of a good quality gas such as 76, Chevron, or Texaco helps. Obviously, 92 octane or better is the only thing you want to run. Race gas if you’re motor is setup for it. Most importantly, if you can find it in your area Non-Ethanol pure gasoline is always best. Getting back to CRF's specifically. The critical step I see being missed is during the removal and installation of the air filter. During removal as we all know it is virtually impossible to remove a filter from the air box without it touching the sides of the air box or rubbing the sub frame rails knocking dirt/grit off when this happens. What I find is most people will then go back with a rag and contact cleaner and clean up the dirt and oil in the air box, but few will get a flashlight and carefully examine the air boot to see if any of the dirt/grit falling off during removal ever made its way in. This is that critical step that I was talking about that most people especially those with valve issues will over look. Titanium is soft. This is why titanium valves will have a hard coating on them. I believe Honda uses a Stellite hard coat. Dirt however can etch and compromise this coating. Once this coating is compromised it will wear off leaving the soft titanium which begins to wear and thus causing the valves to need adjustment and eventually replacement. This is what I always look for and this is what I normally find in bikes suffering from valve issues. A nice clean air filter and air box, but once I remove that air filter I find an air boot with dirt/grit inside. Just a lack of detail or oversight is what it is. Speaking specifically to TMAUTO769, why did you have valve issues with your carb CRF's and now you have none with your EFI bikes?? Good question, that I do not know. Perhaps, your changed something in your maintenance practices you picked up a tip from a magazine, a friend, or online. Maybe you switched oils?? I dunno.......somehow I knew when I submitted my previous post, that someone was going to take offense and want to argue. I am not here to judge. I am not here to argue because it's pointless. I am here to help and educate based from my professional experience, education, and training. For every person on these forums who wants to whine and complain that Honda's have bad valves or use cheap valves. You will find just as many people like me; who have had absolutely zero issues willing to argue on Honda's behalf. Those who time and time again see the real reason owners of CRF's have valve trouble. Case and point the problem with forums is all too often people take offense to something that wasn't even intended to be offensive and hijack a topic to state their own personal case, instead of helping the person who started the topic find a solution to their problem. You obviously had some issues with previous bikes and that sucks, but it's great even after the issues your still riding Honda's and now are not having any issues at all. If you dislike something someone has to say, just PM them and discuss it. If you don't like what they have to say in the end you can agree to disagree. For every credential or experience someone has the other person will argue they have more. The internet has created Anonymity. You cannot prove or disprove whether or not someone actually knows what they're talking about. You will not win an argument on a forum. Again, it's pointless. As far as this topic is concerned, it is my hope the information I gave to Bradley10 helped him to figure out what was going on with his bike. I guess we will find out if and when he posts his findings to this topic. If I was wrong, well I was wrong, but to those who own CRF's they now have one more piece of knowledge to help them diagnose their problem should their 150, 250, or 450 ever suddenly lock up on them.

No way in hell I'm going to try to read a paragragh that long. If you really think that all the 04-08 valve eating CRF 250's were all just due to poor maintenance you're crazy.

Well I read it, and it took me a bit, but I got through it. There were just too many instances of Hondas needing valves back then to be blamed on poor maintenance practices. Some yeah, but not that many. Could it be possible that Honda changed the Ti, or coating on the valves at some point in time to solve the problem and kept the same part number?

btw I also had couple 2006 KX250f's that never had a valve move in a year and a half of riding them and the same filter oil, frequency of cleanings etc... were used. I think Honda made a shit ton of $$$ off valves back then.