sunl 250

[tymbrewolf]

My son has a hammerhead yt-150. It is a hoot. We have an opportunity to buy a 4 year old sunl 250 for about 1400. I have also looked at a hammerhead 250 about 4 yrs old with performance exhaust for 2500. both appear to be in good shape. Any positive thoughts on the sunl? It is a better price range. Just want to toot around the farm. Nothing crazy like he does. Historically, I would think Hammerhead is better quality, but most of my experience with poor quality sunl was prior to 2006. sunl looks about new and is reported to have less than 20 hours.

[uthe54]

I've got a 2008 SUNL 250 buggy and love it. Had a 2009 SUNL 150 buggy before and liked it too, but not enough power. The 250 is way better low end and top speed.

Here is a vid. of me last weekend climbing a hill with the 250. my old 150 SUNL would NOT have made it up it. Some of your beefed up 150s probably could, but the old 150 SUNL I had was too big/heavy for the motor.



if you want to see an even longer one of my SUNL 250 climbing a "most difficult" rated trail hill, here is the link to it. I have attempted this hill in my old 150cc sunl, and made it to the 1:26 mark, then couldn't keep going. You can see this 250 has no problem getting all the way to the top.




$1400 seems pretty good if the SUNL250 is in good shape and is the same big style as mine. I think SUNL also had a smaller 250, and I don't think they did as well durability wise. Too much engine for the smaller frame. I think new, they're over $3500 (Roketa GK-29 I believe). In case you didn't know, SUNL sold to Roketa.

[tymbrewolf]

mine I believe is the gk-09 or sunl slgk-250. If I can get it started, it is like new but sitting for three years. runs on starting fluid, gas pumps when cranking. float valve must be stuck as no gas in drain valve. going to take the float section apart. I am not that mechanically savvy to try to take it all apart and put back together without a video.

[metalstudman1]

Not that much to remember on the inside of the carb-I you remove the float you're halfway there!!! If you don't clean the jets you'll be mad when it starts but doesn't run well.

[uthe54]

I've had two carb related problems with mine since I have had it. Once, the vacuum pump broke on it. I bought a whole new carb on ebay pretty cheap, but could never even get the new one to work. One day, I took the new and old one apart side by side and found the new one's float was adjusted wrong. I couldn't figure out why, but it wouldn't push the needle and even when I bent the tab on it, it still wouldn't. I ended up just taking the parts I needed off the new one and putting them on the old one, and doing a clean jet job. That seemed to have fixed it. I did that back in Jan, and haven't had any problems since.

The other carb issue I had, was once the engine would warm up, it would idle okay, but as soon as I would give it gas, it would die. The engine would run cold just fine though. I'd probably get 5-10 minutes of good riding in before it would start to screw up. I posted here and someone suggested the enrichment circuit. I swapped it out with that other carb (the one I got off ebay) and that seemed to have fixed it. I have run the buggy for probably 2 hours straight at a time since and have had no issues.

Overall, I really like this 250. Glad I sold my old 150 and upgraded to the 250. you will not be sorry either.

[tymbrewolf]

You are totally correct in my wishing I would have taken more time. However, I was having a family and friends outing Sat. evening and I didn't have time to let the carb soak to get the varnished in tight one jet out. It now idles fine and top end is fine. accelerator circuit (if there is one) or the one jet I couldn't get out easily, causes some mid range and easy acceleration hicups. Perhaps some sea foam will take care of. Outside of all the issues that cheap chinese stuff has, this runs pretty well for the 1300 I wound up paying for it with a new battery, a trifolding alum ramp, extra tire. The exhaust mount is the worst thing on mine other than missing the cable for the parking brake as he said an end broke first thing along with the exhaust mount. I have the roll cage held together with a strap as I need to find an ez out as it had a broke bolt, another common thing of these with the soft bolts or ones that won't stay tight. I have driven about 2 hours in around 90 degrees and have not heard the radiator fan.

[uthe54]

My radiator fan kicks on and off regularly, even in 70 degree weather. You may have some sort of electrical problem if yours never runs. I had to do some jerry rigging with my exhaust. Exhaust seems to be a recurring problem with all the chinese equipment I own. Blue locktite is your friend with these buggies. Also, My emergency brake still works, but I ALWAYS forget to lower it off when I start driving. I kind of wish there was an idiot light when it was up. I always end up finding out when I'm going and thinking "man, this seems like its going slower than it usually does" then I realize the brake is still on. I do it almost every time I ride ha!

[uthe54]

Oh, one other thing, not sure if you know this or not, but if you have any old wire, cut a little piece of it and pull off a strand or two of copper to run through the jets. If you hold the jet up to a light, you should be able to see light through it.

[tymbrewolf]

Interesting. A motorcycle friend of mine and mechanical engineer told me not to worry about the fan. He said if it over heats, then you know you have a problem. He also said hondas are notorious for bad heat sensors and lots are just reworked with a toggle. I suppose the other could be true that you have a problem with yours (unless you know how to test one) and that it is kicking on and off too much...

[uthe54]

you are correct, but I would think one that turns on and off regularly when the engine is hot would have a better chance of being correct than one that is run for hours in 90 degree weather and not ever kicking on

I'm not a mechanical engineer, but I do know overheating is very bad. you don't want to find out you overheated by warping your head...

There is a pretty simple way to test it. My understanding is that this isn't a normal thermostat where you get a resistance reading based on temperature but more a temperature activated switch. Put your switch under water and use a multimeter to do a diode test. If you don't have a multimeter, just hook up the fan to it and use it as your test. Put the thermostat in a pan of water on your stove and then turn up the temperature. Use a thermometer to monitor the temperature of the water and when the fan kicks on, check what temperature it kicked on at. Then turn off the stove and see what temperature it turns off at.

I've used this method before, but not for my buggy. You now have me interested, so I just might try this when I get a chance.

[tymbrewolf]

Maybe you could post a youtube video of that procedure including the location of the switch??? I have a multi meter, just not much on the electrical side of things.