Cheers @beng1968 . I must admit, I bought 2 more Athena kits sometime after this post was made and can't concur with the opinions here. The casting was spot on and it was very good value for money. Considering it comes with everything you'd need to bolt it onto your engine, I'd say it's good value. I will agree it's not YZ rip roaring performance from stock, and considering the extent of tuning on my DTR, it's still nothing compared to a stock Aprilia RS 125. However, it's not without its merits. The extra CCs give a nice broader range of power, which as I've gotten older I've come to appreciate more (I'm no longer 75kgs wet ). I did take my cylinder to Mick Abbey for further porting and there is still more porting work that I need to do on my setup. It should be a decent bit of kit, when setup properly. The first experience I had was when I loaned my brothers 2001 DTR back in 2010, he'd fitted the Athena kit amongst various other mods, and that went very well. At the time, I went all in on a ported 3MB00P cylinder from the TZR Belgarda and that setup definitely served me well. I haven't been on my DTR for several years now and I am eager to fire it up again to rejudge my opinion.

Yes your DT will be autolube. If it wasn't... you'd have known by now. You'll need to keep an on eye on the two stroke level and refill it as it gets depleted.

No you don't need to open up the engine all the way. It's just a push rod system, if the clutch cam isn't engaging with the push rod then it might be because the push rod has fallen beneath the cam arm so you're not able to position the cam behind the push rod. I've never had this happen to me personally, I don't recall this being an issue, but the design is very simple so there is very little to go wrong. What commonly happens is that the ball bearing inside the engine can get misplaced, which presents itself in a similar manner as you're describing. But this is not possible without dismantling the engine. In essence what you have can be pictured as below: |_._ The | is the cam that you slot from the top of the engine. When the cable is pulled, it twists the cam which acts on the first pushrod denoted here by _. This is space separated with a ball bearing, denoted by . which pushes a further push rod denoted by _. What might be possible is that you've ended up in situation where you've pulled the cam out and now the setup is like: | _._ The cam is now resting on top of the push rod and is no longer engaged with it. So when you pull the lever, nothing happens. I can't remember whether this is even possible, but if it is then you'll notice the cam is sitting a lot higher outside the engine and would be obvious. I am not sure if the pushrods are under load, but if they're not, then leaning the bike over towards the clutch may cause the rods/ball to move allowing the cam to be lowered appropriately. If that doesn't work, then no it's not a full dismantlement. It's just a case of taking the clutch cover off, and taking the clutch pressure plate off to expose the push rods. Extracting them (by leaning the bike over careful not to misplace the ball bearing) and then inserting the cam in first. BUT I REALLY don't think that's what is happening here. It's probably more likely that the clutch just needs adjusting. I'd recommend referring to the Haynes manual for this.

I’ve had someone listen to it as in person is obviously way better then a compressed video and think it may be the piston rings

PS Same issue, bottom of gasket is dry and the top has oily wet channels…

Yeah it's worth checking that first. I haven't done a set of DT cases for a while, I've never done 200 cases.

Less is more then cheers guys. It’s the reason I used hylomar red before, it’s easy to apply thin and evenly… I’ll get out the black mechanic gloves and dab on some RTV…

Yeah, a closed void would be subject to repeated heating and cooling stress. It’s also really handy for helping get the cases split I remember that I crapped myself when I first found it. I covered it with sealant

Typically what are you gaining on a two stroke with engine braking... It's not like a four stroke. When down shifting I always blip the throttle, to both rev match and maybe give it a squirt of oil. I certainly wouldn't be going down a big hill engine braking the whole way at high rpm on a two stroke. Nice blips on the throttle and a high gear to keep the RPMs down. When it comes to competition bikes, well reliability is all out the question and if engine braking does even a fraction of slowing down then it's worth it, but for road going use I only engine brake in an emergency.

I crawled around the bike today trying to locate where the clatter came from, paying extra attention to the powervalve cap. Holding a screwdriver against various covers to feel vibrations. I am far from certain, but I think it is the water pump, actually. I might disassemble that and have a look later this week. Thank you both for the input!

@somerandomguy314 Really? I am sure that's not the case, I sell to EU all the time through eBay's Global Shipping Programme. Ask the seller if they'd enable it, it's invisible to them and they just ship it to a UK Warehouse.

@Bilbo9000 Outstanding, I never thought of doing that! Well done Sir

@Sgt-Robuck-5, I have the same scratches but there is also metal in my oil, do you think the metal could be frome the scratches on basket or my transmission?

You'll want to understand why that's happened before restarting the bike. Lack of oil, incorrect piston ring end gap tolerance, or just generally tired engine, etc.

For you guys in the UK: https://www.gpxmotouk.com/shop-gpx.html They have the parts to convert the DTR to 230cc, can probably get the complete engine too. If I was thinking of a engine rebuild and/or Athena 170, I would go for this instead, based on what I learned from the Athena 170 kit.

Cheers buddy, I'd searched and just turned up gibberish that confused me even more, but once I ignored all the threads claiming the pulley rotates clockwise for PV opening, and set the cables back as they were supposed to be (1-2, 2-1) it all made sense again - it must turn anticlockwise viewed from the LHS to open it couldn't work the other way! Anyhow, it's all up and running and I've fully re-dressed her and given her a wipe over and a run up and down the road. All seems well enough but it feels like the PV opened more and earlier before I tore it down and serviced it, I think it had been adjusted from the normal peg-in-hole alignment perhaps, but it's al good enough for now and if I want to tune it a bit differently for preference at least I know what I'm doing now! Time to ride it some more whilst I think about sorting my carb tune properly down the line. Cheers Calum!

Thanks Calum.