Hey guys, what a relief to finally come across a forum with other challenger owners. I bought a used 2018 Challenger 750 from a guy a couple hours from where I live a little over a year ago. Normally I’m not a guy that likes buying these kind of machines used but the price was right and it had a little over 1200 miles. When I test drove it before the purchase, he told me he had just had the machine serviced but lost the receipt. Should’ve known he was filling me with BS, but he told me where he got it serviced when I asked so I could call for a copy of the maintenance that was done. Figured he wouldn’t lie just in case I called them in front of him. I checked all fluids (all looked good) and took it for a spin. Ran great, just a little loud with the full windows and windshield but I figured that was normal with the full hard cab on their machines. I happily purchased the machine and hauled it home a happy guy. On the way home I decided to call the place he claimed to have had it serviced and was told they couldn’t find his name on file but their shop manager would call me Monday morning. Monday morning came and he basically said he has nothing on file but sometimes shop guys do maintenance for friends/family outside of work hours so if that was the case there wouldn’t be a service write up, just a receipt for the fluids and filters. Decided to just give it a fresh service before I drove it myself and call it fine.
2 months and 700 miles of slow gravel road/groomed trail riding later, the muffler cracked. No big deal my father in law has been a mechanic his whole life and welded it back stronger than it was before. Parked it for the winter, gave it a fresh maintenance and fluid service in the spring so I could start the summer fresh. 300 miles later I’m in a 15+ machine trail ride with a bunch of family and friends and without any warning there was a major grinding noise and a pop that left me broke down. Get out and there’s shrapnel and oil pouring out the bottom due to a thrown rod right out of the back of the block. Absolutely devastating 15 mile tow home but after a couple hours I realized even if I had to purchase a brand new motor and labor for install, I only have 2/3 the price of a brand new machine into it. After talking with a few cub cadet service guys, they say the only way this could’ve happened is if it was ran low on oil and normally they don’t see many major isssues with these engines outside of operator neglect.
Only problem I’m having is finding where to buy these 735 cc hisun engines or what other options I could potentially go with that would be a compatible fit in this machine. Any recommendations or knowledge on what my options are? Im not really interested in buying one used. Any help would be appreciated. Sorry for the long lead up to this question, but would highly recommend avoiding too good to be true prices on used UTVs, even if it’s a 1000 mile machine. For all I know the guy had no idea this was a ticking time bomb and truly was just desperate to get rid of the machine ASAP for his divorce settlement. Thanks everyone for the awesome forum with your experiences