Uh-oh!

This is beyond turning the engine over, there is no point as its barrel off time.

Gilesy said:

Have you tried gently turning the engine over?

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OP mentioned having performed a compression test when he got it back to base camp

KiwiShane said:

On the plus side.. diagnoses of failure is far easier to determine on a engine thats reasonably still intact...and alot harder on one that has dropped its gutz all over the road...come in Larry ...do you recieve ?

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He's either depressed and hanging his head low , or out working twice as much to raise the ca$h .

Most things in life depend on mindset. An engine blow-up is inconvenent, but not a major tragedy. With anything, you simply start at the beginning and work to the end. Never get emotional unless you are about to be killed.

Torontonian said:

He's either depressed and hanging his head low , or out working twice as much to raise the ca$h .

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How would he know what cash is needed before he has the motor apart ?

I too, have gotten the fuckits, like when my RZ350 soiled the sheets last time, (not for money, crank, jugs & pistons are IN STOCK here) but rather TIME....

acotrel said:

How would he know what cash is needed before he has the motor apart ?

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True . But something(s) ugly will be found in the bottom end .

Complete engine pull down I say just get into it and get over it and find out what the motor has suffered, but the barrels be the first part, no use guessing just get stuck into it, if something has let go be wise to split the cases anyway, I know it gets very frustrating when things go wrong but best to get over it and done with it and get stuck into it as soon as you can and suffer the headache when needs a bucket of money spent on it to fix it, but worry about that after the pull down and see what failed.

Ashley

Wow, this thread blew up fast. Much like my bike. All and I mean all joking aside, I pulled the barrels and saw this: There is a chunk missing from the front of the piston but is otherwise fine. Wrist pin and circlips intact. The connecting rod does not appear to be bent at least by eye. I can lift the piston and rod as it appears the bearing shell/shells have collapsed. Hopefully the crankshaft didn't suffer any damage. Can't afford $3200 for a new crank. Engine will be removed in the next day or two and be further disassembled soon thereafter.

Now we know WHAT, we await the reason WHY.
As no doubt, do you.
Chin up, press on.

As pissed off as you may be right now...you dodged a potential hand grenade ...not a bullet

Well there you go we now know, hopefully the crank will live another day seen you shut it down quickly, depends how things clean up once the bottom end has been pulled apart and everything given a good clean, with any luck new bearings, pistons, gasket kit, how many miles on those pistons or rebuild last time.
Its all money and time now and a good parts cleaner.

I'd be looking for the smoking gun
That's a huge big end failure to be eating into the Conrod like that
Careful strip down to see what has happened to the lubrication system
Maybe the crank can be saved
As said above it coulda been a lot worse
I'd be looking at replacing the oil pump even if it tests good

The drive side CR journal will be telling...Lubrication starvation is one thing....Oil contaminated with/from fuel/grit is another....
You can usually hear when they start to go...long before the knocking starts....dont ask me how I know

Larry S said:

Wow, this thread blew up fast. Much like my bike. All and I mean all joking aside, I pulled the barrels and saw this: There is a chunk missing from the front of the piston but is otherwise fine. Wrist pin and circlips intact. The connecting rod does not appear to be bent at least by eye. I can lift the piston and rod as it appears the bearing shell/shells have collapsed. Hopefully the crankshaft didn't suffer any damage. Can't afford $3200 for a new crank. Engine will be removed in the next day or two and be further disassembled soon thereafter.

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Larry,
I woudl check the oil pump seal on the output side. See if it got split. Did you run an oil gauge on your bike? What does the cam look like?

I’d put money on the crank being salvageable (unless it is actually broken inside that big end). So long as it’s not broken, a re-grind will likely suffice, and if not, getting the journals welded and ground will definitely fix it. However, at that point, a good used crank off of eBay may be more financially viable.

Larry, do you wear earplugs and / or listen to music when riding (serious question BTW)?

I ask because it looks to me like that kind of damage would definitely have given an audible warning before getting that bad. Being able to listen to your engine, and detect new or unusual noises, is an important skill and part of riding a classic bike IMO.

Bad luck Larry but at least it didn’t result in wheel lockup and spit you off . Keep us posted.

Fast Eddie said:

I’d put money on the crank being salvageable (unless it is actually broken inside that big end). So long as it’s not broken, a re-grind will likely suffice, and if not, getting the journals welded and ground will definitely fix it. However, at that point, a good used crank off of eBay may be more financially viable.

Larry, do you wear earplugs and / or listen to music when riding (serious question BTW)?

I ask because it looks to me like that kind of damage would definitely have given an audible warning before getting that bad. Being able to listen to your engine, and detect new or unusual noises, is an important skill and part of riding a classic bike IMO.

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Pity the likes of me who are a) 70% hearing loss so deaf as fuck, b) inclined to remove my hearing aids and put in ear plugs with a full face helmet with good sound insulation!

But, I still detected some vibration at my last track outing and have just changed the mains and big end bearings, neither of which was 100% essential, just some traces of high rpm type wear on the inner races, oh well!

Of course, with Isolastics I may not have noticed anything!

Gratuitous anecdote: equipped as above whilst racing at Lydenn I had a monoshock collapse, locking the rear end on the exit to Chessoms and coming to rest close to the inside of the tarmac. The bike was immobile, no way could I move it without help. The response of the marshals (corner workers) was to blow whistles to attract my attention! According to them, I was unsafe where I was (I actually knew that!) and they didn't think it was safe to cross the track to me. I didn't fix it for them so they left me there until the race ended! My wife said she heard the whistles in the paddock! So I went to the clerk of the course to complain. You should have moved it he said, I couldn't I said, suspension collapsed, then you should have left it, how I said? Laid it on the track? And if you think it is unsafe, red flag! Never assume everyone can hear you!

The TGA crank link below might help if trying to save a few dollars over AN's very nice looking new crank:

TGA crank

Your crank will be ugly, but might be salvageable as mentioned. Spinning big end bearings and grit will chew it up. No way around it. Not sure it's worth keeping the old heavier crank design myself. However, having it reground will be a lot cheaper than a new one.

concours said:

I too, have gotten the fuckits, like when my RZ350 soiled the sheets last time, (not for money, crank, jugs & pistons are IN STOCK here) but rather TIME....

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Even with all the time in the world one can catch fuckits.