Isabella back from the hospital (again)

[Patriot]

Good news is today was a very blissful 180mi ride, the first since mid February

I can half my meds because proper therapy is now again available

note to self:

while riding with the tunes turned up inside one's helmet, and what begins is vigorous tambourine playing , it does NOT mean the bike's engine is destroying itself

but I digress...

I didn't take a pic of the header as it was removed, but it was 80% closed by additional damage on cyl 4. 2 pieces of advice: check you header and replace it if in doubt.

also, if as most you have removed the pair stuff, check those caps over the intake air nipples as mine were marginal after 50k miles on a "hot" Gen I.

I didn't really understand, but Aaron my mechanic has a better way to close off the reeds. I think he said he put them in or something back upside down so the slight curve went out and not in causing the reeds to stay closed. In hindsight, I would have purchased the pair intake plates and had them shipped to Aaron.

Injectors were sent off and came back serviced, but fine before that. They said the service gave 10-15% better and many are 50% better afterwards with real issues of rich & lean being bad for an engine.

So I overall feel fortunate that I have a great shop at least in driving/trailering distance. Brought the bike to Aaron at 10am, he hit the kill switch and spun up the engine with the starter and immediately determined cyl 4 (far right next to cam chain) was "dead" and said to leave the bike. That's the engine he swapped out for new used at 96k and now the bike has 151k so he actually had a "relationship" with my bike. By 3pm, he called me that he pulled the engine and the head off and the news of the problem. total $850 repair...the kicker I didn't anticipate was the parts cost $300. And two years ago with the engine swap, he charged $50/hr times 6 hrs or $300.

This time the rate was $65/hr times 8 or labor was $520 plus parts $335 or total $855.

So the below problem was determined to be caused by the crushed header tube to that particular cylinder #4. I was 1fortunate to find a pristine header off an '03 on ebay for $130 shipped to the repair shop.

One of exhaust valves of cyl #4...before head pull, engine compression was 195, 200, 195, 65

this engine has 60k mi

summary info from previous post about pipe:

pics are fall '09 around 100k mi

burnt exhaust valve is #4 cylinder far right behind cam chain cover

post #30 https://www.fjrforum.com/forum//index.php?showtopic=136782&st=20

the header for #4 is now 80%+ closed and is believed the cause of the overheated #4 cyl and exhaust valve damage

upon disasembly & close examination, everything else about the head was found to be fine

I raced dirt bikes for most of my high school & college years through the woods participating in enduros and the occassional hare scrambles

so I'm told I'm fearless with obstacles like curbs and bumps and uneven ground. geeze, there are gravel driveways and areas where I can flat track the beast to my heart's content having a ball

plus the is a 4" step between my driveway and garage where it was awhile before a could afford a proper ramp

in hindsight, not at all the smartest or wisest...I'm lucky I didn't plug the oil pan

broken pipe mounts bolted to the centerstand attachment points

https://www.flickr.com/photos/mholiver/sets/72157623710720129/with/4911872354/

 

[Mike-H]

Evidently somebody is under the impression that they are riding a adventure tourer.....not a sport tourer.....hello.....Patriot :blink: ..... :lol:

 

[SkooterG]

Glad you got er fixed Mike. Your post was a bit confusing at times - did he do a full head job? Or just replace the bad valve? Because me thinks you got off cheap. A full head job with new valves and valve guides for all cylinders and machining of the head would cost you a good $2500 in parts and labor.

No piccies of what the head looked like? I would have like to see how much carbon build-up there was.

Hope she gives you plenty of service from here on out. And take it easy on the poor girl, mmm-kay?

 

[Patriot]

Glad you got er fixed Mike. Your post was a bit confusing at times - did he do a full head job? Or just replace the bad valve? Because me thinks you got off cheap. A full head job with new valves and valve guides for all cylinders and machining of the head would cost you a good $2500 in parts and labor.

No piccies of what the head looked like? I would have like to see how much carbon build-up there was.

Hope she gives you plenty of service from here on out. And take it easy on the poor girl, mmm-kay?

pulled head, pulled all valves, determined the other 15 were fine, replaced all valve seals. Checked for warp with some kind of metal cylinder/straightedge tool and found it good to go. He mentioned it should be fine since the engine didn't overheat.Snap On and a couple of craftsman. He couldn't believe how difficult that was and he's worked on dozens of engines, but only a one Feej, mine.

He mentioned how friggin' difficult those 10 head bolts were...said he was amazed to break like 3 sockets including his best

There's good reason I trailer the bike to the shop 100mi away, so cost $100 of fuel for 2 round trips.

Here's the parts list (I guess 2 rotor wheels are to polish stuff like the old valves?):

 

[Patriot]

He did a couple of things gratus since he had the bike for so long waiting for Yamaha parts backordered from Japan. He fixed a broken tank holdown bolt, a broker side of the rear grab rail, and as a side, one of the brand new All Balls front wheel bearings was defective. I've read that they are all Chinese and it's best to get better made American or Japanese. I probably would have gone OEM if I would have bought them myself.

(I understand Japanese industry is hurting...they say the nuke fallout or physical plant problems aren't much of an issue, it's that the plants supplied a great portion of electricity to the islands and now they aren't gonna have enough for many, many years,

I do business for motorcycle electrical stuff from Easten Beaver located in Japan, and he had to move to a different location, but I digress)

 

[Canadian FJR]

How many miles did you ride with the header crushed in order to cause the engine damage?

Canadian FJR

 

[Patriot]

How many miles did you ride with the header crushed in order to cause the engine damage?

it's hard to say

it was dented some at 100k miles

I think I hit the curb really hard Aug '11 so rode it about 6 mo or 12k miles of riding until big problem