Looks like an early end to my season...
 

My bike was running decent all summer and that was fine with me. I had planned to maybe track down the cause of it burning a little oil and overfueling over the winter. Yesterday that changed pretty quick. I went for a little ride and then hit the highway to make it home in time. While I was droning along a Mustang passed me at about 2x the speed limit. It was on a perfectly straight, flat stretch of divided 4 lane highway that goes on for about 5 miles so I decided to catch up to him. I simply rolled on to it in 6th and quickly hit about 220KM/H which reeled him in pretty good. But then I realized it just wouldnt pull anymore. I found myself giving more throttle just to hold that speed. In the couple of seconds it took to realize this I started losing speed and I was at WOT. I quickly let off and dropped down to the speed limit. I knew something was wrong and I had a pretty good idea what. Since the bike has been running so rich, I figured it probably fouled another plug. I limped it home and put it away for the night. (Now some guy in a Mustang thinks he totally smoked me:lol:) But I noticed something when I slowed down enough to really hear the engine...It almost sounded like a hissing in the exhaust...Uh oh.

Today I pulled the fairings off, moved the rad and pulled the plug on #3. I found what a expected, and what I feared. The plug was incredibly fouled and missing most of the electrode. Something tells me it bounced off the crown of the piston and exited right through an Exhaust valve. I've seen this happen to a small car engine before so I'm sure it's more than possible with something like this. Hopefully I'm wrong. This week I plan to replace the plug and try it again to see how it works. If it still runs like shit and hisses at me then the engine will have to come out. (Really, it should anyway to track down the oil consumption problem. Which is obviously related to, if not causing, this problem.)

This bike has been a whole lot of problems this summer and it looks like they're going to extend into the winter. I managed to get about 5000KMs on it and it didnt leave me stranded when I took it about 1000Kms from home so at least that much went well.

I can say this and mean it now... Mine is faster.. :lol:

Ouch. I wouldn't be able to sleep until I knew for certain :lol:

Dont make me line up the old GS with you.

:owned:

Compression Check..I'm betting that cylinder is at100% leakdown... valve stuck open would cause the hissing.

I'm guessing there's either one stuck open or one has a hole burned right through it from the Electrode going through.

It sure would be nice to just put a plug in it and have it run fine again. I really did not want to fuck with the engine in it right now. Especially since the engine is a stressed member and it looks like the bike will pretty much have to split in half to take it out:bash:

Oh maaaaaaaan, that sucks. So sorry...

And :lol: at Tmall.

oh man, that sucks dude

Nice looking plug. How old are the plugs? About 7 years old? hahaha

Guessing the good one is original. The fouled one is about 5,000Kms old. The bike only has about 26,000 on it. (~16,250 Miles)

I replaced it tonight and, just as I thought, it's still not firing and spitting would-be compression straight out the exhaust. I'm starting to accept my faith. I gave in and started some minor disassembly tonight. Removed the fairings, exhaust and the rad is hanging by the hoses until I drain it. I guess I'll just pick away at it in the evenings for now.

I'm speaking with a guy down your way Tmall that has another engine for sale. I'm still not sure what I want to do.

1. Buy another and fix this one to sell.
2. Buy another and sell this one as is.
3. Just try fix this one.

It would be nice to just stick another one in it and then fix the other at my own leisure.

You said "stressed member" :lol:

That's what happens when she slips of the end of the bed

I was wondering when someone would pick up on that :lol:

So much for "Picking away at it". I came home from work today and pretty much stripped it down to nothing. Before I can pull the engine though I need to trailer it over to my friend's house so we can use either his car lift or the rafters in his Garage to hang the bike from. If it wasn't for the damn "Stressed Member" (Ha!) it would be on the ground tonight.

I decided to do it a different way and now I have a big Unicycle sitting in my basement.
Sometimes I hate when I'm right.

Ouch...

How's the piston and bore look?

All 4 cylinders have some slight scoring. I pulled the #2 Piston because it was the easiest to get to without splitting the cases. It's slightly scored too. The rings are in spec though. This is my oil consumption issue I would say. I think I'm going to pull as many pistons as I can get to without splitting cases (Should be 3, the 4th that I wont be able to reach is not too bad.) Maybe give them a light honing to smooth out the scores. Seems that this is unrelated to the Valve/Plug issue from the look of things though.

Earlier in the summer I got lazy and now I'm paying for it. I checked the valve clearances with the engine in and the exhaust valves for #3 and #4 were really hard to get at. Since the rest were all pretty much spot on, and I was leaving for a weekend trip the next morning, I just called it a day and buttoned it up. Turns out those 4 are all super tight. They have been running hot and the one in the picture paid the price. I think it seemed to be running rich because it was blowing unburned fuel out the exhaust valve before it could burn entirely. (I'm also starting to suspect a weak coil at this point.) I think the valve eventually got so hot it caused detonation and took out the valve and electrode. I think this because there is no sign of any other damage. I think it just blew them off/to pieces and straight out the exhaust without striking anything else. Anyway, I'm going to replace the valve, patch up the oil problem, see how it works and probably just cut my losses. I'll take a loss on it just to be rid of the problems. I just wont do it like the guy I bought it from and claim that it "Works perfectly":bash:

Well the season is not quite over. Finally got tired of looking at this Wheel Barrow/Unicycle sitting in my basement so I put it together this weekend and had it out for a ride tonight. Seems to be working great so far.

sweet! any more pics of your blade?

Here's one from the Gaspe Peninsula this summer and another when she was not at her finest:lol:

I think you forgot something in that second picture

You mean the other half? It was laying on the floor in my shed.

I cant deny that the thought of building some kind of crazy Unicycle did cross my mind.

So you ended up getting rid of the babycepter???

Ya we bought it last year so my GF could get her license on it. She did and we used it for the summer then this spring sold it for $300 more than I paid. I posted it for $300 more just so I could reduce it to what I paid if someone tried to low-ball me but a young lady was eager to get her license this year too. She brought her Boyfriend and he couldnt believe how well it ran with 70,000kms and many parking lot spills on it. They paid asking price without a problem.

It was a great bike but it was holding my Girlfriend back a bit since it needed some work. The suspension was getting soft and it needed tires. So for the price of a set of tires I just bought her a newer bike, in better shape, with 1/4 of the miles on it.

I still miss it though. Love those V4s. Especially with it's hollowed out Vance and Hines pipes. It sounded pretty mean:lol: