| Author | Message | ||
     Dirt |
and in with the new. Engine that is. I've been fortunate when it comes to the engine in my bike. Plenty of issues with other parts, but the engine has always been a solid runner. Until recently. The bike ran great up until around 115k miles. Then the following list of problems began to surface: Switching into skip spark mode when I would get caught in heavy summer stop and go traffic. Never did that before. I could feel that the engine was running hotter than normal. Oil consumption shot way up. We're talking 2 or 3 quarts per 5k miles. I was constantly trying to keep the level up. High frequency vibration and noise. Wasn't super bad, but there was more noise than usual from the valve train. My guess is the cams are worn. I have yet to tear into the engine. So with cold weather coming, and even though the bike was still running, albeit possibly on it's last leg, I decided to swap out the engine with one I found on the local Craigs List. Didn't want to chance having to do the swap in the cold garage in the middle of January. I was lucky and got a really good deal on a pristine used engine. Donor bike was a wrecked 2007 XB12STT with only 3.6k miles. The seller had purchased the bike at an insurance auction and was going to use the engine for a project bike. I guess he lost interest and ended up selling the undamaged parts on ebay and put the engine on CL. The engine came with the full throttle body assembly and is super clean with the only damage being a slightly ground shifter peg. So at 120k miles, I pulled the old engine.  and installed the new  I flushed the oil lines and swingarm with kerosene, but did not see any evidence of metal particles. I'm happy to say that after hooking everything up the engine fired and started on the first crank. It idled perfectly without having to reset the TPS. Bike runs very well. Hope to get another 100k out her. That is if I can get past the dreaded 30k mile crank failure window, which should be at around 150k miles on the speedo. | ||
| Mnrider |
Nice! | ||
| Hughlysses |
Been there, done that (more-or-less). Glad you pulled it off. It'll be interesting to see what the innards of your original engine look like when you tear it down. | ||
| Portero72 |
Fantastic, sir, and well done. I, too, would love to see pics of the old motor's internals. | ||
| Thumpthump |
If you don't mid me asking, I'm curious what the replacement motor cost ya? | ||
| Dirt |
Thump - The add on CL stated "Price Reduced - $1,250 or best offer". Prior to me seeing his add, he had been trying to sell it for $1,500, but had zero response. I offered him $1k. He countered and we settled on $1,100. Heck, I would have paid him the $1,250 considering it came complete with throttle body, but he opened the door for negotiations when he advertised "or best offer". In any case he was happy and so was I. I had been pricing engines on ebay and thought I did very well considering it was a local purchase and I did not have to arrange or pay for shipping. The low miles and very clean condition was an added bonus. I looked seriously at one on ebay a few months back, but in my mind, the condition of the engine did not match with the mileage indicated. | ||
| Uly_man |
"The bike ran great up until around 115k miles." Just how many miles does anyone think they can get out of anything? If I got 70k out of my Uly, with no big problems, would be stupid happy. | ||
| Red450 |
I bought my bike w/67k and it's running strong. | ||
| Pontlee77 |
There are many facts that influence the longevity of an engine. | ||
| Uly_dude |
Hey Dirt. What are you going to do with that old engine? I'm looking for a set of used inexpensive heads. Thanks. | ||
| Rays |
Wow - nice work. I'm sure there will be an attentive audience to the tear-down story. I would be interested in your service regime - it is one thing to have all sorts of opinions about oil / intervals etc but quite another to review a real life result like this. | ||
| Jamba |
Dirt, i'm glad you telling you got so many mikes with your engine (mine has 40k on, so i believe i have lots of miles to go..) and i'd love to see pics when you tear old engine down. |
