SuzukiSavage.com - Print Page

SuzukiSavage.com
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl
General Category >> Rubber Side Down! >> Oil leak?
/cgi-bin/YaBB.pl?num=1249234180

Message started by Phelonius on 08/02/09 at 10:29:40

Title: Oil leak?
Post by Phelonius on 08/02/09 at 10:29:40

I was riding home from breakfast with the Guzzi gang on Saturday about 1:30 in the afternoon. I had noticed a new tic tic coming from the engine and made a mental note to check the valves as soon as possible. I topped the rise above Port Orchard and was headed down the hill towards Gorst at abou 60 MPH when there was a poud bang like an explosion and the rear tire jumped as I ran over something I had not seen in the road. Instinctively I pulled the clutch and closed the throttle but for some reason the engine seemd to rev higher for a moment then with another clack it went quiet.
I looked down still holding the clutch open. My left boot was covered in oil from the toe to the top, and it is a high top boot. This is not a good omen I thought as I put on the four way flashers and moved to the shoulder and let the Webley Vickers coast down the hill as far as it could hoping to get past the barrier that would trap me on this freeway.
I coasted to within 100 yards of th end of the barrier and stopped. I took a glance before quickly pushing to where I could actually get off the shoulder and safely away from the 60 to 70 mph traffic rushing past. What I saw told me that my ride was over, the leak was serious.
http://p1.bikepics.com/pics/2009/08/02/bikepics-1743623-200.jpg
The entire front of the engine case on both halves had blown away, taking the counterbalancer unit with it. The leak was about 6 inches high by 6 inches wide. I do not think J.B. weld can do anything for this one.

Phelonius

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Yonuh Adisi on 08/02/09 at 11:02:37

OUCH!!! That is definitely NOT good. (stating the obvious)

Okay folks, we have a Savage down, what can we do to help?

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Midnightrider on 08/02/09 at 11:16:00

This is my first post. About an hour ago I bought an 03 Savage with 4,700 on the clock. This is not making me feel good about my new purchase. What do you think happened other than the obvious? Was she low on oil, cam chain broke, etc?

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Phelonius on 08/02/09 at 11:17:47

S'not to be worried about too much. It means I have to hurry up the rebuild of my spare engine. I had planned on rebuilding it this winter. The major slowdown will be that I am not yet strong enough to pull the broken engine myself or the put a fresh one into the frame. The bones have not yet mended enought to take that kind of strain.

Phelonius

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Phelonius on 08/02/09 at 11:32:07

17333E34333D322E28333E3F285A0 wrote:

Do not worry about your 03 too much.
This disaster was of my own making. When I put in the larger piston last spring, I noticed that the new piston weighed a bit less than the original. I tried to balance this by machining a weight to fit inside the wrist pin to make the weight the same as the old one.
I found half of this weight in the wreckage of the engine, indicating that the balancing weight I had constructed had come loose and worked it's way out the end of the wrist pin. It had then fallen onto the flywheel and found it's way to in between the flywheel and the rotating counterbalancer device. The next time the counterbalancer swung around about 3800 RPM, the piece was between it and the flywheel.
Since it couldn't compress, something had to give. The front of the engine was torn away at the bearing housings of the counterbalancer and the balancer and housing chunk were what I felt go under the rear wheel. Two quarts of oil blew out in an instant and it was all over for this engine. I have to take guilt for an expirement gone wrong.
Do not worry about any unmodified engine. This sort of thing can only happen when a large chunk of metal falls between two moving parts.
Something nearly impossible unless you are as big a fool as me to think you can out engineer the factory.

Phelonius

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Midnightrider on 08/02/09 at 11:40:40

Good luck. If we lived close I'd gladly pull your old engine for you.

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Serowbot on 08/02/09 at 12:01:01

Oil leak?....

Phelonius,... You have mastered the art of understatement... ;D

;D ;D ;D

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Dj12midnit on 08/02/09 at 18:56:50

I had a leak like that once in an old slant six.

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by justin_o_guy2 on 08/02/09 at 22:27:28

Okay, so, its a leak,nothing to throw a rod over..

Man, Im just glad you didnt get hurt. Sorry for your troubles. You sure handle it well. Im surprised you didnt look to lighten the crank instead of weight the rod. Maybe thats too difficult? Something about dynamic balance?

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by BurnPgh on 08/03/09 at 00:11:10

man...you got some terrible luck lately. Hope it looks up from here on out.

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Sir mick on 08/03/09 at 00:12:04

So sorry about the blow up,but glad you are ok.
Will you offer the piston to the speed god ?
burt Munroe would be proud of you.

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by PTRider on 08/03/09 at 20:14:47

Did you get a ticket for littering in beautiful downtown Gorst? At least you had a place to hang out waiting for a ride....(I know, you were on the other end of this blighted wide spot in the road).

http://images.dexknows.com/previews/BREY/DEFAULT_C59840248_large.jpg

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Skid Mark on 08/03/09 at 22:26:11

Looks like it blew up real good. It is good to hear you got stopped ok . Anything on the bike can be repaired. Another accident would be unthinkable!!!

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by serenity3743 on 08/04/09 at 09:09:00

6F4B464C4B454A56504B464750220 wrote:

As already stated, unmodified engines, particularly unmodified in the crankcase area, are fairly bullet-proof. Change your oil and filter every 3,000 miles and you can probably get 50K + mileage out of the motor. I did.

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Midnightrider on 08/04/09 at 11:50:37

25332433383F222F65616265560 wrote:

[quote
As already stated, unmodified engines, particularly unmodified in the crankcase area, are fairly bullet-proof. Change your oil and filter every 3,000 miles and you can probably get 50K + mileage out of the motor. I did.

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by serenity3743 on 08/05/09 at 05:10:52

7C58555F585659454358555443310 wrote:

[quote author=25332433383F222F65616265560 link=1249234180/0#13 date=1249402140][quote
As already stated, unmodified engines, particularly unmodified in the crankcase area, are fairly bullet-proof. Change your oil and filter every 3,000 miles and you can probably get 50K + mileage out of the motor. I did.

Serenity, just rode her home while ago. I'm gonna shine on her for a day or 2 and I'll start another thread with pics. I live in Winston Salem not that far away. Maybe we can go for a ride before long. Don't want to steal any more of this thread. Later
[/quote]

Cool. Yeah, we're just 50 or so miles apart. Another member, Toymaker lives up north of me in Hudson, and Srinath lives in Charlotte. We could have our own club! :D

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by Toymaker on 08/05/09 at 05:24:01

yep, yep, yep, yep!

Title: Re: Oil leak?
Post by serenity3743 on 08/05/09 at 09:30:33

08303D343736312D2B580 wrote:

I heard about your accident, somethin bout a 6 foot suppository and a deer's anus?????!!!!! Glad to hear you're back in the saddle, even though 'the horse was shot out from under ya.' ;)