Major Engine Failure

Ruggybuggy

Ruggybuggy

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So I'm riding my bike to work this morning and about 2 miles from home it starts to miss. I pull over to the side of the road and notice blue smoke pouring from the exhaust. I turn the bike around and head back home. Running it in the garage I notice oil dripping from the exhaust onto the floor while the bike is running so one cylinder must be flooding with oil. I couldn't diagnose it further because I had to get to work. The bike's a 06 with only 5,000 miles on it. Anyone else have this happen?
 
Ewwww! Doesn't look good at all!!! To get enough oil in there to piss off the exhaust it's more than an valve seal or blow by... look like you might have burn a piston or something like that. 06 were FI or carbs? Look one injector or one carb might have stop working and lean out one cylinder... pretty lucky it didn't grenade! Should have parked it instead of keeping riding. Let us know how it goes...
 
06 is fuel injected. Doughtful it a plugged injector that caused a lean down. It happened instantaneously and rode perfect up till the time of the failure. At the moment I'm really quite pissed. Next week I plan on going on my annual trip out west for two weeks.
 
Start with the simple stuff. Drain the oil, check the coolant. Check for metal and coffee coolant. Obviously pull the header to see if its limited to one cyl chamber. If it were me I would pull the motor and put it on a stand (Its easier than you think). If you can't do that pull the top two mounts and you can rotate the motor. That will allow you to pull the valve cover gasket and oil pan. Try to do a compression check to see if the cylinder chamber holds pressure. If they are within limits, it might be a cam seal somewhere. Could also be a head gasket. Good luck, keep us posted.
 
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So here's a question. With the mods I have, Ivan reflash, slip on exhaust, AIS blocked off, EXUP eliminated, Lars airbox mod, performance air filter and running a Juicebox Pro is it possible to run on one of the maps available on the forum that could cause engine damage similar to what's happened to me?
 
wouldn't think so unless you have been running real lean for a long time, should have noticed other things before failure. Good idea to get a air to fuel gauge that you can run or at least stick in the exhaust when you do much changing to the maps and putting on mods if you don't want to dyno it every time there is a change. If there isn't any knocking, no oil in the coolant, and isn't running hot i would lean toward a broken piston ring. Definitely check the compression first, and check the oil to see if it has any fuel in it. if there is oil coming out of the exhaust and it is a piston or a ring there is usually fuel going back into the oil to.
 
Jmcculler662 said:
wouldn't think so unless you have been running real lean for a long time, should have noticed other things before failure. Good idea to get a air to fuel gauge that you can run or at least stick in the exhaust when you do much changing to the maps and putting on mods if you don't want to dyno it every time there is a change. If there isn't any knocking, no oil in the coolant, and isn't running hot i would lean toward a broken piston ring. Definitely check the compression first, and check the oil to see if it has any fuel in it. if there is oil coming out of the exhaust and it is a piston or a ring there is usually fuel going back into the oil to.
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The bike ran perfect and in one second wasn't. I was pretty sure it wasn't from a lean condition but a co-worker suggest it might be the case. No knocking and I did drain a little oil out of the crankcase before I went to work and didn't find coolant or a fuel smell. My though also was a broken ring which would pump oil into the cylinder. I can't imagine anything else that could cause that much oil to pour from the exhaust. I'll do a compression check tonight when I get home.
 
Ruggybuggy said:
The bike ran perfect and in one second wasn't. I was pretty sure it wasn't from a lean condition but a co-worker suggest it might be the case. No knocking and I did drain a little oil out of the crankcase before I went to work and didn't find coolant or a fuel smell. My though also was a broken ring which would pump oil into the cylinder. I can't imagine anything else that could cause that much oil to pour from the exhaust. I'll do a compression check tonight when I get home.
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Not saying that's what happen but I've seen many engine blowing up over the years. Oil coming out of exhaust is not a good sign. Lean condition increase the combustion temperature to a point where you melt a hole in a piston. It doesn't take long... might not even happen all at one. I saw you have Ivan flash... give him a call and ask him for advise. I don't want to sound alarming... but shit happen.

Like others said. Pull the spark plugs out and just crank the engine with your finger in the spark plug hole... you will know right away if there's compression or a hole in a piston. Even the spark plug condition will tell you right away...

The good thing is you didn't throw a rod through the block... might be able to simply rebuilt the engine (piston/rings/bearing...)

Hope for the best!
 
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It really does sound like the JuiceBox and random maps off a forum could have played a role. With no AFR devices, who knows what was going on at any given rpm.

It's startling and very unlikely that such a stout motor like the FZ1's could have had a catastrophic failure at 5000 miles all on its own.

Good luck :(
 
Dustin said:
It really does sound like the JuiceBox and random maps off a forum could have played a role. With no AFR devices, who knows what was going on at any given rpm.

It's startling and very unlikely that such a stout motor like the FZ1's could have had a catastrophic failure at 5000 miles all on its own.

Good luck :(
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So if maps and Juicebox are a unlikely cause and the FZ1 motor is dead reliable what would one suspect? I'm going to do a compression test when I get home tonight and if it turns out a cylinder is dead I'm going to just buy a complete motor and change it out. I don't want to waste the best time of year to ride rebuilding.
 
Ruggy, I remember you posted that you used a map with Ivan's flash that gave you 46 mpg. I don't know how long you used that map, but a map that lean could definitely cause a problem. I don't know of anyone getting that kind of mileage out of a gen 2.
 
my $0.02 its in the tuning and maps. I haven't messed with any maps or any tuning on my bike, but I have done a lot with diesels and I can tell you one parameter being off or not set properly can really mess some stuff up.

Sorry this happened, hope you get it squared away soon and it isn't too bad
 
Sounds like a sour deal. I don't know what a new motor will run you, but I bought my 07 FZ1 in mint condition with 9K miles for $6K. Maybe run a new bike and rebuild later then sell. Just saying. Good luck man.
My gut feels like I got kicked in the balls just reading your initial post.
 
Kpd1031 said:
Ruggy, I remember you posted that you used a map with Ivan's flash that gave you 46 mpg. I don't know how long you used that map, but a map that lean could definitely cause a problem. I don't know of anyone getting that kind of mileage out of a gen 2.
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HUm. Not quite sure what Ivan does with the flash but look like there tune for HP and response... more timing advance combine with lean map is a recipe for disaster for sure. That's a speculation... I have no idea of the flash numbers or map he's using. But getting 46MPG out of a FZ1... I don't even get that with my ride... or barely if I cruise bellow 6K.

But liek I said, if this is only a piston and the engine is not destroy it's not that bad if you can fix it yourself. Ring, piston and few gasket then you got a new engine... pretty much.
 
What map are you running ? When the motor failed were you just putting down the road or at 12,000 rpm ?

Think about pulling the plugs and borrow or rent a scope to take a look inside.

I've seen engines pop up on ebay all the time :)


If you see any big changes in the map your running compared to Ivans I'd suspect that, especially if they are at higher rpm or more than a 20% change at cruise.

If I remember right Yamaha had a batch of bad valve stems in some early Gen II FZ1's and a few people have had the stator come apart.
 
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