J
jimcor
Guest
To answer your question, examine both blocks; look for ANYTHING that doesn't seem normal. Check the cylinders; light scrapes can be honed out, but gouges will present new problems, and you'd need oversized pistons, so if you're not sure of what you're looking at, take BOTH blocks to the machine shop that will do the work, and ask them to advise you. If the deck isn't flat (might be warped from heat) or has other problems, you need to find out BEFORE you put money into it, so once again, do NOT rush this. The photo of the block shown on eBay doesn't reveal enough detail to make any call on it, so keep your options open.
Have someone knowledgeable examine the eBay pistons; right now, you don't know if they're actually serviceable or not. The crowns have a coating of carbon, so you won't know what you're dealing with until they're clean. The pistons need to be miked to be sure they are round, not ovoid; you have to be sure the ring grooves aren't damaged, and that they're structurally sound before you can go any further, so don't have any work done on your original block until the pistons have a clean bill of health. If even one is defective, you'll be dead in the water until you get a replacement.
KEITH KRAUSE has mentioned that the plugs don't seem to show the effects of a severe lean condition, and he's right, but he ALSO mentioned that the condition of the plugs are really no help in diagnosing this, and he's right about that, as well...
I think most (hopefully ALL) of us will agree that detonation knocked the holes in those pistons; my thanks to 49er for reminding me of the term "dime detonation" to describe the damage to the piston crowns - my rusty old brain let me down while I was trying to recall it... Though we can't rely on the condition of the plugs to help us diagnose this, those holed piston crowns indicate that carbon buildup was NOT much of a factor here, if it existed at all.
As I've already stated, detonation will occur at a LOWER than expected temperature in the presence of a lean condition. Some may think that a lean condition will ALWAYS show piston slag welded to the cylinder walls, or some other CLASSIC (catastrophic) signs of a lean condition, but I want to emphasize once again that in the presence of a lean condition (as evidenced by the CLEAN piston crowns and cylinder walls, and the fact that the engine was run WITHOUT an air filter), detonation will occur at a LOWER temperature than it does under "normal" conditions. The resulting engine failure PREVENTS the TYPICAL damage we expect to see in a "classic" lean condition, when detonation is NOT a factor... The detonation occurred BEFORE the cylinder super-heated, which is why we DON'T see the "classic" signs of an extreme lean condition...
Logically, (as Keith mentioned) this is all water under the bridge; the damage has been done, and now Fixxxer has to make some decisions about how he wants to deal with this. I've been checking the pictures he posted recently, and those other pistons aren't too pretty, but I've seen worse...
Of course, this could be a LOT worse; at least no one got hurt... Not that I want to point out the obvious here, but so far, Fixxer has admitted to riding on a bald tire, and listening to music while riding, so maybe this breakdown will give him time to think about his attitude towards motorcycling while he rebuilds / replaces the engine. I imagine we've all lost friends who made bad choices while riding; I'd only had my motorcycle endorsement for four years when my friend Jeff was killed in August of 1986. The police report said he'd had ONE beer within one or two hours before the accident, and it must have been enough alcohol to affect his judgment, because he decided to ride anyway. He was only 21, the only son of a Chrysler worker who lived north of Detroit...
There have been others since then, but as smart as they were, they were all guys who did stupid **** around the clock, so I didn't have much hope for many of them surviving long enough to see the far side of 30... Jeff was the only one of us who didn't push his luck at every opportunity, but I'm still here, and he's not. Crazy as I might be, I've NEVER ridden impaired; he ONLY did it once...
Saturday I attended a birthday party for a little girl, who just turned five. She's the granddaughter of a friend who only began riding a few years ago. His older grandkids all wanted to know how many scars / broken bones I've acquired; the broken bones have all healed years ago, because I finally figured out what NOT to do on a motorcycle. Seems they were very impressed by the list: leg, ankle, five of eight fingers (no thumbs broken yet), collarbone, wrist, four ribs, dislocations of the knee, thumb, and OTHER wrist (I wasn't a very good dirt rider, and didn't always wear my gear)... The scars I COULDN'T show them are the ones I carry from attending the funerals of people I cared for, at least one of whom should still be here today...
Fixxxer, I still hope you'll find the time to post a photo or two of the cylinder head, so we can take a look at the valve faces... I realize you might have other things to do, but I'm sure many who are following this thread would appreciate it... In the meantime, I hope you'll think about life and death, especially YOUR life and death; what would your parents say if you were killed riding while listening to "music"? Do you think they'd be happy knowing that you died because you just couldn't live without an MP3 player torturing your eardrums for a few hours? How do you think your girlfriend would feel if you died that way? You can fluff up a coroner's body bag just as well as the next guy, but no one who reads this forum would consider that some type of accomplishment; we'd just list it as ANOTHER needless tragedy... the more cynical among us would say, "Darwin was right", and tell the rest of us that we should be thankful that you haven't fathered any children yet...
One thing OLD motorcyclists know is that the REAL music is in the RIDE; let's hope you start to rethink your approach to motorcycling and life, or you'll only be repairing the motorcycle to use as the instrument of your own demise... I'd like to think you'll learn from this and have a long, happy life, but that won't happen if you don't realize just how lucky you've been so far... Think about the pain your death would cause OTHER people... yes, I know, I'm asking a YOUNG guy to think about someone ELSE for a change, and I know what the odds are of that actually happening, because I was YOUR age a LONG time ago. While you're thinking, think about how unnatural it is for a parent to bury a child, then ask yourself if you REALLY want to make YOUR parents endure that kind of pain... Oh, wait, I forgot, I'M so OLD that I've completely forgotten that people YOUR age are indestructable, or at least, they THINK they are...
As you've already seen, you can only run a lean condition for so long... sooner than you think, there is a price to be paid for doing it. You can repair the damage to the engine, and replace the holed pistons; your family and loved ones will NEVER be able to repair the hole in their lives your death would cause. You need to think about the PAIN your death would bring to the lives of the people who love you; that pain NEVER goes away, and YOU would be responsible for the agony your family endures...
Motorcycling and life are risky enough; those of us approaching retirement age have had to learn the HARD way to minimize certain risks, to improve our chances of survival. If my brother (a cop) ever went on patrol without his vest, I'd KICK HIS ASS to make sure he didn't do it again. There are ENOUGH things you CAN'T control while riding; you don't have ANY control over the drinkers and the druggers who are driving on the same road with you, you can't control the weather, you can't control ANYTHING except yourself and your behavior, so please learn from this...
I have to wonder about something; you seem to have realized that riding on a bald rear tire wasn't the most intelligent thing you've done recently, but would you have ridden on a bald FRONT tire? Would you have taken a passenger with you, knowing you had a bald tire? I realize you haven't been riding very long, but if you don't have enough self-control to wait until you have a SAFE motorcycle to ride, maybe you should put that GS in storage for a while...
According to you, Michigan Tech is two miles past the end of the earth; according to me, the Cemetary of No More Second Chances is just a little ways past that... let's hope you learn enough from this that you don't end up taking an eternal dirt nap there any time soon... losing you is something none of us want to think about, so you need to give this some thought...
and I think that's the longest post I've ever seen on these forums. :shock:
