Originally Posted by
pdksh
It's not good. Not good at all!!!
Last night I finally rotated the motor... The first obvious sign that things weren't good on the front cylinder was, one of the intake valves was visibly open when peering down the intake boot. When I removed the front header pipe a pieced of metal, the size of a quarter came out of the exhaust port. Not Good...
With the front cylinder taken apart; valve cover, cam assembly, head and cylinder sleeve. The issue, a valve shim from one of the intake valves was sitting in a recess of the head. I must have done something seriously wrong when doing the valve lash adjustment, something like; too large of a valve clearance, valve shim not properly seated, something. The cam follower arm clips were properly installed.
What parts of the crushed valve that wasn't in the exhaust port was inside the head, not allowing the piston to make clear TDC, that's why I could only make a small rotation of the crank. I suspect the intake valve shim interfered with one of the exhaust valves at 5000+ rpm and POP went my head assembly. The cylinder has damage, the piston is so banged up it has pinched the compression rings, the inside of the head is pretty banged up and there is signs of other bent valves. The engine oil was clean and the oil strainer had mild shavings, I've seen a lot worse come out of a health engine.
I'm negotiating a price for a 2008 1125r motor with 5000KMS according to the owner. I'll be looking for advice on a 2008 to 2009 motor differences/swap.
Oh and be careful when handling the piston... YIKES! I cut a big gash into my thumb, just touching the damn thing. Did Eric personally sharpen those things to discourage the Japanese from snooping around his designs? (Yes Rotax designed the motor to buell specs... blah blah blah...)