Pretty sure I blew up a cylinder (?)

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by M42

Well, it's been at @Finesse 's shop getting tapped... they finished the tap, fired it up, and it sounds awful. Either a shaving fell in or the piston slammed the plug or somesuch. Rip bike.

Incidentally, who wants a rolling chassis

make sure they measured the bolts for stretching. any time you remove those head bolts -- especially older ones-- if you don't replace them with brand new ones you run basically a 50/50 chance of stretched head bolts which will throw everything out of wack and make this terrible loud ticking noise.

if this is the case, simply replacing the head bolts with fresh ones can fix the issue. if its just stretched bolts there might not really be any damage.

i mean. honestly they would have been able to tell if it had a blown crank bearing when they had the head off... so if its not that its probably the head still.

my money is on stretched bolts.

[Ninjinsky]

Originally Posted by M42

Well, it's been at @Finesse 's shop getting tapped... they finished the tap, fired it up, and it sounds awful. Either a shaving fell in or the piston slammed the plug or somesuch. Rip bike.

Incidentally, who wants a rolling chassis

Did they tap oversize and use a different reach plug or was it coiled?
Aluminum shavings shouldn't do much, just blow out the exhaust after a coupleof cycles
Try turning it over by hand (socket on the alternator bolt) and see if you can hear anything knock, if not it might be a shaving under a valve seat which a compression tester will show.

[alex.s]

and if it is a shaving that has damaged the valve seat, a re-lapping isn't that big of a deal.

[M42]

I know it's possible to fix it, but I'm completely out of patience for working on this bike, and I've been jonesing for something peppier for the whole season. I can't do the engine stuff myself, and it's not worth it to pay someone else even more money to do it for me, so yeahhh.

[alex.s]

i'm all for buying more bikes... but maybe i'm on a different line of thinking. if its already broken and you've given up on it, what worse could you do to it? maybe its worth messing around with it just to learn about engines so you can take better care of the next one? best case, you fix it and have another engine. worst case, it's still broken.

[M42]

If I had a garage, perhaps. I'd be tearing it down in a parking lot, so I can't leave it lying torn apart out there day after day. Everything needs to be buttoned back up at the end of the day. I don't own any engine lifts/bike stands/etc either, just ratchets and a torque wrench.

[alex.s]

you don't need fancy stands or lifts. and this is what kitchen tables are for!

[nbleak21]

I need some parts, may be interested in rolling chassis if it's cheap enough where abouts are you located?

[M42]

Pretty far from you, in the DC metro area. If I decide to sell it, I'll post it on ninjette of course.

[csmith12]

Originally Posted by alex.s

you don't need fancy stands or lifts. and this is what kitchen tables are for!

[Hero Danny]

Come on guys, leave her alone lol. She doesn't want to mess with it any more, I understand not wanting to mess with it after a certain point. Just toss it up on craigslist and call it a day.

RIP 248

Maybe save up for a different bike? Keep us updated on what you decide to do.

[MrAtom]

That sucks so much to hear about your bike. Just curious, how many miles did it go before it got to this point?

[M42]

Just a hair under 15k. :\ I treated it well and took good care of it while it was in my possession, too. Or at least I thought I did.

[nbleak21]

Originally Posted by M42

Pretty far from you, in the DC metro area. If I decide to sell it, I'll post it on ninjette of course.

Yes, that Is indeed a bit far! If you decide to part it out, I'm looking for handlebars & controls, and front and rear tires/wheels for a side project of mine.

[MrAtom]

Originally Posted by M42

Just a hair under 15k. :\ I treated it well and took good care of it while it was in my possession, too. Or at least I thought I did.

What are your plans for your next bike?

[Skullz]

Sucks to hear it couldn't be saved.

[M42]

Originally Posted by MrAtom

What are your plans for your next bike?

Well... there IS a really good deal on an SV that I'm going to see this weekend

[choneofakind]

is it finesse's? After she killed your bike, you're buying hers?!?!?

[MrAtom]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

is it finesse's? After she killed your bike, you're buying hers?!?!?

That's evil genius material right there!

[Finesse]

RIP little ninja, join my 88 and 99 in ninja heaven.

There is a loud knocking noise at idle that quiets down when it's revved. It's hard to start, won't idle without choke and has low compression in the right cylinder, rides okay but I'd say it's pretty much toasted.

[M42]

I went and put it up on CL, just to see if I get any responses. Doing an experiment - two ads, one wordy and one succinct. Gonna see what gets more responses.

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/...727515029.html

https://washingtondc.craigslist.org/...727516067.html

[Ninjinsky]

Originally Posted by Finesse

RIP little ninja, join my 88 and 99 in ninja heaven.

There is a loud knocking noise at idle that quiets down when it's revved. It's hard to start, won't idle without choke and has low compression in the right cylinder, rides okay but I'd say it's pretty much toasted.

Not sure how a stripped plug thread could achieve all that

[alex.s]

Originally Posted by Ninjinsky

Not sure how a stripped plug thread could achieve all that

maybe putting carb cleaner on it would help :P

[Ninjinsky]

Originally Posted by alex.s

maybe putting carb cleaner on it would help :P

I know exactly where I would like to put the carb cleaner right now

[Skullz]

I have a question to ask, did you pull the plug back out after the helicoil to see if that was hitting the piston?
If the plug is hitting the piston they make indexing washers to shim the plug so it points toward one of the valves for a better burn, but you could use those to shim the plug out to prevent it from hitting the piston.

http://www.summitracing.com/search?S...xing%20washers

[M42]

It's still at the shop, imma see it saturday. I don't think a mechanic would have put the plug in so bad that it was hitting the piston. I probably let some metal shavings fall in when I pulled that threadpiece out with the new plug, before it went into the shop.

[Ninjinsky]

I don't think the coil is wide enough to affect plug reach but I have seen the coils themselves turn with the plug, usually coming out but maybe being fresh machining here turning into the cylinder, just a thought.

[M42]

Hahaha, alright, scratch all that - I just rode it back home. The threads were so gone that the helicoil didn't work perfectly, so the plug's not fully sealed around the edges and there's a little blowby. Bossman said it would feel like a 175 cc, but I spent 40 minutes at the highway at 65, at normal rpms. I think maaaaybe it accelerates a little slower, and it won't idle without choke/idles really high, but it's nowhere near as destroyed as I thought.

[choneofakind]

Originally Posted by M42

The threads were so gone that the helicoil didn't work perfectly

This statement confuses me. When I had mine repaired, they put the head on a drill press, drilled out the old threading, tapped it so it had clean threads (note that the hole is now bigger than before) and installed a helicoil that worked with the stock size spark plug.

In other words, the existing condition of the stock threads should have nothing to do with how effective the helicoil is, because they're going to be drilled out to a larger diameter and tapped to another thread any way.

soooooooooo did the shop muck up and give you a BS excuse for why the repair didn't work as advertised? or are you just confused at how a Helicoil works? I don't mean to be blunt, but something in this whole situation rubs me the wrong way.

[M42]

I have a notoriously awful memory so I'm paraphrasing. I remember they did say they tapped it and it was bigger now, but for real, I will forget something you tell me about 30 seconds later. All I know is that the right cylinder doesn't have full compression. Whatever, I'm still selling it, I'm just glad I could ride it home.

[choneofakind]

I see a note pad and pen in your future for note taking.

[M42]

That would require me to remember to use it

[Ninjinsky]

Originally Posted by M42

I'm paraphrasing. I remember they did say they tapped it and it was bigger now,

Sounds like they went for the larger plug size option I suggested. Though that shouldn't leak
Perhaps Finesse can backfill on what they did.
Do you have an invoice that says
tapping
coiling
or whatever
yadda yadda
new plug to fit
$$ ?

[Finesse]

I don't think the spark plug threads being stripped was the main problem. I think it's probably a symptom of whatever went on inside the engine. I didn't work on it myself so I don't know. I think diagnosing the actual problem would require pulling the motor and seeing what's going on down there, and we'd have to charge actual money to do that and will probably still find that it's ****ed beyond feasibly paying to fix at a shop or buying new engine parts. **** happens, bikes blow up sometimes, for a Ninja 250 it's easier and more cost effective to just buy a new motor or, even better, buy a new bike...

[choneofakind]

Wait, yall didn't even pull the motor?! Errrrmmm

[ninjamunky85]

I can personally say that a couple of slivers of aluminum dropped into the cylinder should not screw up the engine. Ask me how I know.

[M42]

Originally Posted by choneofakind

Wait, yall didn't even pull the motor?! Errrrmmm

I wouldn't even be able to pay for something that involved. Hell, I wouldn't want to, bike was barely worth 1200 when it was running 100%. They did me a huge favor and barely charged me, so I'm not gonna be a huge sourpuss. I'll sell it to somebody looking for a project, end of story.

[choneofakind]

Fair enough, I can respect that. Keep us posted with what you replace it with!!