Overheated bike. Won’t start now

[blanzer]

I have a 2005 Ninja 250. Yesterday I had left my moms place and when I started the bike I noticed when it was warming up that it got hotter than usually. It was late at night so I didn’t really notice anything or think about it. I rode off and about a mile or 2 I stopped to text somebody. I then proceeded to go on the freeway and went another few miles and felt the bike losing power and overheated so I pulled over. Seems that the bolt that holds the pipe from the radiator to the water pump fell out and the pipe popped off and I lost all my coolant. Most of which was at my moms place when I went back. How I made it as far as I did I have no clue. Today I replaced the bolt and I put in new coolant. I tried to start it and it cranks but won’t turn over. Is the engine shot? I found a very similar situation on another post from 2012 but they never said what the result was.

[Artruck]

Originally Posted by blanzer

I have a 2005 Ninja 250. Yesterday I had left my moms place and when I started the bike I noticed when it was warming up that it got hotter than usually. It was late at night so I didn’t really notice anything or think about it. I rode off and about a mile or 2 I stopped to text somebody. I then proceeded to go on the freeway and went another few miles and felt the bike losing power and overheated so I pulled over. Seems that the bolt that holds the pipe from the radiator to the water pump fell out and the pipe popped off and I lost all my coolant. Most of which was at my moms place when I went back. How I made it as far as I did I have no clue. Today I replaced the bolt and I put in new coolant. I tried to start it and it cranks but won’t turn over. Is the engine shot? I found a very similar situation on another post from 2012 but they never said what the result was.

Pull your spark plugs, running really hot can damage them and cause a no spark. It can also mess with valves, so I would do a compression test too.

[blanzer]

Originally Posted by Artruck

Pull your spark plugs, running really hot can damage them and cause a no spark. It can also mess with valves, so I would do a compression test too.

Never done it before but seems simple enough. I’ll go pick up a kit tomorrow. I guess either way I have to remove the spark plugs so hopefully it’s nothing serious. Will be back with an update tomorrow.

[blanzer]

Update: pulled the plugs and the left one was covered in oil. Did the compression test. Got 105 reading on the right and 0 on the left lol. Not good.

[jkv45]

Couple things you can do to check for damage would be to pull the valve cover and look at the cams/rockers for galling, and drop the oil to look for bronze colored flakes in the oil that would confirm toasted bearings.

I'm thinking you may have a cam/rocker issue that is causing a valve to hang open and not give any compression.

[blanzer]

Originally Posted by jkv45

Couple things you can do to check for damage would be to pull the valve cover and look at the cams/rockers for galling, and drop the oil to look for bronze colored flakes in the oil that would confirm toasted bearings.

I'm thinking you may have a cam/rocker issue that is causing a valve to hang open and not give any compression.

I did end up doing that and saw some scrapings near the top but otherwise everything seemed normal. I cranked it a bit from the bottom and it did seem a little rough but I can’t recall exactly how it felt when I did my valve adjustment. Might’ve been a mental thing. I will drop the oil to test. I was already told by my friend that it’s done so I didn’t bother to check for that. I will take some pictures of the top too.

[Mohawk]

Sounds like you melted the left piston hence oil in the bore. Or badly scraped it whilst overheated. The bottom end oiling may have saved the crank bearings, but you will have to pull the top end. If the valves & cams survived you may get away with a head skim and get a set of over size or bigbore pistons with a rebore to suit.

Lesson learned here if engine runs hotter than normal. Stop & find the cause !

Hope you get it sorted.

[PaleHorse]

Originally Posted by Mohawk

Sounds like you melted the left piston hence oil in the bore. Or badly scraped it whilst overheated. The bottom end oiling may have saved the crank bearings, but you will have to pull the top end. If the valves & cams survived you may get away with a head skim and get a set of over size or bigbore pistons with a rebore to suit.

Lesson learned here if engine runs hotter than normal. Stop & find the cause !

Hope you get it sorted.

Overheated my first 250 over 20 years ago only to find coolant in the oil after the bike started to run poorly. These motors do not like to be ran hot!