How To Recover from Catastrophic Engine Failure...

[the[K]id]

OK, thought this might interest some of you out there...

So you have a 199X/200X CBGSXYZKRRRR-RR, and suddenly bad noises are heard from the engine, and it doesn't go so well anymore... S#!7 F@©K etc, etc. Your choices
1) Run off the road into a tree and write the bugger off, get the insurance money and buy something new (illegal and potentially/most likely dangerous)
2) Put on truck, drop off and mechanic and organise to sell a kidney to pay for whatever went wrong to be fixed
3) Put on truck/friendly PSB'ers trailers, get it home, and fix the bastard yaself!

So, my daily commuter, a 1996 GSXR 750 decided to make some bad noises, seconds before it decided to become very very hard to turn over... Bollocks. Option 3 it is, and here is the rebuild/rough guide to doing it yourself.

Step one: Get bike somewhere you can work on it. There are a few threads already on tools/garage setup, check these out. Lift is nice, but a solid rear stand is enough.

Step two: Get informed, find/download/buy a workshop manual, if you struggle a bit get a haynes/clymer manual as well. Check out forums, find out the regular weak points of your bike, things you will likely want to check or replace while its it bits.

Step three: Clean! Pull fairings off, and clean the engine. Any dirt on the engine will end up in engine. If your planning on pulling it down completely and putting the whole thing in a parts washer this isn't so important.

Step four: Purchase the most important items you will ever find in your toolbox, the three things that I simply would not dare to begin a strip down without...

Yes, snap lock bags and white and black textas (black sharpies are great too).

Step five: Begin! Set up in a comfortable workspace, and begin the strip down as per the workshop manual. Bag and tag everything, box up large items (eg clutch assembly). Lay down cardboard/paper when stripping to contain mess, and make it easier to find small washers, screws that always bounce away...

Step six: When it is pulled down as far as needed, inspect. Measure, looks, take parts to an engineer to measure, crack check, test straightness. Whatever it needs. Pay attention to weak points you noted earlier.

Step seven: Make a parts list, with EVERYTHING you will need, from bolts to bearings to gaskets to crankshafts (not kidding... ). Don't forget things like loctite, gasket compounds, assembly lube and regular consumables like oil and filters. Price it up, hunt on ebay, wreckers, UK and US sites (love the weak pound and dollar...), find the cheapest way to obtain the parts. While talking to wreckers, ask about complete engines. Compare prices, and weigh up where to go. For a similar price, a rebuild is usually the better option, since you know it's now going to be 100%, if a rebuild is going to costs $4000 because a conrod took a holiday via the front of your crankcases, maybe a wrecker engine is a good idea...

Step eight: Assuming your rebuilding your engine, get all the parts you need together. Clean everything, grease/oil and wrap till needed. There are spray on light oils (Inox etc) which are great, stop things rusting and leave a thin film of oil on them. Catering roll of clingwrap is great for keeping parts clean till you need them.

Step nine: Assemble, as per your manual. A big box of rubber gloves is handy at this point, you can't be too clean. Main and big end bearings typically have 1-2 thousandths of an inch clearance, thinner than a ciggy paper, it doesnt take much to ruin it.

Step ten: Return engine to bike, as per manual. Refill fluids, etc and hook everything up. Follow your manual for first startup, normally you will leave plugs unhooked and crank it over a few times to get oil pressure up. For the first startup, make sure the bodywork is off so you can check for leaks.
Step eleven: Put it all back together, break in as per favourite method

So, there is the rough outline. And to follow will be details of me working through each step Enjoy

[the[K]id]

OK, my progression through the steps:

Step One:
Bike in carport, on a modified stand bought at Malz. I machined and welded pickups to lift on the spools, much better than the cup style which is just a PITA with the fat SRAD tail and the brake torque arm to work around.

Step Two:
Have a workshop manual, not going to worry about a Haynes/Clymer as I'm not to bad with a spanner, and the Suzuki manual is detailed enough. Weak points on this bike are:
Cam chain tensioner, has been upgraded by Suzuki, however a manual CCT is recommended ($60 or so). Need to check guides as well (about $50 each)
Clutch basket can fail wonderfully if clutch is not maintained and allowed to slip for prolonged periods
Usual 90's superbike stuff, check gearbox carefully, ($120 for a Factory Pro micro bearing detent arm and beefier spring to improve shifting), stock fuel and ignition timing will be set for 90's crappy fuels, ($50 for ignition advance, $150-200 for jet kits)

Step Three:
Everything will be going in a parts washer, for reasons to be shown further along the rebuild...

Step Four:
Done

Step Five:
Bodywork off, seat off, tank off, airbox off, carbs off.

Head, barrels, clutch, starter system and sprocket are taken off while engine is in frame. Harder to get to, however having the engine held firmly makes it easier to undo certain things. You may find you need to buy/make some tools to make your life easier. For me, 2 200mm peices of 5mm thick steel bar, 2 m6 bolts with nuts and an M10 bolt and nut made getting the clutch nut off (often a rattle job) a simple breaker bar job. Things like engine lock nuts can be undone with a tool made from pipe and a file/dremel, or a mill at a friendly work near you...

Don't forget to box or bag as you go...


Engine is then removed and relocated to bench.


To be continued....

[the[K]id]

Once the remainder of the engine is stripped (pretty easy, just pay attention to main bolts, they should be gradually loosened in reverse order of numbers), and neatly laid out/bagged

we are onto...

Step Six:
Inspect. The cause of this departure from normal operation was actually pretty clear early on, as soon as I dropped the sump the vast amount of copper flakes meant the big ends were shagged. How shagged you ask?


FUBAR... So straight away a new crank, conrod, complete set of gaskets and oil seals are needed. Continuing the inspection, the cam chain guides look ok

however the tensioner side has been a little hammered over time...


In addition, the oil pump isn't looking flash


So, now we have seen the good, the bad and the ugly, we can begin the price check...

Step Seven:
First call is wreckers, a 2nd hand engine will be around $2000. So we have a benchmark. Now for parts...
List price on a new crank is over a grand, stuff that... Ebay shows a crank and rods, good condition for $400 after shipping. Better.
Some phone calls, googling and sniffing around and the list looks like this-
Crank and rods $400
Main and big end bearings $300
Manual CCT $65
Oil Pump $150
Gaskets, some fasteners, circlips and tensioner blade $350
So looking at about $1300 to rebuild. Even allowing for a few extra parts its still less than the wrecker. Plus, I like rebuilding things

In upcoming episodes: ordering parts, resisting the temptation to google "srad high compression pistons" and general faffing around.

[Ty the Great!]

I love you.

[Melchior]

Awesome thread!

Love your work.

[g0zer]

so look like you know what you are doing

do you have a good method for cleaning up old gaskets and gasket goo from crank cases?

[Arwon]

Keep up the good work. Impressive.

[the[K]id]

so look like you know what you are doing

do you have a good method for cleaning up old gaskets and gasket goo from crank cases?

Thats very much a matter of opinion haha

For cleaning surfaces, steel/iron is easy, copper scrapper works wonders. On aluminium, it's a real pain. Neutral solvents (acid and caustic solutions dissolve aluminium...) like metho, acetone and some spray on gasket removers can help, plastic scrapers used gently, and finish with scotch brite. On something critical like heads or the tops of cylinders I'd consider having them skimmed if there was a significant amount of gasket remains left.


As a side note, should probably add that normally I'd be budgeting for a new set of rings, a light hone of the bores (which in the case of Nikasil bores like these would mean a replate...), and by the looks of the pistons a new set of valve stem seals. However I'm planning on doing a top end rebuild in 12 months anyway, with a few goodies so apart from replacing the wrist pin retaining circlips, it is pretty safe to reuse whats already there.

[Jamathi]

Looks like it did not receive a lotta love in oilchanges and that could well be the reason for it to disintergrate.
Excelent way of making clear how to do it so you can put it back together.
One thing that could be done is to put the components back together as much as possible in box Tiebag and that way it is so much easier to rebuild without Awkward Questions.

[the[K]id]

Good points, often putting the bolts back in the cover hole they came from, and 'dry fitting' things back together makes it easier. I check the workshop manual assembly instructions as I go, so anything not noted in those I make sure I make clear for myself.

On the oilchange issue: I thought similar, until I cleaned out the sump and crankcases. I found about a dozen teeth matching those on the oil pump drive. Also the wear on the clutch basket doesn't match a bike with 50,000k's on the clock. I think at some point the clutch let go, taking the much thinner oil drive gear out with it. Since the rod big ends are the last in the line of oiling they are usually the first to suffer in any oil starvation. Plus having teeth floating around probably wasn't great for the oil galleries

All in all, it would have been better for the engine to be stripped much earlier, saving the crank, but hindsight is always 20/20, and so I'm just getting on with the job of repairing whats laid out in front of me

[Lorenz]

Awesome stuff - good on you to document it all for our viewing pleasure

Will be watching this intently as it unfolds.

[Sumfun4me]

You sound like you've got a fair idea on what your doing, but just in case - make sure you do a thorough job on cleaning out all of the internal oil galleries before you put it back together. This is a simple thing that gets overlooked in many instances after a major internal failure. Look forward to following the rest of the write up - good job so far.

[96]

dont forget. u have to eat the left over parts...

[Xuaxace]

Fived,

Awesome read, thanks.

[Sean'o]

Can you not have the crank ground and run oversize bearings on it, rather than fork out for a new crank?

[the[K]id]

You sound like you've got a fair idea on what your doing, but just in case - make sure you do a thorough job on cleaning out all of the internal oil galleries before you put it back together. This is a simple thing that gets overlooked in many instances after a major internal failure. Look forward to following the rest of the write up - good job so far.

After seeing the rather poor state of the oil pump it was on my list. Going to remove all the plugs to make sure nothing else is lurking inside, few dollars for new washers is nothing to make sure they are 100% good to go

Can you not have the crank ground and run oversize bearings on it, rather than fork out for a new crank?

Could if it was light damage, bearings only go up a few thou. Repair would mean building up before regrinding, from the places I've looked into it runs close to the price of a 2nd hand crank, and then I still need a new con-rod.

[chrisso]

good read kid... i'm sure i'll be referring back to this thread one day...

[rc_sam]

good thread.

[Veefore]

Great thread. I think it is threads like this that make PSB such a valuable resource.

[the[K]id]

Thanks, parts have started arriving, so should see the start of the assembly in the next week. Have been cleaning combustion chambers, polishing valve faces, washing crank cases and heads, measuring parts and more. I'll throw up a few 'how to' posts on cleaning through the assembly process, but the biggest hint I could give would be find a local mechanic or machine shop with a parts washer, and see if they would trade a carton for some time with it! With a hot detergent washer and compressed air line you will save hours (and relationships, in case you were thinking the dishwasher could do a pretty good job...)