Sqealing sound, burnt oil, loss of power

cmattina1

cmattina1

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Yesterday i put on about 5 hours of 50mph driving at about 4rpm and it ran great until about the the last 30 minutes of my loop.... first thing i noticed was when i coming to a stop (slowing/gearing down) when i'd engage the clutch at the very end, it would just stall. So, i adjust the idle screw and, bam, was fine. I thought it was weird, but gave it a benefit of a doubt and thought, "hm, maybe the screw vibrated out a bit from all the riding"

Then, i kinda smelt somthing burning, almost a sweet smell, like baking. I rode it a little bit further at the same speed, lost some power for about 5 seconds, and it then it picked back up. Heard a scraping/squealing sound, which sounded like the cam chain, so I took a look at the adjuster (which i had adjusted right before i took off, along with checking my was was for 5 miles, so i was going about 50-50mph and about 4rpm, again. same sound, same loss of power, this time more abrupt, and it just died. I coasted to the side of the road, checked my oil, it read low... and it looked and smelt burnt. also, i noticed oil coming from my engine breather tubes (not burnt)

So, what am i looking at
- burnt oil
- coming out of breather tubes
- sqealing sound
- loss of power
- (need to adjust idle)

I could only think i was burning oil, and it lost it's lubricating power, so the engine couldn't handle it...

I was going to do an oil change today, check the filters for metal and plastic. Make sure there is enough oil in there. poor and bit of oil into the spark plug holes, kick it over. then start it up?

any other suggestions?
 
This doesn't sound good for the engine. If you are lucky it's just cam chain, guide related. Further running sounds rather scary from here.
 
I have noticed a rash of cam chain failures that may be related to over tightening the adjuster. Any one else got opinions on that. I think it may be easier to over tighten than guys realize. if the adjuster isn't moving in and out a reasonable amount you have bound up the spring and the chain / guides are going to be stressed more than they should be.
 
I realized, it sounds scary for me also. Anything high pitched is generally metal on metal, or so i assumed.... I find whenever i adjust the cam chain I need to screw the adjuster out, rather than in. If I am screwing out, is that tightening or loosining?

I was guessing the chain was worn, the bike had 35 000 km, so about 20-25 k miles?
 
Sounds like we are headed your way taking off Sunday for the great white north. Should be a good trip now that Minnesota is open again.
 
I figure screwing in creates more tension, just making sure i wasn't tightening it... though, odd that i find myself loosening it... what causes it to tighten?

Gary, i heard about the highway contruction around duluth, at least the roads will be nice and smoot now, good luck. I'll actually be up in Nunavik come Sunday...
 
Yes, drain the oil, looking for any metal or debris in the drained oil. Certainly a good idea to remove both filters (strainers actually), and again look at them for debris. If you find metal debris...................is it magnetic or aluminum?

Remove and look at the colour of the plugs.

For the camchain adjuster. I adjust mine after running the bike for a short trip i.e. engine is fully hot. I turn the adjuster clockwise (tightening) until the in/out motion stops, then turn it ccw (loosening) 3 flats using a 10 mm wrench. Very simple and works great.
 
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So,

- Drained oil (only 150ml came out, very black)
- Non magentic debris, not A LOt, but some were about 70% the size of beebees
- cleaned sump and side filter: not that much debris, though i did recently do a change (no plastic). Some debris on the sump plate.
- put in 2.2 liters of castrol 20-50 motorcycle oil: dipstick still reads minimum (???)
- Pulled plugs - right looked good (though was brand new before i went on trip), left looked more white than tan...
- put an oz. of oil in each hole and turned the engine over 3 times
- started it: idle'd strong, though lots of white smoke out of left pipe (could be from what i put in hole), not much "sqealing" but still the coffee can rattle...
- adjusted cam chain (was loose) with engine warm by hand tightening the nut until plunger came past flush less than 1mm and in less than 1mm (with flush being centre of cycle)

RTG, I guess i should try your method.

Also, now that the engine is warm i need to let it cool before checking the valves.... again, for the third time in 3 days. they are always set to the point I can slide in the appropriate guages with drag.

As I type, seems a nice summer down poor just seems to have rolled in....

I made a video and it is uploading to youtube now...
 
The dampening springs on the back side of the clutch are also known to fail. I had that happen on one of mine, it actuall welded the cases together from all the heat
 
I find I need to add 2.5 litres of oil to have the dip stick read half way between L and H.

Are you serious..................only 150 ml of oil drained??? That small amount of oil may have done some major damage to the engine. No wonder it made weird noises and a burnt smell. Engine must have got very hot!

Prior to going on the trip, was the oil level correct on the dip stick? How many kms since the last oil change?
 
about 1200 since last oil change.

I was a bit below half on the dipstick when i left. I figured the level had not changed since my last change when I put in 2.5 liters, though for good measure i put in half a liter before I left. And yes, the engine was very hot... pipes weren't blue or anything. I noticed the oil coming out of the breather hoses when I stopped because of the sound and short lost of power

I took a look at my valves and they were a bit loose. I got three done before it started raining

Please let me know if you can here anything from this video, but keep in mind this is before i adjusted the valves, and the oil burning COULD be what I put into the cylinder. Also, i usually don't keep it as dirty as it looks, my friend and I were on a few dirt roads before I broke down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=889B3UR1GCY
 
cmattina1 said:
So,

- Drained oil (only 150ml came out, very black)
Click to expand...

When was the last time you checked your oil? If I was going on a five hr ride I would definitely check it before I left.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Ok, after reading more, I see you did check it. Hard to account for over two qts of oil disappearing in 4 1/2 hrs without it being obvious though.
 
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Yep,

Mine sounded just like that when I ran it low on oil.. I burned up all the crank bearings and the rods, and scored the left cylinder pretty bad... It was a Total loss on that engine...
 
I checked it, but didnt realize i was loosing so much.

As of now, it's running. Deeper engine noise than before, rather than a higher pitch engine. Again, i have only heard one of these ever in my life, and it's this one. Before i was using 10 40, and now 20 50, would thicker oil give it a deeper sound (it has more of a rumble now than a buzz)

It was burning less oil after taking it around the block a few times, but still burning some, especially as i accelerate.

Performance wise: it hesitates after changing gears before taking off, and I need to give it a decent amount of throttle to take off from first. Also, from muscle memory, I need to give it more throttle (10-15%) than I did before to ahceive certain speeds. Otherwise, I didn't take it out of the neighbourhood, but it seemed work, just required more throttle...?
 
Thicker oil might account for that. It's a tribute that it's running. I wonder if it might seize up or throw a rod or etc. while running?
 
Yeah? I can imagine that it could be a little bit of column A (oil) and a lot of column B (engine damage). I got it a little further, got it into 3rd. As of now, I would say it is running, but not nearly as responsively as it was before, and burning decent oil out of the right pipe, none out of left.

Punk, how much would you knock off on the KZ if I traded this bike and cash? Just asking...
 
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