The motor on my 03 gsxr6 is knocking. When pulling away from a stop the motor will knock (hear and feel) but quite down as speed increases and gears change. The bike runs fine, even rode to the bay this weekend and back, 100 mph + the whole way. Slight rythmic knock is noticable even at high speeds though. Already got another motor to swap but my plan is to maybe take it apart and TRY to remedy it. Searched online for about 30 min couldnt find much. So far the main bearings /crank is maybe ruined??

Anyone fix a blown motor?? It would be a good learning experience and if not then at least the tranny and other misc parts are still good.
Sounds like my best guess is to drain the oil, looking for any indication of particles n such. After that , from what i've read, tear down the motor from top to bottom and see what surfaces...??
Any info would be greatly appreciated.. Or any info from related sites/books would be good to.
thanks
alex

 

I've roached a few gsxr motors and it sounds like it's the bearing that connects the connecting rod to the crank. I blew two and they were both on cylinder 4.

I just swapped mine out. I never tried the rebuild. After looking at it while it was apart I decided against it.

 

Drain the oil into a clean jug then strain it, if the bearings/journals were damadged you will have copper coloured metal chips and bits in the oil and bottom of oil pan.....If the damage is light enough and the crank journals havent been damadged too bad you might be able to get another life out of the motor with just new bearings. If your crank is toast then its most likely not woth rebuilding since a new crank will run you $400 and then your going to need all new bearings to match.....PS the longer you ride it with the knock the more damage your doin and your just ruining your chances of a cheap and easy rebuild.

 

ur gonna have to replace all connecting rod bearings and main bearings + seals etc.. i can get u a crank for cheap and also u can have the crank repaired ez for cheap and run alittle bit bigger rod bearing. its not difficult @ all just alittle time consuming the first 1-3 motors u do. im not saying i've replaced bearings but i have swaped out shift forks in a couple hours on a 01 r6 with a friend and it was a complete tear down basicly. if u wanna have a shot at it i can get u a whole bottom end for pretty cheap (well under $400.00), u can just swap over the crank n rods n replace the mains "good to allways replace the mains" so yeah if u wanna go for it let me know an i can get u those parts.

 

damn. The motor must be sucking oil and air creating some kind of foam cause my oil light never comes on (1quart over) but its still blown. Its been getting slightly worse for the past 2 weeks or so. It will get drained tonight and checked out like you said johnny. Thanks for the info. My mechanical abilities are ok but a motor rebuild might be outta my reach or at the least would take me quite a while. Yeah Vertical, after getting everything apart my *** could easily get discouraged and end up saying **** it then replace it. Thank god this past year I experienced changing a motor so thats under my belt. GSXR = oil pick up

 

hardest part about puting a motor back together to me is slappin the cams back in... i hate them lol. other then that its just nuts n bolts.

 

Sounds good. The motor should get diagnosed and changed this week. Gotta pull off the tranny and use it cause its golden. Wonder if you can see any damage from underneath with the tranny gone...?? It would be nice to learn a rebuild since I've done basically everything else besides head bearings and fork rebuilds. If procrastination doesnt kick in too badly (seeing that good weather is on its way) you'll get a PM from me.

Thanks for the reponses fellas. Hopefully my mistake will encourage others to get a oil pickup cause that 1 quart over **** doesnt work. Maybe its ok if your below BP but not BP and beyond (slowing **** down) cause that **** kilt this motor. Or maybe my luck just ran out....whatever

 

damn posted it twice

 

i forget but i think u can see the bottom of the rods through the oil pan. the rod bearing trys to squeeze out the side n then creats a flat spot in the bearing which causes the "knock" from the rod hoppin, u should beable to see the bearing squeezing out between the rod @ crank counter weight.

actully i can get u a 04 gsxr6
Crank with connecting rod and pistons, it has 1700 miles on them and show now sign of wear. the magneto on the end is damaged from the bike going down on the stator cover. i dunno if 04 will work on 03?

 

Nice. Well guess im dropping another motor. Sure am getting good at this. Its crazy how it can knock so much but still run good.

 

Nice. You really are breaking em down. Not sure about the 04 but I'll do some research. Thanks again for the info man. Man was I turning a blind eye thinking a few wheelies wouldnt hurt my commuter bike. Those few wheelies turned into 2months of hard stunting.....lol damn

 

yeah
after adjusting the valves on the stunter, the whole timming issue had me nervous has hell. Luckily the chain didnt slip.

 

ps the 04 gsxr motor is not in my posession, a pro racer friend of mine that wheels n deals did the tear down.

 

You will not see much without splitting the cases you can only see 1 rod end really well from the oil pan opening.....Id put money on it that its #1 rod bearing that seems to be the one that always goes on GSXR's.

 

yep, not from top to bottom. turn the engine upside down and take it apart from the bottom.

Only twin engines like TL needs to be disassembled from top to bottom as the cases split sideways and you have to take everything apart before getting to crank.

It's lot of job and messy too, and still unsure does it work after the rebuild.

It's way easier to just change the motor and sell the old one for parts.

 

Drained the oil and the magnet in the drain plug was thick with metal. Strained the oil and the bottom of the bucket was coated with very small shavings of copper/silver looking flakes. What happens if I run down the motor?? Will the extra friction on the bearing just fail a week down the road, sezing the engine. I feel like putting my 5 up in the rear and stunting it till she pops. Who has done this and how long do you think she'll last?? Damn and this motor only had 17k miles.

 

it'll sieze n really ruin the crank

 

It will keep wearing away the journal bearing thats damaged, the knock will get louder and if the connecting rod doesnt break and fly out of the motor it will eventually hit the valves or sieze up another way.