Your thoughts on the cause of a blown motor

Busa110

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As I said in my first post, my wife bought me the Busa as a present last March. The bike is a 2002 black se which was a demo bike with 400 miles on it. I was worried about it not being broken in right, but loved the bike and got a great deal on it. I finished breaking it in and put another 2500 miles on it and in August, added a Hindle Exhaust and PowerCommander. I was trying different maps on the bike and was in 2nd gear and opened it at about 4000 rpm. At about 7000, the #3 rod blew through the front of the case. There was no warning, no knocking or anything prior to the failure. I don't do long wheelies, only short power wheelies on occasion. The bike also sees red line only once in a while, and has only been at very high speeds (160 plus, indicated) a couple of times. I had just switched to Mobil 1 20-50 and keep the oil at the top of the site glass.

The service manager was at a loss as to what happened, he said possibly that a piece of gasket material had wound up inside the oil galley of the rod, causing it to break just below the wrist pin. He made good on the repairs and rebuilt the engine with all new parts-cases, crank, connecting rod, piston, valves (bent 2 valves-rebuilt head) and assorted small parts. I just got the bike back on Christmas Eve (the crank was back ordered and took several months to arrive) The bike seems to run well now but I'm in the middle of breaking it in again and haven't gone over 4000 rpms yet.

I wonder if maybe it was improperly broken in the first 400 miles, i mean, who would demo a Busa and not beat on it. A friend of mine has a GSXR1000 that he beat on since he first picked the bike up at the dealer-he says the bikes don't need any break in anymore since the tolerances are so good now a days.

What are your thoughts on what may have been the cause of the failure?
 
it's hard to say. With 400 miles on it before you got a hold of it hard telling what was done to it. I'm glad they backed it up and rebuilt it without any problems.
 
Yes, I was worried about the 400 miles but the salesman said that the motor is bulletproof and it has the new bike warranty anyway.

The service manager said not a problem after he inspected it and he has stated that he will honor the warranty 4 months longer to cover the time the bike was in the shop.
 
The service manager said not a problem after he inspected it and he has stated that he will honor the warranty 4 months longer to cover the time the bike was in the shop.
Holy Crap! Never hear about stand up dealerships like this anymore. There is no longer any reason for you to complain about winter weather when you have dealerships like this around. I don't trust any of them around here to change my oil much less go digging into my engine.
 
Busa110, Breaking in is not an issue on any of the new generation engines... How ever you ride, you cant blow them
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.... Your problem, I dont understand!? Was your engine ever opened before you bought it....
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Just a thought
 
Sounds like a defective Rod or someother defective part. Not normal for sure.
 
What ever the problem was keep the dealer, thew made good on their word.It appears they want a good rep and repeat customers! My kind of dealer.:)
 
This happens on A Busa more than You think..I had My #2 rod shoot threw the front of the motor at the track(Yes beating the sh*t out of it!!)on My original Motor..Broken in pretty easy..

Almost crashed..It happen at the 1000 foot mark,I went threw the traps sideways covered in oil,back tire too..Still went 9s and won the race,But lost the battle!!

A few possible reasons>

lots of Wheelies
Low on oil
spun bearing..then siezed bearing
rod bolt failier
oil sump clogged,possibly By ?/or clutch material,if You have gone threw a few sets of clutches,clean You sump!!..Not in Your case though..

Your real lucky they fixed it and Not lucky Your new bike has already been messed with!!

Just My $0.02
 
shenoyp-
The motor was never apart as far as I know.

E-RACER-
I know what you mean with keeping the bike upright, although I wasn't going near as fast as you were! The back end was fishtailing until I pulled in the clutch and coasted to a stop.
Only a few short power wheelies, never low on oil and not often beat on-it's just weird what happened.
You're right, I'm lucky they took care of it (they did take it apart and inspect it before said they will take care of it), but now I have a bike with a rebuilt motor!
The service manager said that since all new parts were used, it is the same as a new motor-I hope he is right.
 
I'm with E-RACER on this one...
Low oil (or the pick up is clogged)
Wheelies/Hard acceleration (causing a temporary loss of oil which can damage bearings)
Over torqued case bolts or bad Engine Case (causing pre-mature bearing failure)
Did you double check the oil passages on the crank and make sure everything was cleaned out?
Do you know if the bearings were damaged in the first event, I assume they were. Make sure they are putting a mic to this and not just using the codes off the crank/case..(Mic bearing clearance)
Long shot, Oil cooler not working.... (Clogged line, defective, ect..) What did the oil look like after this event?
One last thing you did Replace the Oil Pump everytime this has happened? If not I suspect this could be part of your problem. I've heard you "NEVER" reuse this after a melt down.
 
ks-waterbug- The shop said that they checked everything and couldn't find any evidence that pointed to a specific reason for the failure. The crank is new and they said they checked all clearances. I believe they used the same oil pump as it wasn't on the list of replaced parts. I'll question them on it. Thanks for the input.
 
ks-waterbug- The shop said that they checked everything and couldn't find any evidence that pointed to a specific reason for the failure. The crank is new and they said they checked all clearances. I believe they used the same oil pump as it wasn't on the list of replaced parts. I'll question them on it. Thanks for the input.
No problem... Hope you get to the bottom of this. Wouldn't want it to happen again..
 
10-4 ks-waterbug I have 300 miles on the new motor and it seems to run really well so far-although I haven't taken it over 4000 rpms. I'm thinking of being more aggressive with the break in after reading the responding posts, like more rpms over less miles ( I can't bring myself to beat the cr*p out of it immediately). If there is still a problem, I would then find out sooner.
 
This is a scary kinda thread--- some engines pop --- and others get the crap beat out of them and hold up--- mileage does not seem to matter.. except one that went a long time--Phatroy's--almost 80k i think.--Carpenter Racing ---who builds very high HP Busa's---use stock oil pump and say to use Synthetic oil---and not to worry-- I'll try not to worry---- and so it goes---
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OH !!!! You said 20\50 Mobil One---- 10\40 as the manual calls for------can't argue with the folks who designed the engine---10\40 moves though the oiling system faster--- just a thought..I use
10\40.....even though i think 20\50 may be better---who are we to out guess Suzuki..not !
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