Panning for Gold

I dumped the rest of the oil out of the 'tard today and then pulled the oil screen and oil filter. Not pretty.

I haven't decided yet what I'll be doing with the bike. The amateur mechanic in me REALLY wants to rebuild the engine just for the experience. I know that's what Shenders is voting for because I was having a hard time keeping him from tearing it apart right there in the garage at Grattan. Rebuilding means spending money on a bike that I was hoping to get money out of. The bike is definitely worth more in pieces right now. I wasn't planning to sell it because I don't like/want/need it but rather due to current finances and the reality of the expenses of relocation. Selling it would have gone a long way toward filling up this big empty house with some furniture. MrsSlick was definitely not pushing me to sell and felt terrible when I told her that was my plan. I'm just happy that it blew up on me and not one week after selling it to someone else. I'd be absolutely sick if it blew up on the new buyer.

If I do keep and rebuild I'll be saving until I can do everything the way I'd like which means Falicon crank and rod. Probably stick with all of the HRC parts for everything else. After riding my motard back to back with evl's motard mine definitely had a more extreme power delivery that I'd miss if I did a more tame rebuild.

Ugh! That's horrible, man. I vote for the rebuild as well, but if the timing is no good. <shrug>

I still want to tear it apart

that's some pretty gold flake oil you got there. must have been expensive.

Well if the day comes you're more than welcome to come visit. I might need some guidance anyway so I may be calling you and evl when the time comes.

I think it's going to work out to be around $2000 for 1.6 quarts.

Untill you tear it down, you will have no idea how much its going to cost. If the head, cylinder, and cases are junk, there is no reason to throw money at it. You would be money ahead to buy a running stock motor if you want to keep and ride it, or just part it out. Anytime you get that much shrapnel running through a motor, so much gets damaged. Things like the cam bearing surfaces that are machined directly in the head thus junking the head.

There has to be an oil issue on those motors that does not like big tracks. Evl's done the same thing as yours.

The thrust bushings on the side of the lower crank bearing are what fail. Here are some pics of the stock vs. Falicon crank...

And a few pics from the rebuild...

http://www.rc30.us/xr2.html

That's tough. Keep us posted.

I still had those from an earlier PM last year. I reviewed them earlier, the process terrifies me.

Putting bits of metal and plastic together is no big deal. Putting a human back together, now that would be terrifying.

I knew someone would call me on that.

If it were a human, all you'd need to do is leave it in the garage for 6 weeks and it would heal itself.

To some degree maybe, but in their (the bikes) defense mine was highly modified and had run the Reno to Vegas BITD race (534 miles) that includes some fairly long wide open stretches.
Then it survived 3000 miles on the street including plenty of high speed freeway time and some fairly hard WOT use trying to keep up with a few VFRs up in Wisconsin. All things considered it did pretty well for an 8 year old race bike. I think in my case it was pure dumb luck that it popped when it did.

Evl's bike also spent some extended time on the street including a trip down to Deals Gap where it was accidentally run very low on oil for an unknown amount of time.

It appears that it was most likely the same bearing that failed on both of our bikes so it is obviously a weak link. The Falicon modded crank is supposed to help the situation. It's been four years since Evl rebuilt his and it has survived a lot of track time since then.

If you decide to fix it I'll help you. Got a fully stocked garage/shop and most if not all the tools to do it.

And contact info for Evl.

Thanks for the offer, I definitely might need it. I have a pretty good assortment of tools and room to work now that we have the new place but don't have the specialized things like ring compressor tools, etc. Time and money are going to have things on hold until it's cold and dark this winter.

I've already got Evl on speed dial.

Slick, you can fix it...just put it into some stirrups and you're good to go!

I have thought about that route as well. Adding a new (used engine) probably won't add enough value to where it would be worth it. If I decide I'm not keeping it then I'll sell it all in pieces. I spent awhile tonight on the phone with my XR engine building consultant and have put together an entire list of parts and labor for the send out stuff (crank and bore). I'm looking at $1600-$1800 in parts and outside labor. I think it will just sit in the garage and I'll see if I can mow some lawns or something to start paying for parts.