STRUMPET! My sweet VTR 250 done blowed up !!!!

Damn!!

I was just about to start a NEW thread relating to the SUDDEN DEATH of a close relative.

YES, on Sunday night i was headed back to town from my shop working all day on various bike projects and doing routine maintenance, the newest addition to my family, the 40k mile 1990 VTR 250 bought in April--atfer promising NEVER to buy another bike, but i'd been looking for this model for 10 years-- BLEW UP !!!!!!!!!!! at about 80 mph at full throttle while climbing toward redline but about 3k below. And i justed wasted an hour washing and cleaning the little tart, including the wheels !!

At first it sounded like a spark misfire and engine lost power but kept running and no oil light, but 15 seconds later a light knocking sound but i kept riding out of freeway danger zone to a side street and shut off just as the oil light was starting to flicker.

Temp gauge was high but saw no water overflow or antifreeze smell, nothing dripping, so coasted down hill about 1/2 mile to convience store and left the bitch there overnight with the manager's permission, before long walk home was able to restart motor and heard a smooth, quiet idle but a nasty KNOCK-KNOCK as revs incread, then picked it up with my friend's truck on Monday afternoon and returned to shop.

Only 500 miles since i bought it in April, 40k on bike.

Will i lose my faith ?? It's an existential crisis : Lord Honda let me down !!



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Initial inspection after removing oil sump has revealed no broken parts or fractured bits or metal particles. Postmortum forensic examination of autopsied oil filter shows nothing abnormal, and oil was at proper level and clean, no fatally excess trigylisarides, and oil intake screen was clear.

Howevever the main problem and a small mystery have become apparent: bigend conrod bearing is a loose fit on crank, but rod shows no sign of heat discoloration, so it was cought early enough not to damage rod or crank (i hope).

Low oil pressure light started blinking at low speed just before i switched off, and engine restarted after problem began and idled OK but gave a characteristic rod knocK-K-K-K-K-K when revvvvvved.

Compression test yesterday showed 150 (cold) on front cylinder and 130 on rear, where the bad bearing is, so perhaps the piston kissed the valves, but i never tested it before, so don't have before/after comparison.

Question remains: what caused this failure ???????

I'm looking for a replacement engine from craigs or from ebay, but planning an over-winter stripdown to determine whether crank and rod are still good, in which case maybe just replace rod and crank bearings and hope for the best.

My '88 VTR and Hawk and my winter beater-bike ( Yamaha Radian) will serve until the '90 is back on the road again next spring, so i'm far from bikeless.

 

Tough break Squirrel. Do you ride like you stole it? That is my guess (no stone tossed at you, I would ride it that way). Will keep my eyes open for an engine or a wreck.

 

Squirrel I guess you could say you got bit in the nuts on that one. Sorry to hear about your miss fortune. Ah yes that dreaded kkknoccck sound of death. That's ok though, it will give you something to do this winter. Have a beer and reflect on it.

Harvey L.