Bsckstory:
I bought a 2006 zx14 with roughly 7000 miles. I rode it for a while and it started having the cct tick. After I did some research here and other forums, I figured it was no big deal and just kept riding the bike. I decided to take the bike on a somewhat long ride, and after about 100 miles or so, while idling waiting on my riding buddies to get ready at the gas station my bike starts making a very loud chattering/ticking noise that didn't go away this time. So I towed the bike back home.

I decided to check the cct, and replace it with a a ape manual one. When I pulled out the cct, the middle piece with the grooves had completely jumped out of the little clip that holds it in place, and was pretty much just dangling inside the assembly. I replaced the cct with the manual one, and the chatter has gone away but now I'm fighting with a misfire on cylinder 3. There was also still a light tapping that seemed to be heard on distinctively around cylinder 3, checked with a actual stethescope. No abnormal noise heard toward the bottom end.

Bike setup:
Full brocks exhaust and no PC.

Things I've tried:
- The bike seemed to misfire on cylinder 3 & 4 initially so I decided to check the plugs and they seemed kind of fouled. Nothing too bad though. 4 appears to fire just fine now. (I'm testing this by checking the heat on the headers).
- I've swapped the coils/plugs from 4 to 3 and the issue still seems to remain at 3.
- I've attempted to probe the injectors at 3 with a screwdriver and they sound the same as 4, so I'm under the assumption that they are functioning just fine.
- I thought the tapping could possibly be from an exhaust leak, so I loosened/re-tightened the headers around 3/4. They appear to actually sit more flush with the engine head, and the bike seems to sound somewhat different (May just be in my head). But still doesn't solve the tapping sound or the header temperature.

I have not yet probed the stick coil wires on cylinder 3 or done the vacuum synchronization, but I'm not feeling confident that it will be that simple at this point. I feel like at this point it has to be a compression issue, so I'm currently reading through the service manual getting a grasp on how to check/adjust my valves and start there. It all seems pretty straight forward so far. I have a basic understanding of how engines work, and none of what I've read so far seems to complicated to do.

I'm making this post to ask if there is maybe anything else I may have missed or if you guys have any suggestions to before I start tearing into anything?

* Last updated by: KawFan on 12/24/2019 @ 11:48 PM *

1. Cyl test: Start with a cold engine and as soon as it starts shut it off. With a temp gun or an index finger, quickly touch the header to as close to the head as possible. Which cylinder is cold? So the guess is 3. Now swap the sticks and recheck with cold pipes again. If 4 is the swap and that tube is cold, then it's the stick. If 3 is hot it's not fuel or a clogged injector = Sparkstick.

2. Tick means tight valve lash. Tick means piston skirt slap i.e., losing tolerance and as the piston rocks at top dead center, the tick happen twice, meaning at bottom dead center the other skirt side slaps and it remains a tick even when the shims are within spec.

3. Plugs out, we take a wooden chopstick and cut to size. Piston at TDC, crank cover off, turn the crank backwards 1°, slam the chop over the top of the piston and did you feel the piston move down? Rod bearings are going is the piston pounding the bearing with a tick before it becomes a knock. And that tick is to look at the piston dome and what carbon is now hammered away by the piston's edges touching the bottom of the head or head gasket material at TDC.

4. Remove oil filter and cut it open with dikes because sawing leaves what you are looking for between the pleats. No brass/copper looking chunks, right, just chunks of whatever but very little of it and no trace of copper/brass. A lot of brass with aluminum to match, then don't run it. Rod is going. No contamination in the filter? Drop the oil pan. Look up at the cylinder finish when the pistons are at TDC. At BDC you are looking for skirt damage and they extend out of the bottom of the cylinder. So if not scored/burned/scratched, but a smooth finish, then all is well.

5. Potpourri: Sometimes, not most, not all, but when checking compression the skirt damage sort of masks what is considered a good compression reading. So WATT are the odds the tick is a spark chasing the shortest path. At night, in a dark garage, the bike fires up and the spark is flashing under the rubber blanket. Well, dissecting the filter, a proctology exam at the skirts, the misfire is removed with a new set of spark plugs and one stick, but the valves have yet to be set and that's most likely it for a tick.

Conclusion:
Filter: Say it's clean so say no skirt, no rod damage.
Valves: All you are going to do is throw the smallest feeler between the shims and if all are open, you stop and check compression first. At low compression, combustion won't work lighting off fuel without the kinetic stirring things up. Lash wise you'll know who is the tightest and who is out of spec and there is your tick. Take the compression first.

Spec wise: Think like 01234:
0 = Out of spec.
1 = The loosest range within spec ~ Bottom end torque.
2 = Ideal in the middle range book spec ~ Splits the difference for best of both bottom and top.
3 = The tightest range within spec ~ Top end.
4 = Out of spec.

Check compression cold. All you are looking for is even numbers across the board. Hot gives even number too. The day you walk out to the bike and it won't run, that's the first clue I want out of the way or chase my fucking tail? No fucking way hose say.

I know I'm missing a few more things. Alex, I'll take sparkstick for 200 dollars... What is a fresh set of spark plugs.

Signed,
NOLTT

* Last updated by: Hub on 12/26/2019 @ 12:54 AM *

There was also still a light tapping that seemed to be heard on distinctively around cylinder 3,

There was also still a light tapping that seemed to be heard on distinctively around cylinder 3,

I'm currently reading through the service manual getting a grasp on how to check/adjust my valves and start there.

It was normally rod bearing 1 or 2 that let go if the bike had that problem. It normally let go at low miles if it was going to happen. I'd say you're still in the low miles category at 7000 but 10,000 is probably the safe zone.
That's the only other ticking noise I can think of.

Listen to some other 14s on youtube and compare to your tick. Video audio can be deceptive but it's something to go on.

* Last updated by: Rook on 12/28/2019 @ 11:03 AM *

You might find some of the links helpful on this thread. Valve lash adjustment is just one. I have vacuum sync and others too. I sort of have the feeling you might have a normally ticking ZX-14 though. The CCT is not a tick. It is a rattle like shaking a can of bolts. Seems like you solved that. IDK you seem to have good insticts. Keep after the rattle if you think there is something wrong.

http://zx14ninjaforum.com/messages.cfm?threadid=B2290E90-D56B-84E2-12EE7284B957F53F

Finally got some time to work on the bike some today. Compression test results
Cyl-1 = 130
Cyl-2 = 125
Cyl-3 = 0
Cyl-4 = ~89

I'll probably check number 3 again tomorrow, just to be sure I didn't botch the test somehow, before I start taking the valve cover off. I'm thinking maybe stuck valve or cam timing may be off now?

I also didn't notice any ticking noise but that could be due to the motor never actually cranking up I think.

My guess--#3 is not sealing at all. Even without running the motor to warm it up to temp for the compression test, I can't see how you would get 0 psi unless there was in fact no compression. Because it is so loose, #3 slaps back and forth causing the tick when the engine runs. I hate to think the worse but if the piston has been slapping around in there for some time, the cylinder wall is probably shot. Go for a 1450 bore out would be what I'd want to do or else squeeze a Gen2 motor in there.

http://zx14ninjaforum.com/messages.cfm?threadid=25EA8737-B21A-2258-920D6961F7462128

* Last updated by: Rook on 2/20/2020 @ 6:43 AM *

These are all cold tested. I changed the plugs at 8k and took a cold one while they were out. You're like 200 miles a year in 14 years of owning it. So it's anywhere from a rusted valve staying open and the piston knocked it, bent as it stuck out, to a set of rings locked in the pistons. Even a closed throttle would still give a reading than zero (#3).

I'd say with this kind of engine, 150 psi is equivalent to a mini bike engine showing 100psi or less is a dead/rebuild type of engine. Anything over 200psi is a runner.

I did think that even the "good" (1 & 2) readings were very low. I thought it may have just been the engine being cold like Rook said. What doesn't quite make sense to me is how well the bike ran before the CCT chatter started. The bike pulled great all the way through every gear. If the compression was always bad enough to warrant a rebuild wouldn't the performance have suffered?

Would it make sense that if the piston rings on cylinder 3 are "locked" that the rest of the rings aren't in the best shape either? And that would be why I got such bad readings across the board. Maybe I can get lucky and just put in all new rings?

I would hope that if piston slap was the ticking that I'm hearing, the damage wouldn't be to severe. The bike was only idled for troubleshooting purposes.

At this point it seems I might as well just start pulling the motor and doing a complete tear down. I'm on the fence about buying one of those ebay engines because of the possibility of it coming with its own set of problems. Though it would be nice to have a gen 2 engine in there.

Getting the Gen2 engine in a Gen1 is half the battle. Then there is al of the electronics to consider. There was a recent thread someone started about retrofitting a Gen2 engine to Gen1. Not as simple as slapping in a new Gen1 motor.

I'd be extremely wary of buying any used engine from anyone. I've heard it work out just fine that way but the mechanic probably knew proper channels to go through to find a reliable seller. I would want a brand new Gen2 motor with 0 miles from Kawasaki.

At this point it seems I might as well just start pulling the motor and doing a complete tear down.

Only way.

cant one remove the head with the lump in place? Isnt it just head bolts or are they to long to get out with engine on the bike?

Finally got more time to work on the bike. Here are some pictures of the damage I've seen so far. I haven't turned the motor to look at cylinder walls for 1 & 4. But there is light scoring on cylinder 2 & 3 that may be hard to see in the pictures. And the damage on piston 3 is present on the head for cylinder 3 as well. I'll upload pics of it soon. The valves on cylinder 3 definitely were not closing fully. I need to further inspect the rest.

* Last updated by: KawFan on 3/26/2020 @ 10:09 AM *

Damn!

Wow

Any idea the life of the bike before you if it was ridden hard and put away wet or anything that caused that?

Wow

Any idea the life of the bike before you if it was ridden hard and put away wet or anything that caused that?

Judging by the setup of the bike I'm confident it wasn't necessarily babied. Stretched with a McIntosh swingarm, lowered, brocks pipe, K&N oil filter, K&N air filter, PAIR removed (But not blocked off, they kept the stock equipment there with no sensors...).

I took the head to a local machine shop and they said all of the damage to it was cosmetic other than the valves not seating. They also said after looking at the head and the pic of the pistons that it seems something may have been sucked in through the intake causing this. Which actually coincides with the fact that when I pulled the exhaust something small fell out. I don't know what it was because I couldn't find it, but maybe whatever was in there worked it's way out through an exhaust valve.

I'm going to have some time to inspect my throttle body tomorrow and see if maybe something fell off there.

* Last updated by: KawFan on 3/27/2020 @ 2:46 AM *

Something for sure was bouncing around in #3.

Mad