Stopped by my local bike speed shop today and was shown these pistons and rods that came out of a 2014 14R. The shop owner stated that upon tear down, it was determined that to much silicone caused an oil passage to get clogged causing the rod bearings to starve for oil. This engine had 3400 miles.



broken rod is number 3, and the spun rod bearing is number 2.

Broken off bits of gasket sealer?

He just said an oiling port was almost completely clogged from using to much silicone right from the factory.

Yowza! That makes me wanna go change my oil, at least.

Or tear it down looking for mistakes.

eeekkkk, look away.

I'm not up to speed on the Gen2 since I don't own one. I haven't heard as much about rod bearings going on them. It was almost always a bike with lower miles that spun a bearing with the gen1 and typically under a hard load on the engine. If you have a decent number of miles, it would proably have happened already if it was going to happen.

I have seen guys try to cheap out and use gasket maker on the worn out OEM clutch cover gasket and that stuff ends up in the oil every time. There is a company that offers an oiling mod to the crank and cases that delivers more volume to the crank and rod journals while increasing the overall pressure of the oiling system. Call Dwayne at Cycle Concepts and he will explain in detail. 1(803)285-8093

I appreciate that but to clarify, this isn't my engine.

He just said an oiling port was almost completely clogged from using to much silicone right from the factory.

That explanation fits the best, so far.

Thanks for this info. My #3 went through the case on my 2012 with 3,600 miles on. Thought it might have been a problem with the bearings being too tight from the factory, or an lubrication issue. Nice to see someone actually found evidence of something that could be causing this.

Not a problem bud.

Hey can somebody please improve my education?

Which gasket or joint between the oil pump and crankshaft journal discriminates oil delivery differently to numbers 2 & 3 rods versus 1 & 4? Only joints I can think of that are silicone are pickup strainer to oil pump body and oil pump body to crankcase. After that isn't it free & equal flowing to all crankshaft journals?

There is no discrimination between 1-4 and 2-3 if you think it out like this. First, I have to fill the bathtub, or main galley, main passage. I next drill 4 holes in a plastic sheet, lay it over the top of the tub. Once the main galley fills, no discrimination at all 4 journals all at once, right?

Exactly,

So if this is the case, why does #3 always fail if it's caused by silicone?

I bet that's what line looks like! Can't wait to tear it down to see....but mine was the #2 rod that broke

Manual shows no bond to be placed at the journals, nor to the balancer's oil channel. Where is this silicone lodged at? Found inside a journal? Squeezed into who's hole? So the case is pressed together, and now you see bond at places that are not to be sealed at said positions? Then you have a case... literally.

Or... I head over to my local speed shop, am shown a racer's engine with 3k on the bike, not brought back to a dealer with this low a mileage, it makes you wonder how much the owner knows about bikes, he has it torn down at a speed shop? Was he winding the bike up from the start? Drag races the bike? Has a hooligan hand?

Totally agree 3k on bike and not brought to dealer for warranty ....something does not up here.
Sounds like the guy is missing some screws to me.