Back in January, I got a rude wake-up call on the road... Murphy's Law hit hard on the way into work. Took off out of a stop light and the engine just froze up on me, doing about 35 in second. Not sure what had happened, I called a pal with a truck and returned her to my garage. Fast forward to now: just this afternoon I dropped the engine and took a peek inside, and what I saw down the #3 intake just about had me crying. Metal shavings all the way up to the throttle body, intake valve broken and lodged into the seat perpendicular to where it should have been. I pulled the valve cover and cams, and attempted to pull the spark plug. Got the socket on, it broke free rather nicely, but the entire top section of the plug (core, porcelain, electrode) were all broken and jammed up in the plug hole. I fought with the head bolts for half an hour and had to stop to go to work, and here I am now.

Long story short, I need a freakin miracle to get this beautiful bastard back on the road, and I think I'm gonna need to replace the head, as well as pistons and valves. Anyone have any suggestions for heads? I haven't seen much online in the vein of replacement/salvaged parts, but I'm still looking. I'll post photos once I get back home in the morning, the only thing that sucks is the fact that I'm at work and not working on her :(

Little bit of history on the bike: 06 ZX14, K&N airbox, Two Brothers CF full exhaust set, Power Commander 3 USB, bought used. Guy before me was the original owner, and logged 20K miles in 6 years. Don't know if he ever had the valves adjusted, and I think I might be paying for that now. Engine locked up around 25K.

Yikes! Sorry to hear about this. Now you have scared me into doing a valve check/adjustment on my zzr1200. I bought it with 25k miles, and the previous owner said he had the valves adjusted. Now I think I want to have it double checked for a little piece of mind.

Maybe an admin can move this over to the 14 area? Wrong spot is all.

That's my nightmare right there. Phuck!

Call this ma fucka...Right Here!!! (Clickit) .....CLICK IT!

C I've got to start archiving these sites for the Nation homeboy!

Carpenter racing has what you need!!!!

These things are not well known for swallowing valves, I doubt it was the valve adjustment as they usually tighten up, burn a seat and won't start. You might have gotten a defective valve or possibly the old owner was bouncing it off the rev limiter too many times. .02

I vote for prior owner riding on the rev limiter! Not a good thing.......

OK, a little update here...

I pulled the head last week (I don't know why my breaker bar slipped my mind), and took a peek. Piston is all chewed up, one valve broken and lodged in the valve seat at 90 degrees, the other one actually fell down the cylinder and had the piss beaten out of it... took a hammer and cold chisel to dig the lil bastard out of the head. Both broken valves were intake side, and the head is beyond repair. Found a stock replacement on eBay for 400 bones (valves and springs and all), I'm gonna move on it this week. The cylinder wall isn't damaged at all and I checked the wall the entire travel of the piston, but I'm at a standstill until I can get the flywheel off and check further down, where the piston rings sit. This is where I'm stuck.

Should I spring the cash for the flywheel puller kit, or just take the engine to my speedshop and have them pull it for me? Also, I was reading up about the automatic cam chain tensioner backing out when throttle is closed at high RPM, knocking the cam out of time and potentially causing catastrophic damage (LOL). Since I got the engine out and opened up, I was going to replace the cam chain anyway, but should I go all-out on the APE manual cam chain adjuster for good measure?

Thanks for the advice so far, guys.

This is what I saw when I pulled the throttle body off.

Pulled the head:

Closeup on the piston:

Check the head:

Closeup of the head:

Enjoy!

Wow!
How fast were you going when that happenned?

I had just pulled out from a red light, made it about 40 yards and she froze up on me.

dude that makes my ass hurt

OK, I have a little update... I bought a replacement head on eBay from a shop in Florida that specializes in monster streetbikes, and I ended up getting the big bore stroker kit from Muzzy's (87mm pistons and a 5mm stroke on the crank). I sent the top end off to Millennium Cylinder to be bored and plated, and powdercoated it when I got it back. Engine assembly was straightforward according to the Kawasaki service manual, and I put on Carillo rods and APE studs instead of head bolts for the rebuild. I sent the motor off to a shop here in town to have the valves clearanced, ran me a few hundred but whatever. After the engine was assembled, I got all the harnesses and whatnot ready, mounted the engine to the bike, hooked up all the fluid lines and filled everything to spec. When I thumbed the starter, I realized instantly that something was wrong, every revolution of the engine gave me a wicked loud knock, so I took it back to my engine shop. Come to find out, I hadn't replaced the rod bearings when I did the rebuild and one of them was knocked out of round when the engine seized. More updates to come...

OUCH..after all that...sorry to hear it.

ARRRRRRRRRRRRG! That sucks so BAD!.. How could you know?? In a way, I'm at least glad it was not a mistake made by the people you had do the work. If it was me, that would make me even more upset. Well, it's going to cost you some more $$ and time but you'll have it sorted out.

If your going into the bottom end, then you replace all of the bearings. You learned this lesson the easy way. At least it didn't grenade down the road.

I know it's too late now, but I think I would have just found a good used replacement motor and transplanted it. Blown engine repairs always end up being more extensive and expensive than what they would initially appear to be.

Nah--I'd definitely have gone with a bore/stroker over another stock engine. If the motor was salvageable after the valve crunch, I'm sure it will be awesome after you get the new bearings in. Any advantage to going with a stronger crankshaft since you're going back in there again? Lot's of money but you'd be pretty well set for an insane turbo bike, wouldn't you?

* Last updated by: Rook on 10/29/2015 @ 6:50 AM *

[quote]I know it's too late now, but I think I would have just found a good used replacement motor and transplanted it. Blown engine repairs always end up being more extensive and expensive than what they would initially appear to be./quote]

+1 on that one. The only issue being finding a used motor that you know for sure is a good runner. If you know that it's a no-brainer IMO. Would a 1441 fit the earlier frame (with maybe a few easy mods)?

* Last updated by: pegscraper on 10/29/2015 @ 10:47 AM *

Would a 1441 fit the earlier frame (with maybe a few easy mods)?

I've heard "yes" on this but I have yet to hear of anyone doing it. One thing that comes to mind right away is the size of the Gen 2 radiator. I'm sure the Gen2 motor needs that and the Gen1 fairings might not fit it. I also heard the gen2 fairings could be transplanted to a gen1 with some modded brackets. I may have a shot at this in a few years but for now, my 08's engine is running good and I have NOS and tuning plans so no Gen2 engine/fairings n my future. Would sure be cool to see someone do this if it's really possible.

...here we go. I think I have to follow in this guy's footsteps. He said the engine is an easy swap from gen1-gen2. He's doing NOS and has an 08 just like me. I gotta do this some day but my current motor would have to be dead first before I could justify it. I'd probably go with a brand new Gen2 motor. Almost sounds like Kaw engineered the Gen2 motor to swap over to the Gen1.

WARNING HAGRID: barfland thread

* Last updated by: Rook on 10/29/2015 @ 3:30 PM *

In the last photo it looks like the valve hade separated from the stem; not fractured but rather just popped off.

Are these valves the variety where the stem is welded on?

I want to know if the valves were ever adjusted and/or who did it. Was it making noise like they needed adjusted?