TE450 Bike Rebuild (orignally "Lots of metal last oil change!")

Dood- something aint right. Unless you were toally hammering on that motor for 500 miles?

All that silver aint good. That's piston/clutch basket etc...

Black fuzz is normal on mag, to a degree, esp after 3 changes of it not getting cleaned! The top plug pic (most recent?) is alarming. That's rings, caged brg, trans, timing set etc.

Two options:
1- get the thing really clean inside, then, service, run for two hours easy, inspect your grit traps again and compare notes. LISTEN FOR NOISE BEFORE AND AFTER.

2- tear it down.

And for the "I don't pull my mag plug and dump my oil through the screen holes because" crowd?.... here's why ya don't neglect same.

I would tear it down. It would suck if it siezed in the summer and probably run you more money and down time.

This post is perplexing. If it were my bike I would do a complete oil change with new filter, clean the magnetic plug and screens and ride here for say a 100 miles and drop the oil and look at the screens, filter and plug. If on viewing in your opinion there is too much schrapnel from the engine then 1; look at the clutch for abmormal wear, 2; if the clutch is ok then consider an engine split.

Good luck mate.

I don't have much to add other than I would exactly what the gent suggested immediately above. Fuzz on the drain plug magnet is normal. That much fuzz??? Not sure. Crap on the oil filter? Definitely not normal on my '08 510. I get virtually nothing on my oil filter (which is a Scott's so I look at it every time, and it would definitely catch those big chunks). You've little to lose by riding it up to 100 miles to see what it looks like but I suspect you've got something major developing.

I'm going to pull the motor, and take it to George on Thursday or Friday. Everyone I talked to agrees that this is just not right, and there is something going on internally that needs to be addressed NOW before my motor eats it's lunch.

Thanks for everyone's input. I appreciate all the comments. After George goes through it I'll update this post and let you know what he found.

-Blake

the metal in the filter donesn't look good but i would have to agree with the few post above about checking the clutch! its a lot easier and cheaper then taking the whole motor apart!

I read where the Dakar Husky race bike made the trip on one engine running the Motorex 10w-60 oil .... not sure how all this oil stuff actually play out with the different oils in real life

I've never cut an oil filter apart and I'm not sure I want to after this unless you have discovered your motor was turning into toast. This will be interesting to say the least and I hope for the best here ...what ever that might be that did look like a ton of steel there but I certainly do not know what is expected to be there ...myself, I'd expect that motor to be knocking and fried if I saw all that in the filter, but, as stated, I'm not even in the game with this subject.

And you gotta pull the plug to remove the bits attached and get a reading from it and you can still lean the bike over an get out another half cup or so of dirty oil

Just another opinion here, I put approx 3,000 miles on my 06 TE450 before selling it and from what I remember of my oil changes that seems fairly normal. I always checked the magnet and it always had some of what someone else accurately described above as "slurry". AND every once in a blue moon I'd get a sliver of a fingernail size piece of metal like what you have pictured. I can't comment on the inside of the oil filter as I've never seen that.....but it kinda looks like more of the slurry to me.

Pull the left ign. cover off. I bet there is a lot of metal on that magnet.

Yes, you need to find out if that metal in the filter is magnetic.

If you are hard on the clutch you can wear an awful lot of aluminum off a clutch basket.

When my last motor was new the oil had so much aluminum in it it looked like metalic paint.

That motor ran great till I sold it 23k miles later and is still running strong w/o a rebuild.

The metal in the filter is magnetic, as indicated by the pics.

If it's not from the steel clutch plates, it's a lot of metal coming from somewhere.....
Could be the Nikasil coating coming off the bore, could be a rod bearing, could be from the tranny.....Lot's of possibilities.

We'll find out soon enough.

This post has got us all interested in the outcome. Please let us know. If you or George could do a photo or two of the culprit we would love a look see please.
Good luck

Kelly,

That's the consensus. We will see when George breaks into it. Is it common for these to go this soon? I have been really good about changing oil, oil filters, air filters, and everything else on this bike. It just seems like it's too soon. George doesn't like the bearings that the factory uses.

-Blake

Any advice on pulling the motor? I'm going to do that tonight and get the motor to George tomorrow. I read the shop manual and it doesn't give much direction. Should I be pulling it out from the left or right?

Thanks,
Blake

Start a "what broke?" pool with some of the proceeds to go towards the new engine maybe?

I like that idea! Now you're thinking!

-Blake

Yes, George has better bearings he will put in. I know that George is the man when it comes to this stuff, and I feel very confident that I will get the motor back from him in better condition than what came from the factory.

-Blake

Big end on rod needs replacing soon.


Klas