Some good questions there Glitch. I can only assume that they haven't pulled the barrel yet, maybe pending orders from PFG, I dunno. I thought that a lean running engine would stuff valves or melt through the pistons. I just phoned the workshop manager, he doesn't even know if the barrel has been pulled. Head valves and seats appear perfectly fine. Told me again that fitting a power commander and dyno tuning is highly recommended by the importer's technician to prevent this damage in the near future. He may get back to me with more detail of piston, rings, barrel. Wait and see. I am currently a little disappointed with this guy right now. Just remembering also that I had to take the bike to a radiator guy for a second opinion on the diagnosis. BTW your parcel has been posted glitch! Cheers, Q
Ok, I mentioned this earlier. My son is a mechanical engineer. Specifically HVAC. When the pod mod first presented itself I was apprehensive about changing the design parameters of the air intake. I asked him to calculate the stock filter media air flow and the Pod air flow and they were with 23 cfm of each other. The pod had just slightly more intake capability than the OEM filter. I call bullcrap on this. The box is designed to scoop air in. It does that. It also is designed to keep dirt out, it doesn't do that. So if detonation damage occurred I think there is more to it. Just my opinion. Wow, what a bunch of crap from the dealer, the importer and Husqvarna.
You can see where the coolant entered the combustion chamber. That did the damage (piston) at the top of the photo. It don't look nearly as bad as I thought it would. Just put a big bore kit in and all is good.
IMHO that's an admission of sorts they tuned the bike too close to the razors edge. Way too lean as we all know. The PC is recommended to ADD fuel. That does change the AFR but the ECU compensates for that. Again, air filter caused it??? I think they are looking for an excuse, any excuse.
What an idiot!! A proper air-filter doing its job sitting inside the OEM airbox causes pre-detonation and a headgasket failure....but a non-OEM Power-Commander altering all sorts of fueling + ignition values is essential, right??
Blown head gasket can cause a lean condition. Sucking air that is not measured. Then again pre ignition it ion can blow the head gasket. Most likely pre ignition took the gasket out. Between sacking air and already lean took the poor baby out. Most likely the ring lands are hammered down onto the rings. Keep putting the pressure on the shop. Never give up the fight.
I don't really see the evidence of pre detonation or pinging. I see a possibility of piston or ring slap from the coolant damage and lack of lube from the coolant washing that side of the piston and bore. Check the plugs for silvery spots. Pre detonation will fuze the aluminum to the spark plug ceramic. The cylinder bore probably has a light pitting, from steam. You got a bad engine from Husky and this is exactly what the warranty is to cover at no expense to you. I like the loaner idea.
As far as I understand it, things have been coming from the spanner-guy only, the importer has ok'ed the headgasket and not knocked back any further claims (yet). Importer possibly doesn't even know about the barrel and piston yet, being a Friday over here and everyone close to the weekend, knocking off early and all that. (to our US friends...nothing much happens in AUS past Friday noon or thereabouts ....come back late Monday morning to see the wheels groaning again )
That's right, you guys are all twisted backwards on that side of the world. Your toilets swirl wrong, your steering wheels are on the wrong side, and who knows what side the brake and clutch levers are on your bikes. LOL.
The spanner guy is getting all his information from the importer. Not convinced if he's able or allowed to think for himself and may just be qualified to fit new parts. The importer got fed the information and probably those 2 pictures yesterday afternoon. The importer technician is suggesting the Power Commander is the best fix for this. He mentioned this early on in our 1 conversation and thought it was in my best interest to leave pod filter and just tune it in with a Power Commander. How is it that a the TPS set at 70%, for a bike that can fully open it's throttle, not even be considered a possible cause?
Jeezaz, that's one hell of a cable. Looks like you've still had a few lives in the kiddie. ...and there is that!!
My 630 deposited a white, powdery substance over the engine when it over-heated and there was a coolant overflow.
Should I cut my losses with this bike and run? ATM. I am even starting to think that replacing both my TR650 and r1200gs with a single F800GSA is a good idea. Mrs Q has the 700 now and 2-up riding has been rarely done since. (once in 2 years) My 1200 is fairly modified and we go most places that it shouldn't and I'm chasing dirt road riding more than ever. The TR was suppose to fill the gaps for the dirt road and desert shananigans, but I am just worn out trying to sort it out, whats next? what caused the problems with my engine? will this thing self destruct again? Parts, weeks/months or this year? will it ping? do I need to set up a PC-V? or a LC-2 to adjust and track AFR's? are there going to be side effects/damage to the engines bottom end? This bike is no longer fun and is just causing more bloody work and costing more coin thats also eating into ride time. The 1200 really sucks dogs balls in deep soft sand, the 20litre fuel tank and low air intake are my main problems with it. Cheers, Q
The problem is Quirky what bike is there. The 800 still weighs near 210 kg, the dr is boring as at s..t and so is the klr, the tenere is heavy and expensive and the 690 also has its problems and parts can also take a while to order in. I'm hearing you and thinking to myself do I bail now before all these issues become common knowledge and you cant even sell it.
I'm inclined to agree. There is a real lack of good modern dual sports / Light weight adventure bikes available. I nearly bought a DRZ400 before settling on the TR. My last DRZ took me from Japan to London without a single issue back in 2002 when they were still 'modern'. But I couldn't come at paying the same or more for the identical bike in 2014 compared to the quite impressive TR. Obviously there's team orange, but there again they are far from flawless and should be better for the price IMHO. My well-maintained KTM 640 cracked its head somewhere around 25k - I don't know for sure how many kms it had on the clock because the extreme vibrations fatigued the cable speedo cable link to dash. And there we're many other niggles as well. I really think the TR engines (your bad experience aside) are exceptional for their smoothness and their power output very good.
Yeah this engine has been around for many years and has been very reliable. This is why I was originally looking for a good X challenge but for the price of some of the second ones you could buy the terra. However as some have said has BMW/ husqvarna pushed this old engine that little to far in the quest for the extra 10hp
I am guessing that Q just got a lemon engine or perhaps some parts were not optimal on the engine. In any case the Rotax has been a venerable engine over the years. I do believe the ECU and fueling systems have been optimized so much on our bikes that we are on the edge of "too much".
I hate to sound like a broken record, but I am sure they tried to tune the bike so it would pass all smog restrictions. California is the worst so they tuned her to pass California smog. I have been talking to friends and everyone is complaining about how the new bikes are running hot and erratic throttle response. It is all related to the lean mixtures. It will be nice to see the air full mixtures on a running bike.
I'm mounting an LC2 on my bike when I get back from my trip. Hopefully this will help us decipher what the ECU is doing in different conditions and throttle positions.
