Piston Seizure

New Bikes, Old Bikes, Bike Setup, Bike Mods, Questions, Riding Technique, Advice.
Post Reply
User avatar
Dobi
2024 RMDRA Member
2024 RMDRA Member
Posts: 3770
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:33 pm
Location: deep in the woods on some epic singletrack
Contact:

Piston Seizure

Post by Dobi »

While replacing the gears in my tranny (another story) the mechanic informed me that my piston needed to be replaced too. How can a KTM that has half a season on it need a new piston? The pics show it all. His only guess is that when I got it wet (handlebar deep) this spring and filled the case with water it washed all that fancy opti2 oil off the cylinder wall. Once it did get back running it ran for about 30 seconds and then appeared to load up and die (sieze :applause: ). I never thought anything of this and it quit doing it after we pulled the plug a few times and kicked until my leg was numb. Now my question is what do you do then once you have drowned a bike? Do you pour fuel down the plug in hope that it reaches the right spots? or do I just need to move up to a heavier oil and run it at 40:1 instead of the 80:1 that I have been running? If anyone has any tried and true suggestions let me know because I am certain that I will drown this thing again and if it costs this much to fix next time I am going to have to start looking for new accomodations....


I am still trying to figure out how to post pics so bear with me here.




http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b72/d ... onpic2.jpg

http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b72/d ... onpic1.jpg

User avatar
BigD
Writer
Writer
Posts: 110
Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2005 11:46 pm
Location: Innisfail

Post by BigD »

Make sure you get all the water out before you start it!

Pull the plug dump the bike upside down if you need to, get all the water out of the cylinder and pipe. Drain the carb. Make sure the air filter and air box is clean and dry. Then crank the bike over with the plug still out any water that is in there should be coming out. Once it seems clean you can dump some mixed gas in there and then crank it over some more to clean all the gas out. Then it should be good to go.

If the water was deep enough to get into the gas tank drain it. Also the tranny oil will most likely need to be drained and if it didnt come clean then it will need to be flushed again.

knuckle
Writer
Writer
Posts: 179
Joined: Wed Jan 26, 2005 1:37 pm

Post by knuckle »

Yikes! Pictures like that make me even more skittish of deep water crossings. If you insist on handlebar deep crossings use a jetski! :D
04 KTM300 EX/C.
04 KTM525 EX/C. gone!

User avatar
dirtyboy
2024 RMDRA Member
2024 RMDRA Member
Posts: 6971
Joined: Sat Dec 11, 2004 5:04 pm
Location: Calgary, AB
Contact:

Post by dirtyboy »

:eek: :eek:

Looks like a cold seizure. That's on the exhaust side isn't it?

User avatar
Dobi
2024 RMDRA Member
2024 RMDRA Member
Posts: 3770
Joined: Thu Mar 03, 2005 9:33 pm
Location: deep in the woods on some epic singletrack
Contact:

Post by Dobi »

dirtyboy wrote::eek: :eek:

Looks like a cold seizure. That's on the exhaust side isn't it?
Actually, they are pictures of either side :blush:

Knuckle, the last time I drowned a Jet-ski I spent 2 hours swimming/pulling the damn thing across the shushwap, 2 hours in the dark getting it running, and the next day trying to get my sore legs in condition to be able to walk again :cripple:

The funny thing was the tranny oil still looked really clean when I changed it after the ride :banana:

Post Reply