Engine Noise, please listen

Hey, LS.

+1 on the poor man's stethoscope (long screwdriver). One place to listen: Right side engine case.

Some who lose the right side main bearing (reportedly an infrequent issue localized to 2008's) say it starts as an intermittent metallic noise like something clinkin' around in the header. The one guy on here said his sounded like something loose in his header - in fact, I think he was sure at one point that was the problem.

In the not too distant future, it became persistent. Soon after persistence, the engine started losing power and subsequent tear down proved the problem.

^^Just one possible thing to "listen" for.

Maybe also give a listen to the cylinder area also for a cracked piston/skirt though those are almost never intermittent as I'm sure you know.

motokid wrote:

YZEtc wrote:

Should start 5D3-

not sure, i know it has blue rubber seals on both sides, rather than the black ones, and yes you could see though the fine mesh filter part...i think i chucked the box but i will double check when i get home.

update

stock exhaust installed. ran good til she warmed up then squeal came back. had 3 people with screwdrivers listening to everypoint possible on the motor. we all came up with the same spot. lower crankcase most noticeable Towards the front. consensous says crank bearings to us


time to pull the heart out

Sounds like you're homing in on it & sorry to hear it if major work becomes necessary.

Another possibility... I keep listening to the vid:

Given everything above, a burned (or not fully closing when hot) exhaust valve "whistler" is a lesser probability especially since you've localized it to lower end -- but I would suggest checking valve lash and looking at exhaust valves during tear down.

Main reason for this suggestion is obvious; you'll have access to valve lash and will see the valves long before you get to the main bearings.

Following this same idea of catching something simple before splitting the cases, I'd also suggest scrutinizing the piston, wrist pin and rod on the way in. Anything cracked or fitup feeling too tight/loose? That kind of thing.

Just a couple of thoughts from a retired wrench.

Best of luck to ya'. Thanks for keeping the thread up to date.

That sounds odd to me that it would be crank bearings, something like that could fail from oil starvation or debris in the oil gallery and when they go they very rapidly progress from a minor noise to complete failure in a matter of seconds to minutes
For it to make a squealing noise there would be metal transfer, the more transfer the more rapid the progression of the failure
It would be impossible to have this without substantial bearing material in the oil and filter

This would be something that you would notice as you were riding and the engine would make a weird noise, lose power and likely stop running, probably in less than a minute

So, if there is no debris in the oil, you should keep looking not tear the crank out
Something in the water pump maybe?

Called Hot Rods about their crank assy. They offer a standard and a stroker +3mm to make is 263cc. their first production run of the standard cranks had the wrong timing chain gear and they recalled them. Expected to be back in production around 2012. Their stroker crank is not expected to late July.....

Called my local yami dealer and they told me the 08-10 crank part number supersedes to the new 2011 crank. Yamaha only has 2 of them available...well only 1 now


so after a $600 bill for one oem crank, bearings, seals, gaskets, timing chain etc....crossing my fingers that it shows up before my motor goes south for the worst...

Now im stuck thinking about a BB kit....been searching for a day or two, does anyone know of someone selling the kit with out the power box?

Did you order a crank before tearing the engine down?

yeaup, crank on order, my wr is my only ride, so hopefully with careful planning i should be able to whip this all out in a weekend, maybe taking a day off of work...my fingers are crossed nothing happens til these parts show up...oh yea and getting a big bore kit as well

Going to order this kit up as well


http://thumperracing.net/index.php?route=product/product&path=37_43_106&product_id=97

Take lots of pictures.....please.

motokid wrote:

Take lots of pictures.....please.

Sure, i will keep this thread updated when everything takes off

How many miles are on your bike?

almost 5k, its a 4/08 production date bike

little squirt wrote:

almost 5k, its a 4/08 production date bike

That also once had a turbo kit installed.....just sayin'........

yea and a couple others had problems too: just to name some


http://www.supermotojunkie.com/showthread.php?112765-WR250X-Motor-Noise-Still&highlight=wr250x+noise

http://www.supermotojunkie.com/showthread.php?97680-honey-i-blew-up-the-wr250x!-update

http://www.supermotojunkie.com/showthread.php?114878-chirping-noise&highlight=wr250x+noise


http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-920257.html

http://www.thumpertalk.com/forum/archive/index.php/t-967619.html

little squirt wrote:

almost 5k, its a 4/08 production date bike

Ugh. Mine is 1/08 with over 6,000 miles. But so far not one bit of trouble.

That one guy from junkie is a stunter.

Another, "just sayin'......

Yeah I know. But so far I haven't had any trouble with the bike and that includes the fuel pump also. The miles on my bike are mostly off road single track first and second gear stuff. But since gas went up and I got my X wheels I've been commuting and putting more and more street miles. I'm not going to worry about it and I'll just ride the hell out of it until something happens.

motokid wrote:

That one guy from junkie is a stunter.

Another, "just sayin'......

yea im sure the tubo kit didnt help anything, just saying i'm going through a problem and trying to document it as a resource for others if they need help too.

trav72 wrote:

Yeah I know. But so far I haven't had any trouble with the bike and that includes the fuel pump also. The miles on my bike are mostly off road single track first and second gear stuff. But since gas went up and I got my X wheels I've been commuting and putting more and more street miles. I'm not going to worry about it and I'll just ride the hell out of it until something happens.

+1

little squirt wrote:

motokid wrote:

That one guy from junkie is a stunter.

Another, "just sayin'......

yea im sure the tubo kit didnt help anything, just saying i'm going through a problem and trying to document it as a resource for others if they need help too.

Yep. That's cool. That's why I hope you can detail things with pictures as best you can.

The 280cc kit is something I've never seen before.

I'll be interested to know what you think if you go that way.

+1 for pics during the rebuild. I don't think I've seen any of the crank yet.

I didn't know about the 280 kit either. $400 doesn't seem to bad if it provides some low end grunt. The $900 290 kit is ridiculously over priced. I'll be anxious to hear your thoughts.

trav72 wrote:

+1 for pics during the rebuild. I don't think I've seen any of the crank yet.

I didn't know about the 280 kit either. $400 doesn't seem to bad if it provides some low end grunt. The $900 290 kit is ridiculously over priced. I'll be anxious to hear your thoughts.

yea just ordered the 280 kit. amazing that they say the 280 kit piston is only 8 grams heavier than stock, where as if they did a 290 the piston would have been 28 grams heavier.......im all about less mass. We'll see how works out.

I couldnt justify spending that kinda money on the Athena kit

*****UPDATE*****


280 kit said it would be 3-4 weeks out, so i cancelled it. My dealer let me return the crank & bearings, but I kept all the engine gaskets.

A buddy of mine here at BMW who is tech was listening to nosie and said, "hey pull that oil filler cap off" so i took the oil filler cap off and the noise was almost gone, couldnt really hear it, then we turned the bike off with the cap removed and the engine stopped like normal, no hissing, or wheezing to a stop, like in the video. Now it looks like maybe there is something screwed with the crank case breather system...

not sure having that turbo kit on there pushing 6-7psi of boost did something....the hunt continues

You can remove the oil fill cap WITH the engine running???????

Really?

Yea, it puffs alot and only had a little bit of oil kinda mist out....just took it off long enough to see if it made a difference and sure did