Why does my piston keep disintegrating?

Why does my piston keep disintegrating?

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Discussion

unlimited_020

Original Poster:

1 posts

73 months

Sunday 11th March 2018
quotequote all
This issue is in relation to an ER-6f Kawasaki motorcycle engine.

After 7000 miles, my engine seized. After taking off the head, I found the piston to be disintegrated into tiny metal fragments. I rode this bike hard an was near top speed at time of seizing so kind of accepted it as down to excessive use. I replaced this engine with a second hand engine (14000 miles on the clock), and within 40 miles of riding the same thing happened - Engine seized and piston disintegrated. It could be a coincidence but I'm worried that there could be something external that is effectively detonating the piston. Would you know what may be causing this issue? Fuel Injector? ECU? etc?

Cheers.

GreenV8S

30,194 posts

284 months

Sunday 11th March 2018
quotequote all
Detonation or running lean might do it, although 40 miles is a pretty short life for an engine unless you were thrashing it from the start. How much of the original engine / ancillaries did you carry over to the new engine? For example if you kept the old rad, and it was blocked and causing overheating, you'd expect that to keep happening.

stevieturbo

17,262 posts

247 months

Monday 12th March 2018
quotequote all
More details !

Pictures of said piston ?? or any other related images of damage

Is this engine totally standard or has there been modifications ?

Is the engine being built by a competent person....or an idiot ?

Is the engine being tuned by a competent person...or an idiot ?

Was this the first time using the engine under the same circumstances ?

Are you using the correct fuel ?

Mr2Mike

20,143 posts

255 months

Tuesday 13th March 2018
quotequote all
Some pictures of the failures would help. What does the cylinder head look like e.g. did either or both engine drop a valve?

Do you have the correct air filter fitted, and is the airbox correctly seated into the throttle bodies i.e. can we rule out the engine ingesting something?

Was the engine running ok prior to failure, no nasty noises under load?