Engine Problem

[ArtVandelay]

Took the Toniq out yesterday and noticed a tappety sound coming from the engine. It's frequency increases with the revs, however the engine is pulling fine and the car was running smoothly.

Whats the likely cause of this, is it just the tappet clearences need adjusting or could it be something more serious. Had it out on Tuesday too and there was no sign of this noise.

The engine is a 919CC Honda fireblade. Been in touch with my Mechanic friend but he's unavailable for a while and I'm away to Kenya on Wednesday - would really like to take it out on Sunday for a bit, but fear I might end up ruining the engine.

Cheers in advance,

James

[Mr Sparkle]

I don't have any experience of the fireblade engine so can't be of much help but have you checked oil level/pressure etc. does it go away as the engine warms up?

[Furyblade_Lee]

Mine never missed a beat in about 10,000 miles, including trackdays, 5 trips into Europe and smashing its way through a motorway armco. Then car rebuilt, more of the same. Sorry I cant be of help! It never went wrong.... Check the tappets certainly, most bike mechanics will do it if access is OK and its not expensive. That job and balancing carbs was the only things reccomended to me that needs doing on ( early )blades.

[ArtVandelay]

Furyblade_Lee said:

Mine never missed a beat in about 10,000 miles, including trackdays, 5 trips into Europe and smashing its way through a motorway armco. Then car rebuilt, more of the same. Sorry I cant be of help! It never went wrong.... Check the tappets certainly, most bike mechanics will do it if access is OK and its not expensive. That job and balancing carbs was the only things reccomended to me that needs doing on ( early )blades.

That's what drew me to the fireblade engine to be honest, heard they were pretty bulletproof.

Should be okay, sound is still there when warm, although perhaps more muted.

I've been in touch with my local mechanic and he's going to have a look at it. Access is good to the engine, shouldn't be too difficult to get sorted, see what it's like on Sunday, fingers crossed!

[ArtVandelay]

Turns out the exhaust is blowing from the manifold, one of the nuts has worked loose and come off so it's an easy fix, can drive it today too, miserable weather but at least it's dry!

[Broken]

How long had the car been sat without the engine been run?

Not had a blade but got a cbr600f, had this happen on my bike when it had been sat for a while. The noise disappeared after a bit of running, the oil appeared to have drained from the head and away from the tapets. When the oil had circulated again the noise disappeared.

Also the cam chain tensioners on cbr engines are known to fail. If you get a tapping at idle that goes away when you apply some throttle then you could have failing cam chain tensioners. It's not the end of the world if they are failing. The normal failure of them is the oil seals that are meant to retain the oil pressure that tensions the chain. These stop maintaining the pressure and allow the chain to become slack, when you up the engine revs the oil pressure rises taking up the slack in the chain.

Fortunately they are fairly easy to change and fairly cheap to buy.

Hope it was just a loose exhaust bolt though.