Has any one killed max

[gunrunner]

:rocket bike:Im still in the market for one and have done alot of hours net research on Max . The motor seems unbreakable, there must be some horror stories out there ?

 

[Buster Hymen]

:rocket bike:Im still in the market for one and have done alot of hours net research on Max . The motor seems unbreakable, there must be some horror stories out there ?

LOL.. Yes, I 'm waiting for Sean to reply and hear the head count from him. :banana:
Generally though, under "normal" street use and abuse, the motor is pretty bulletproof.

 

[one2dmax]

I quit counting the number I have blown up. I have at least 20+ cores here that need rebuilding and the majority have spun rod bearings. There are things we can do to improve longevity in harsh conditions.

However, with sane riding and not racing all the time you can easily expect 100,000+ miles out of the engine.

Sean

 

[KJShover]

I quit counting the number I have blown up. I have at least 20+ cores here that need rebuilding and the majority have spun rod bearings. There are things we can do to improve longevity in harsh conditions.

However, with sane riding and not racing all the time you can easily expect 100,000+ miles out of the engine.

Sean

What? no horror story? :cheers:

 

[lankeeyankee]

:rocket bike:Im still in the market for one and have done alot of hours net research on Max . The motor seems unbreakable, there must be some horror stories out there ?

LOL !! I almost pissed my pants. "unbreakable" I guess if you have a basket on the front and just drive your VMAX to church on Sundays and the grocery store once a month.
This motor does not hold up to abuse very well as a GSXR does. I have dragraced GSXR for 4 yrs an avg of 25 passes a week with no mechanical issues.
I have owned my VMAX for 5 years and I am on my 4th motor already.
The avg life of the motors I have owned are around 10K miles, and its always a rod bearing problem.
Dont race or abuse your max and I am sure you can get over a 100K if your looking to ride hard and race the VMAX isnt for you unless you are familiar with tools.

 

[06x6spdGTO]

so r u talking not racing the Vmax as in street light to street light, or not at the track? also about how long does the clutch make it on the Max?

 

[lankeeyankee]

so r u talking not racing the Vmax as in street light to street light, or not at the track? also about how long does the clutch make it on the Max?

I ride mine hard on the street, meaning back tires last 3-5K miles, 200+ ft burnouts. top speed runs of 155MPH
My rides are usually 100 miles when I go out. I may take it to the track 5-10 times a yr avg 3-5 passes each visit.
I used to have the shift light set for 10.5K with this engine I am going to try and keep it 9500 and under.

 

[maxcruiser]

LOL !! I almost pissed my pants. "unbreakable" I guess if you have a basket on the front and just drive your VMAX to church on Sundays and the grocery store once a month.
This motor does not hold up to abuse very well as a GSXR does. I have dragraced GSXR for 4 yrs an avg of 25 passes a week with no mechanical issues.
I have owned my VMAX for 5 years and I am on my 4th motor already.
The avg life of the motors I have owned are around 10K miles, and its always a rod bearing problem.
Dont race or abuse your max and I am sure you can get over a 100K if your looking to ride hard and race the VMAX isnt for you unless you are familiar with tools.

This leads to the question of, why do you own a vmax and not a GSXR - would seem to be alot cheaper for you.

Must be something that you like about the max.

Mike

 

[lankeeyankee]

This leads to the question of, why do you own a vmax and not a GSXR - would seem to be alot cheaper for you.

Must be something that you like about the max.

Mike

A VMAX and a GSXR are 2 different bikes as the obvious. I love my VMAX for the styling, comfort and sound. I dont drag race motorcycles on a circuit any longer. When it comes to motorcycle cost there is no limit I want it and I have to have it today.
I hope this answers your question. By no means do I dislike my VMAX. I just answered the question to this thread and added some comments about the engine durability.

 

[maxcruiser]

A VMAX and a GSXR are 2 different bikes as the obvious. I love my VMAX for the styling, comfort and sound. I dont drag race motorcycles on a circuit any longer. When it comes to motorcycle cost there is no limit I want it and I have to have it today.
I hope this answers your question. By no means do I dislike my VMAX. I just answered the question to this thread and added some comments about the engine durability.

It certanily does!

Mike

 

[MBreinin]

4 motors! Wow, I think if I smoked the motor I would be hard pressed to replace it. It would probably be cheaper for me to just grab another inexpensive Max. I have about $3200 in mine and that includes upgrades. Motors and good go-fast parts aren't cheap for these bikes.....

With that said, I ride the bike pretty hard, although I don't do any burnouts or the such.

Mike

 

[one2dmax]

Well, I bought my first Vmax in 95. I rode a friends 86 in 88 and borrowed another friends 86 so many times around that same time he told me to start keeping it at my house!

That first Vmax was a 91 and had about 10,xxx miles on it. It was immaculate and completly stock. I didn't even test ride it after I had traveled 6 hours to pick it up. I loaded it on the trailer and drove home. Went to work the next day and a friend got it off the trailer and rode it to where I was working - I didn't even get to ride it first!

After letting out the 50psi of air the original owner had in the forks I was promptly pulling wheelies in the parking lot. It was a hell of a lot easier to do it on the max then my previous bike was (a 1983 Seca Turbo - I still have it).

I think it made it most of the year before I had to pull apart the engine for a light knocking sound. It ended up the only thing we could find wrong was the rods had wobbled out on the small end. After years of experiences with the max now I think the problem may have actually been loose starter clutch bolts.

Anyway, I did some searching on the internet which was still pretty new at that time. All I could find was Dale Walker (Holeshot Performance). So I joined up his club (still have the certificate) and bought some performance parts from him. I bought a 1261 kit and had my heads ported.

I don't remember if I did my first cryo on the trans at that time or on the next rebuild. As time progressed I ended up doing a lot of work to that poor bike. It was on that bike I went to Daytona on 2002.

The bike was running awesome when I got there and after driving for 24 hours straight it took less then five minutes to break the driveshaft! I had unloaded it from the trailer and drove it around the front to park with the group. I tried to do a quick burnout and the driveshaft immediately popped. It was even wet on the road! So, we loaded up in the truck and went to Daytona yamaha and had one overnighted in. I had left my spare at home. I had already called another friend and asked him to pull his and ship it to me overnight in case I couldn't get one from Yamaha locally.

Anyway, put the bike back together and the group was shocked to see me change it in about 20 minutes! It's still a legend with the boys down there.

We left for a group ride later that day and the bike was running sweet! I hit it hard with Paully when we got on the main road (he had a 1500 chaindrive longrod) and engine revved great through first gear then on the bang to second the bike dropped power big time. It was popping and farting the whole time. Ended up going on the big ride like it was and even swapped out the plugs partway through the ride to see if that would fix it. No luck. I tried messing with the carbs. No luck. So I gave up on it. I kept riding it the rest of the week and still managed to go through a few tires while we were there (we came home with 5 worn out blown tires).

I did one of my legendary burnouts while I was there and had the headers glowing cherry red! The video is on Youtube.

When we got home I pulled the engine and found out as I started to take it apart that I had broken a rear intake cam. One side of the cam was still turning since the gear was stilll attached but the other side was doing nothing but laughing at me. It still ran at the front of the pack down there with average speeds near 100mph. So I replaced the cam and life was good again.

Back home now we went to another event in Eureka Springs that we now attend each year. At that event I ended up with a blown head gasket. If I gave the bike more then 1/2 throttle I would spit coolant out the overflow since the cooling system would get pressurized with combustion gasses. Of course I can't keep it under 1/2 throttle very well so I was filling both the radiator and gas tank at each stop.

The bike actually ran Ok during that time and we had another event withing a week or two after that so I left it like it was for it. The bike managed to ride 500+ miles that time (to Kansas City and back and around there) with no additional problems arrising then the head gasket.

It wasn't much longet then a couple of months (if that) before I ran into my next problem. We were getting ready to host an in town event where the Teressi Dyno drags were coming to town along with a bunch of other bike stuff. I had been playing with the bike doing some more tuning and took it down the road to my test track (local paved road - LOL). I hit the throttle again and when I hit second gear (something about power shifting second is bad for me) there was a big bang in the engine. I could tell once I slowed back down that it was trans related. Limped it back to the shop and cussed at it.

The event was the next day. I called up a friend and he was over there in short order. We yanked the engine out, split the case and found the problem. I had ripped teeth off the middle drive gear. We took my spare engine (which had spun a bearing from the previous owner) and split it open and took the trans out of it. We put the robbed trans back in my good engine and back in the bike. Time from start to finish was approx 12 hours including the hour and a half to go get dinner. We were hauling butt that day. Anyway, got it together and running though it was still incredibly rich (still hadn't learned my lesson yet - it was found out later that it had worn needle and seats). We had a great time at the drags and I did reasonably well all things considered. Of course my year of problems wasn't over yet.

Towards the end of August each year there is a drag race event we like to get all the Vmaxs to go to. It's the Truett and Osborn all bike drags. Anyway, I made it a number of rounds that year and the very last round I ended up spinning a bearing in the engine. That was it for the year. The first spun bearing in that engines life and my first on the Vmax.

I ended up fixing that engine over the course of the next year and did a lot of other upgrades while I was at it. I made my first inverted front end setup, got some custom paint, and broke down and bought big cams and Carrillo rods for the engine. We put it all together and took it to Eureka Springs again. I babied that engine trying to make sure it broke in well. Of course such is not my luck. On the group ride about 50 miles out the engine let go. I was about 20 miles from the nearest town so after letting the engine cool I managed to get it refired. It was difficult keeping it running and rode it back the 20 miles to town with the engine hammering! It wasn't just knocking anymore! this time I had brought a spare vmax and rode it the rest of the weekend. When we pulled that engine apart the crank was toast. Not an once of bearing material was left. The pistons had contacted the valves and the block was heavily gouged on the crank thrust surface. The rods were able to be saved and Carrillo re-conditioned them for me. A testament to the Carrillo rod's durability (Though I have one that is ripped in half too).

That original bike is now sitting in my shop and being used for a test chassis. I have the engine apart and need to repair the thrust surface (which we can now do) then put it back together.

Anyway, I have many more stories if you would like me to continue! I think I even have a bunch of destruction pics. If it can break I will find the weakness!

Sean Morley

 

[MBreinin]

Damn, Sean!

I would have given up well before you did. As a matter of fact, I think I would have lit the bike on fire and then pissed on it if I had that level of aggravation. I have had cars that treated me like that, but not nearly as badly and they were summarily sold...usually as rollers after I smoked a second or third motor.

Posts like this give me real concerns. My Max is not perfect (I am trying to work through the bugs right now) but now I am going to sweat every odd sound I hear and every puff of smoke I see. Mine is an '85 with roughly 25,000 miles that were put on the bike in a fashion that I can only guess at since I only met one of the former owners.

Of course, I don't abuse the bike as I want it to stay together. However, I don't take a single ride where the bike doesn't see close to 10 grand through at least the first three gears. I didn't buy the bike to putt around on, I bought it to enjoy Warp Factor 5.

If I break it, chances are I will move on to either another Max or another bike. I also have the RZ 350 and that bike is much harder to break, as it has much less moving parts in the engine. Of course, you can seize it, but I am very conservative with the pre-mix (mine is converted from injection, PITA but it came that way).

I admit that I was at the dealer the other day getting an oil filter and they had a brand new Max sitting there. I was so tempted to work a deal on it. That would require I sell both of my current bikes though, and I do like them. Still, a new bike would be nice...

Mike

 

[maleko89]

Remember, this is a Venture touring engine with hotter cams/compression. Key is to go easy on the bike at least several miles to get engine oil temperature to normal running temp. Also, don't go above 9000 rpms.

My Vmax has 67,000 miles on it and it's a northern bike too that sits in an unheated garage during the winter.

Mark
#1098

 

[one2dmax]

You must keep in mind I am an extreme rider. I don't like going to ride just to ride. I go to ride to push the bike to it's limits. I don't put many miles a year on either. We have guys like mark with many miles on and no prolems with it and that doesn't mean they ride it like granpa's either.

Just plan that if you are going to drag race it regularly it will not survive in stock form. If you keep the rpm's down that will help considerably. Also, warming the bike up helps too.

Sean Morley

 

[maleko89]

Sean, agreed.

I don't baby it that's for sure. I also know that I don't ride 'em as hard as you. For example....I don't drag mine at all.

Mark
#1098

 

[lankeeyankee]

Damn, Sean!

I would have given up well before you did. As a matter of fact, I think I would have lit the bike on fire and then pissed on it if I had that level of aggravation. I have had cars that treated me like that, but not nearly as badly and they were summarily sold...usually as rollers after I smoked a second or third motor.

Posts like this give me real concerns. My Max is not perfect (I am trying to work through the bugs right now) but now I am going to sweat every odd sound I hear and every puff of smoke I see. Mine is an '85 with roughly 25,000 miles that were put on the bike in a fashion that I can only guess at since I only met one of the former owners.

Of course, I don't abuse the bike as I want it to stay together. However, I don't take a single ride where the bike doesn't see close to 10 grand through at least the first three gears. I didn't buy the bike to putt around on, I bought it to enjoy Warp Factor 5.

If I break it, chances are I will move on to either another Max or another bike. I also have the RZ 350 and that bike is much harder to break, as it has much less moving parts in the engine. Of course, you can seize it, but I am very conservative with the pre-mix (mine is converted from injection, PITA but it came that way).

I admit that I was at the dealer the other day getting an oil filter and they had a brand new Max sitting there. I was so tempted to work a deal on it. That would require I sell both of my current bikes though, and I do like them. Still, a new bike would be nice...

Mike

Yes it is not as fun as it used be working on the VMAX. Its a PITA (pain in the ass) to work on compared to an inline 4. The VMAX is like a woman if you love them you will put up with all the BS that goes along with it. Every year I talk about selling mine and buying a bike that can withstand the abuse of my riding personality. But every year I am basically pulling a motor and looking around on ebay and the salvage yards to get a new engine. Each time I do the job it seems it takes more beer.:cheers:
I love my VMAX so I deal with all the spun rod bearings and laugh when a BUSA passes me at 180 mph. What other bike gets the looks and ahhhs when you pull into a bike meet rumbling with a Kerker 4-1 with chrome shining. Leaving in a cloud of white smoke as a ferousious raor comes from the exhaust Keep your ultra light plastic tupperware 180 HP pocket rockets I will keep spinning wrenchs on my Ol Max till I run out of money or lose my sanity :eusa_dance:

 

[eat crow]

hey one2dmax just curius,do you think the maxs engine is getting enough oil during wot ,maybe the red light dont lie?????

 

[wlodek1980]

got one with a snapped crank will post pics one day )

 

[one2dmax]

Our HD oiling system helps a bunch. Biggest thing is to make sure the engine is warmed up first!