Long, sad story about my V Max

[Ruler_of_The_World]

In july of 2016 i bought my V Max from 1997, full power version (not that obvious in Europe).

In first two weeks I've made:
- changed front tire
- regeneration of front fork
- changed front brake hoses
- changed rear brake disk and brake pads
- changed rusted bolts
- throttle lines
- made a lot of cleaning, washing etc...

Then I decide to go to work on my Yamaha. Everything was ok. After work I
started my way back home. This day I'd made 29 miles. After that sh..... happens:
















Theoretically engine was unreperable

I tried to find used engine. It was a big problem, because they were to
expensive, or in unknown condition. That's why I decided to buy engine from
Venture 1200.




It was veeeeeery cheap. Seller didn't needed it any more and had sold me it
for... ~80$.

I'd started to made my own engine I were used:
- Venture's 1200 engine block with balancer shaft
- Venture's 1200 crankshaft
- piston rods (same as in V Max)
- V Max's cylinder heads (after profesional refubrishment)
- Two pistons from my old V Max engine
- Two pistons from diffrent two V Max engines
- New camshaft chains
- V Max's gearbox
- Modyfied V Max's clutch
- V Max's flywheel and sensor

Most aluminium parts were glassbeaded, cleaned, chcecked, measured etc.







Everything was made "like book said".

I'd rebuild carbs.

Before:



After:






Engine was painted










Another little mod




More mods







May of 2017




Few days later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhCk6JuPZsI

I've made 4000 miles from engine reassembly. Everything was ok, exept... psycho owner




Now it looks like that. More mods to come. Another wheels, COP (already

mounted), diffrent painting.....

I would like to thank everyone that creates this forum. I took a lot of knowledge from it. I was only quiet reader, but now I would like to share my experience. Thanks again

To be continued...

 

[Fire-medic]

Didn't look it up, is Lodz, Poland?

Tough luck on the engine, I've had my share of issues. So is the engine doing OK now? Too-bad it's not a 1300 cc Venture. "No replacement for displacement."

So, lots being done, hopefully it's gonna be trouble-free. Ride it for awhile, put the mods on-hold while you enjoy it.

OK, I checked, 'yes' to Question #1

 

[mzbk2l]

Great work! Are there many vmaxes over there?

 

[sdt354]

What led up to the grenading of this engine? Were you over revving it? Was there knocking before the kaboom? The orange o-ring. Was it bulging?

 

[Ruler_of_The_World]

Great work! Are there many vmaxes over there?

Thanks. Not many V Max. It's hard to find one on street. But everyone know what is it. Legendary V Max

What led up to the grenading of this engine? Were you over revving it? Was there knocking before the kaboom? The orange o-ring. Was it bulging?

O-ring was a reason. There wasn't any warning. Just piston teardown, rest is known. Now I've got extra oil pipe holder and bigger o-ring. Oil pressure sensor also helps prevent of another engine teardown.

 

[jdeitz1979]

That’s a nice bike, and glad to see you were able to save it!! I’m sure you will find something every year to do to the bike until you get it just the way you like it. Post some pictures of when you have it back together again.


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[MaxMidnight]

O-ring was a reason. There wasn't any warning. Just piston teardown, rest is known.

Can you give more detail why you say it was the O ring as I assume you found it was displaced?
Can I assume that the oil was in good condition and at the correct level and that the oil pump was working?

I would have thought that if the displaced O ring reduced the oil pressure then this would cause overheating of the bearing journals and/ or cylinder bores which would eventually seize.
Did you see any evidence of this?

 

[93max]

Where is this o ring? Any pics of it's location?

 

[RempageR1]

Where is this o ring? Any pics of it's location?

Just search and you`ll find a ton of posts.

Also, it`s the small orange piece you see on the left side of the opening post photo just below 'More mods'.

 

[Ruler_of_The_World]

Can you give more detail why you say it was the O ring as I assume you found it was displaced?
Can I assume that the oil was in good condition and at the correct level and that the oil pump was working?

I would have thought that if the displaced O ring reduced the oil pressure then this would cause overheating of the bearing journals and/ or cylinder bores which would eventually seize.
Did you see any evidence of this?

Yes, after oil pan disassembly i saw this "magical" o-ring. It was a cause.

 

[DMAN999]

Great Job bringing it back to life after that Massive Engine Failure.

 

[Bill Seward]

The pictures seem to show bent valves... If you had a piston smack a valve, you would have had catastrophic failure. I assume the cam chains didn't break, but if you had piston/valve interference, I'd look at maybe one chain jumping time. That piston shattered, it likely hit something.

 

[Ruler_of_The_World]

Two pistons were broke into halfs. Flat pieces of pistons left in upper position, rest of pistons went down and up again up and smashed into rest of pistons and cylinder head. That's why valves were bend. I've send cylinder heads to regeneration, they changed bended valves for new ones (OEM). Everything with timing chains were ok, but I'd changed them to new ones (DID chains).

 

[Bill Seward]

You're really lucky that engine didn't seize up and send you sliding down the road. Excellent job on the rebuild! I like the paint on the motor. It looks like something we used to call "crinkle paint".

 

[caseyjones955]

It's pretty infrequent that we read about catastrophic engine failure with these V4s. In any event shes looking good, congrats on getting her back together.

 

[MaxMidnight]

Where is this o ring? Any pics of it's location?

Sound like another Maxxer that is about to get a bad case of O ring paranoia!

Regardless of the state of your O ring given that your bike is some 25 years old it is unlikely to cause issues now provided it receives to love and attention it deserves.
Just don't rev the nuts off it until the oil is hot.

Yes, after oil pan disassembly i saw this "magical" o-ring. It was a cause.

There are loads of bikes out there that have or have had the O ring displaced and as a previous poster has said very few engine failures happen.
Can you confirm that the journals and/ or the bores show signs of overheating or siesure?

 

[Ruler_of_The_World]

https://youtu.be/BAS35yfbbkw
Still on stock wheels, but I'm working on it.

 

[jdeitz1979]

https://youtu.be/BAS35yfbbkw

Still on stock wheels, but I'm working on it.

That’s a nice bike. Sounds great, looks great too
Is your vboost on all the way and unplugged?


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[1FK00]

Sound like another Maxxer that is about to get a bad case of O ring paranoia!

Regardless of the state of your O ring given that your bike is some 25 years old it is unlikely to cause issues now provided it receives to love and attention it deserves.
Just don't rev the nuts off it until the oil is hot.



There are loads of bikes out there that have or have had the O ring displaced and as a previous poster has said very few engine failures happen.
Can you confirm that the journals and/ or the bores show signs of overheating or siesure?

O-ring didn't do that. Either a broken cam chain or huge and repeated over rev.