Engine failure on I-85 S. Help on possible diagnosis?

[Will]

Okay, I am getting better at writing these posts. LOL, seems like every other week right? So to get on with my story.

05 Kawasaki Ninja EX 250

I am travelling down 85 and I am in 6th gear, going about 80. I am trying to increase speed to 90, RPM's are sitting around 10. When I try to increase speed, all of a sudden it seemed like my engine lost power. I down shifted, tried to increase speed (to no avail) and then proceeded to shift back to 6th gear and increase speed ( to no avail). My engine is steadily losing power, even though I am giving it some throttle. It is also making a weird noise toward the front end of the bike. I am a little confused at this point b/c of the loss of power, so I am not sure how accurate my description of the noise is, but it sounded like when kids stick those playing cards on their tires and ride around, that tic tic tic sound.

I pull over to the side and try to start up my bike again. It seems like the starter is kicking in, but the engine is not turning over or starting.

I wait about 10 minutes and do it again. Nothing. Starter tries to crank engine, but engine does not turn.

Any thoughts?

A couple of things to mention : Earlier that week, I was running with my check oil light on, and I didn't check oil. I thought it was something else b/c I recently within the last 3 mos , changed my oil. It didn't cross my mind ( I know, rookie mistake.). OTC saw this problem and added some oil in my bike for me when I got my tires changed.

I also noticed earlier in the day that at 6th gear when I was trying to rev it past 50mph / 7 RPM that it seemed like my engine wasn't getting any power for a couple of seconds. Then at the end, my bike would pick up speed.

That's the misc details.

One more thing. When I brought the bike home, I did get the engine to turn over and it started running, but I killed it quick b/c I didn't want to cause increased damage if something was wrong with the oil levels etc.

Thanks for your help in advance. The first thing I am going to do tommorrow, is actually drain my oil to see if it isn't dry ( although I park it in a garage and don't notice any leaks), followed by actually changing my oil. Then after that, I have no clue.

[wbeck257]

its done for.

to me, sounds like you were pushing it pretty hard. and if you rode like that when you didn't have any oil in the bike you just had a ticking time bomb for an engine.

[Will]

Yeah, hopefully when I drain it tommorrow the black gold will come pouring out that way I know I didn't engine seize the damn thing.

[John]

Running at 10,000rpm's with low oil is really not good. Never ignore a check oil light. The heat we have been having will cause many bikes and cars to use more oil than normal. Running that fast with a 250 will also accelerate oil breakdown

[BlueLghtning]

Okay some of you guys have never owned a 250 and don't know your bikes very well.

As any one knows, running with low oil isn't good for any bike, but he said Lorne helped him and he didn't have low oil this time. If his oil was low enough to spin a bearing back when it was low, he'd probably hear it starting to knock really bad. It could very well be engine damage though.

Now on to Ninja 250's. They do run about 10k at 80+ mph. They redline at 14k. They will run 80-90mph all day long and not complain one bit. Many guys have done long distance Iron Butt rides on these bikes. The motors are pretty bullet proof (if you keep oil in them) :D

Now, it is very possible he did engine damage with the low oil and it is a ticking time bomb. Definitely worth dropping the oil and seeing if you see metal bits in the oil. Its really hard to diagnose this over the net.


Will, did the bike start okay once you got home? It is very possible with the hot heat, you had vapor lock and basically the bike was starving for fuel. If your vent line coming from the tank is clogged or pinched, this can definitely happen.

[Over TWO Customs]

The 250 motors are pretty strong but I wouldnt say bullet proof. I have rode one straight out of gas before though and it did very much the same thing. When I first started riding nobody explained to me the reserve on the side of the tank. So like an idiot I ran out of gas, pushed the bike about forever to a gas station AND had someone come trailer to my house to find it was low on gas.

Either way Wills bike was almost a quart low on oil, which is a lot when your bike only holds 1.9L. Where did the oil go? thats anyones guess.

[wallypiper]

Hard to diagnose on the web gets my vote. A lot of things could make a card-in-the-spokes sound.

[GAtegs]

I am not a bike mechanic, but I do know a little about engines and blowing them up...based on my experience, if you have a low oil issue and something goes wrong as a result, you know it right away. It sounds to me like either a vacuum leak or lack of fuel.

[GAtegs]

Nevermind, I didn't see the part about the engine not swinging over.

[John]

I am not a bike mechanic, but I do know a little about engines and blowing them up...based on my experience, if you have a low oil issue and something goes wrong as a result, you know it right away. It sounds to me like either a vacuum leak or lack of fuel.

Sounds like a good topic for another thread

[GAtegs]

Sounds like a good topic for another thread

Nothing much there...I used to have a turbo Acura Integra and I blew the motor 3 times :-)

[Will]

Okay, recently took the fairings off the bike to look at possible "easy" fixes. I checked the fuel filter, checked to see if there were any hoses pinched, and checked spark plugs. One of the spark plugs were melted down, it was a champion spark plug, not sure if that matters, heard some spark plugs weren't very good for bikes. Changed spark plugs and put everything back together again.

Engine started to turn over, and it seemed like it was going well. We adjusted a little bit of the idle to let it sit at 1.5 RPM's but now it seems that it doesnt have power on the top end and it is blowing smoke and overheating. It's also hard to get going. So to run it down, from first gear as I increase the throttle, it slowly increases the speed, it becomes faster if I press the clutch in a little, right around the friction zone area. It doesn't go past 50 in any of the gears up to 3, and 4-6 gear doesn't seem to do anything at all.

Possible help or reasons? When we changed the sparkplugs did we forget to readjust anything that wasn't covered in the book? Thanks again for your help.

[TWI]

I've got a Ninja 250 motor I'll sell you . . .

[Will]

Not sure if an engine swap with my limited experience will be feasible. I have to ask though, how much does a 250 motor go for? And does the year of the bike matter in relation to the motor, or model? Like R and F models, etc.

[NiceGuysFinishLast]

What kind of smoke? Black smoke, carbon? Blue smoke, oil? White/sweet smoke, antifreeze?

[BlueLghtning]

If you melted a plug, you had some serious heat there in the head. There's probably other things wrong.

All 250 motors were the same from 87-07, and they are one of the easiest motors to drop out and swap. I helped someone fix a tranny on one and I was amazed at how easy it was to put that motor back in.