This happened about a month ago, and I'm just now getting to post it as my work schedule is REALLY whacky at the moment. I wanted to see if anybody else has had this problem and I would like to hear some thoughts as well.
I was going to work on a monday morning at about 4:20 am when all of a sudden I lost power and the motor went into a higher rev than normal. I was able to limp it to a gas station and leave it and get to work on time. I retrieved the bike later that day with the help of a friend of mine, and the harley dealership came and got it the next day as the bike is still under extended warranty. The next day, the service mgr calls and tells me that for some reason one of the exhaust valves on my rear cylinder stayed out and the piston came up and whacked it, thus bending the valve stem into a nice "S" shape.
So, everything gets covered by the warranty and they order the parts. In the meantime, I visit my baby several times and the tech is nice enough to give me a tour of my motor that is now sitting open on a bench. He tells me everything that is going on with it and what he's gonna do. They are replacing everything that is damaged and even some things that aren't or don't nesissarily need it. The valve (of course) the piston, the cylinder ring, the valve guide, pretty much everything. At one point the tech and I have this long conversation about why this might have happened and he suggested that the PCIII was running a bit lean (thus running hotter) and I should richen it up a bit. I decided to take it out of the bike and bring it home and remap it and see what happens. (As an aside, I had the bike in the same shop 1500 miles ago to take care of a "oil weepage" problem on the rear cylinder as well. It wasn't a leak, it didn't leave any oil on the ground, it was just on the outside of the cylinder. I had the same problem on the front cylinder a couple of years ago and it got fixed on my 10k service. I figured since it was still under warranty, why not get it taken care of now?). It was suggested to me by another member that I might have been sucking in air through that leak, thus making the rear cylinder hotter and causing this problem. The tech said that COULDN'T have happened as that would have caused a WHOLE lot more damage than just a stuck valve. It would have warped the head and the head was fine. He showed me a warped head from a Sportster and mine was pristine compared to that one! I don't believe that this valve problem was the tech's fault. That has been suggested to, by the way. When the tech worked on the bike to fix that oil weepage problem, he didn't mess with the valves at all. He had to take the valve covers off and then pulled the whole head (valves and all) off as the weepage was coming from the lower head gasket area.
Well the parts come in, and they go to see if the valve stem fits into the valve guide and the stem is TO BIG! The stealer doesn't have the tools to bore it out so they send it to a local machine shop. That shop tells them they can't do the job and the only way they feel comfortable doing it is for the machinist to make his own valve guide and install it. The harley shop mgr says no because it would cost $300 for that and they aren't really getting paid for this job in the first place. They call me and tell me all of this and tell me that they called the techs @ Harley itself and THEY didn't have a clue as to why this happened in the first place and what to do about the valve guide. They ultimately decided it was better to just order a new head for the cylinder (YAY!
)
So yesterday evening I get a call that the bike is ready to be picked up and I can get it anytime. The only problem is that I STILL have the PCIII at my house and they put my Reinharts back on. My question is this: Can the V-Rod run without the PCIII and aftermarket pipes on? Here's my setup: 2004 V-Rod with Reinharts 2 into 2's w/ stealth baffles, K&N air filter, PCIII. I was currently running one of the maps off of the Power Commander website that matched my profile. I have not gotten this bike Dyno'd yet.
Well, what do you think? I apologize for the LOOONG post, but I wanted to try and give you guys the whole story. Please let me know your thoughts on this. Can I ride the bike safely without the PCIII in?
Thanks in advance!
Brian "TANK" Panzer
I was going to work on a monday morning at about 4:20 am when all of a sudden I lost power and the motor went into a higher rev than normal. I was able to limp it to a gas station and leave it and get to work on time. I retrieved the bike later that day with the help of a friend of mine, and the harley dealership came and got it the next day as the bike is still under extended warranty. The next day, the service mgr calls and tells me that for some reason one of the exhaust valves on my rear cylinder stayed out and the piston came up and whacked it, thus bending the valve stem into a nice "S" shape.
So, everything gets covered by the warranty and they order the parts. In the meantime, I visit my baby several times and the tech is nice enough to give me a tour of my motor that is now sitting open on a bench. He tells me everything that is going on with it and what he's gonna do. They are replacing everything that is damaged and even some things that aren't or don't nesissarily need it. The valve (of course) the piston, the cylinder ring, the valve guide, pretty much everything. At one point the tech and I have this long conversation about why this might have happened and he suggested that the PCIII was running a bit lean (thus running hotter) and I should richen it up a bit. I decided to take it out of the bike and bring it home and remap it and see what happens. (As an aside, I had the bike in the same shop 1500 miles ago to take care of a "oil weepage" problem on the rear cylinder as well. It wasn't a leak, it didn't leave any oil on the ground, it was just on the outside of the cylinder. I had the same problem on the front cylinder a couple of years ago and it got fixed on my 10k service. I figured since it was still under warranty, why not get it taken care of now?). It was suggested to me by another member that I might have been sucking in air through that leak, thus making the rear cylinder hotter and causing this problem. The tech said that COULDN'T have happened as that would have caused a WHOLE lot more damage than just a stuck valve. It would have warped the head and the head was fine. He showed me a warped head from a Sportster and mine was pristine compared to that one! I don't believe that this valve problem was the tech's fault. That has been suggested to, by the way. When the tech worked on the bike to fix that oil weepage problem, he didn't mess with the valves at all. He had to take the valve covers off and then pulled the whole head (valves and all) off as the weepage was coming from the lower head gasket area.
Well the parts come in, and they go to see if the valve stem fits into the valve guide and the stem is TO BIG! The stealer doesn't have the tools to bore it out so they send it to a local machine shop. That shop tells them they can't do the job and the only way they feel comfortable doing it is for the machinist to make his own valve guide and install it. The harley shop mgr says no because it would cost $300 for that and they aren't really getting paid for this job in the first place. They call me and tell me all of this and tell me that they called the techs @ Harley itself and THEY didn't have a clue as to why this happened in the first place and what to do about the valve guide. They ultimately decided it was better to just order a new head for the cylinder (YAY!
)So yesterday evening I get a call that the bike is ready to be picked up and I can get it anytime. The only problem is that I STILL have the PCIII at my house and they put my Reinharts back on. My question is this: Can the V-Rod run without the PCIII and aftermarket pipes on? Here's my setup: 2004 V-Rod with Reinharts 2 into 2's w/ stealth baffles, K&N air filter, PCIII. I was currently running one of the maps off of the Power Commander website that matched my profile. I have not gotten this bike Dyno'd yet.
Well, what do you think? I apologize for the LOOONG post, but I wanted to try and give you guys the whole story. Please let me know your thoughts on this. Can I ride the bike safely without the PCIII in?
Thanks in advance!
Brian "TANK" Panzer
