Off Season Project - Engine Rebuild S1000RR

[Turbo]

At the last St George meet of the year, last BEARS race of the weekend, I left the pits to grid up, when mid-lap my motor started making a funny noise.
I set up on the grid and had a look around for the noise. Assuming I'd caught something in the chain that eventually dis-lodged, I forgot about it and started the race.
Unfortunately the noise came back and somewhere around the middle of T1, on the outside, I lost drive and my rear eventually locked up, flicking me off.
Upon investigation, I found my right boot was covered in oil and metal filings. These metal filings turned out to be a bit of a 'new feature' of my motor



Further investigation uncovered a crack in the clutch casing..



Further investigation still and I think I may have found what was causing the weird metal-on-metal noise!
It looks like one of my clutch springs has let go and the pressure plate bolt has backed itself out and then sheared off.



I drained the oil to see how much of it got elsewhere... here's the magnetic sump plug doing it's best to help out.



Then pulled out the clutch basket to see how the crank was looking...
Pretty much the thing I least wanted to see, looks like the metal filings from the clutch spring have gotten into the conrod journals then fused to and spun the bearing...



Seems like the best thing to do now is to pull the motor right down, clean all the metal filings out, and fix whatever other damage might be lurking, before it does anymore harm!

[Nelso]

Ouch! There's a lesson learnt there; as soon as you hear or feel something strange/different, pull in. Definitely going to require a full tear down and inspection. Hopefully you haven't scored the crank. You're going to need to replace all your bearings, seals and clutch fibres, those metal filings get in everywhere. At least you now have an excuse to put some high comp pistons in, balance everything, get some head work done etc.

[Turbo]

Hahaha, thanks Rob. I think the fact that the noise went away when I stopped, caught my better judgment out!
So yeah you're right... operation pull down!

I pulled off the stator cover from the other side, to see if any of the filings had made their way through...
The flywheel is magnetised and a stack of metal filings had gotten through and got stuck to the flywheel. They built up, grinding away between the flywheel and stator.



I've seen enough! Time to drop the motor. First step was draining the coolant, then the full exhaust off, followed by the tank, air box and ECU out...



The upper and lower injectors all came out fine, then it was just a case of unplugging anything that was plugged into the motor.



We gradually cranked up the front and back of the chassis, so it was high enough to sit on the fully extended peg stands and a milk crate.





A few final checks to check everything was clear and we could lift the chassis clean off.



Next step was onto the engine stand then flipped to start heading in!



Oil pan off and wow, what a mess, metal filings everywhere!!



Oh dear, just look at the discolouration of the conrod caps and the crank! It must have been experiencing some pretty high heat!



Oil pump out, water pump out, time to split the cases!



FUCK!! This does not look good at all.... those conrods and that crank look a mess. Best get the caps off and see what's happened to the bearings...



Fuck....



Fuck...



Fuck...



DOUBLE FUCK!!

[Marshy]

Fuck!!


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[Ruckos87]

Jesus, that’s not pretty....


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[Mstevo]

now it's very expensive
new crank and rods :-(
almost cheaper to find a 2nd hand motor that's running and rebuild/freshen it up

[Leezx10r]

Bit of polish and t-cut and all will be well


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[Turbo]

now it's very expensive
new crank and rods :-(
almost cheaper to find a 2nd hand motor that's running and rebuild/freshen it up

Yep, not what I wanted to see at all! Also yeah, not far off another motor Mark!
If I'm going to have to re-fresh an unknown anyway tho, might as well see what I can do with this one.

[Turbo]

Ok, so crankshaft out and she doesn't look pretty at all. Aside from all but one of the conrod journals being pitted and scored, there is some serious discolouration from what must have been the searing heat of metal on metal.
I could send it off to be machined but by then the journals would be way out of spec for the oem bearing options and it'd be hard to trust this crank after it's injuries.



Of the bearings I could get off, they really told the story.




The last thing to look at whilst I'm in the bottom end is the gearbox. I deff want to take everything out to investigate and clean the metal filings, but I'd also like to see if I can work out how I've still been getting the odd false neutral.
Even after changing up my shift detent spring, the problem was reduced, but it was still happening on occasion. (I'm sure I've been spotted running on at T1 by many of you!)
With the main gears out, I can get a good look at the dogs.



After pulling these out I can see some of the corners have begun to round off. Not as bad as some I've seen but it is more than likely the culprit for the occasional missed gear.



That's everything out of the big end, now to flip it up and get to work on the top.
First thing was the throttle bodies followed by the ignition coils and spark plus



valve cover off...



Cam housing, cams and timing chain all off..
Very happy to see that not a single piece of metal filing had made it's way up here. It will still need a thorough going over and clean to be safe, but at least there is no damage!




Last thing for now then is to pull the head off, get the pistons out and have a good look around at what I'm dealing with.
Bit of carbon build up, but nothing unusual from the top of the pistons...



Pistons out and the conrods are indeed all fried!!

[Mr.Ed]

Oh man... this thread doesn't do the Xmas spirit any good, does it? I've seen you bounce back from worse though... so I'm sure this bike will be better than it was by the time you're done with it!


PS: Maybe ask Santa for those Ti Conrods, you never know!

[zoidberg]

Bloody hell Owen... That's just not pretty. May aswell get a WSS1000 Beemer motor and shoehorn it in. It's basic Science.

[Turbo]

Oh man... this thread doesn't do the Xmas spirit any good, does it? I've seen you bounce back from worse though... so I'm sure this bike will be better than it was by the time you're done with it!
PS: Maybe ask Santa for those Ti Conrods, you never know!

Thanks Ed! The timing isn't so bad, being the end of the season. Deff putting the pressure on Santa tho!
There is something quite satisfying about going through each component too.
Not as fun as racing, but it's something to do!!

Bloody hell Owen... That's just not pretty. May aswell get a WSS1000 Beemer motor and shoehorn it in. It's basic Science.

Pretty sure if I just bolt my wheels and a seat to a V10, that'll sort her out...

[Turbo]

So, not much else to pull apart really. Down to and engine block and a table full of parts...




I've been cleaning all the engine parts as I go, making sure to get rid of any metal filings, dust and dirt from everywhere. This included flushing out all of the oil galleries and pump internals to make sure I didn't have a repeat of the same issue.
I figure it's also a good plan, while I'm in here, to clean up the piston heads and get rid of any carbon build up from the cylinder walls too.
I don't want anything too abrasive on the piston heads so the best method seems to be Scotch Brite, WD40, and elbow grease!





As we saw, the oem conrods were all fried so I took it as a great excuse to get fancy new H-Beam conrods and high performance ARP bolts.
The machining on these is astonishingly good. You can barely tell there is a split for the caps, to the point I thought there was an error!
They were also all within 0.2 of a gram of eachother.




Removing the old conrods was relatively simple, just release the two circlips either side of the wrist pins then press out the wrist pins from the pistons.
Fitting of the new ones was the same in reverse, taking care to put them the correct way around.




There aren't very many road or race K's on this motor so replacing the rings just wasn't needed. Once I'd cleaned oiled and gapped them correctly, then cleaned the cylinder walls, back in they go...

[Mr.Ed]

Work of art!

[Linden]

Not coating the pistons - teflon and ceramic coated pistons ???

[Turbo]

Not coating the pistons - teflon and ceramic coated pistons ???

Never considered it to be honest, Linden. Have you tried? Is it easy?

[Linden]

Yes did it on my 620 (couple of years ago) must pop the top and have a look (it has done over 70,000km road since it was done) and this was an air cooled engine - from memory was meant to make engine cooler (my air cooled show +150C at EC in summer) and also add a bit of compression (we were shaving heads etc)

As for easy ... yes sent them off (well Gowanlochs did) and then they came back minus some of my money :(

I guess the effectiveness is up to the person talking ... I can't say if it helped my engine as we did so much but it was a great little motor at the time

[Turbo]

Yes did it on my 620 (couple of years ago) must pop the top and have a look (it has done over 70,000km road since it was done) and this was an air cooled engine - from memory was meant to make engine cooler (my air cooled show +150C at EC in summer) and also add a bit of compression (we were shaving heads etc)

As for easy ... yes sent them off (well Gowanlochs did) and then they came back minus some of my money :(

I guess the effectiveness is up to the person talking ... I can't say if it helped my engine as we did so much but it was a great little motor at the time

Ok, interesting. I'd be interested to know how easy it'd be to do oneself and perhaps consider for next time.
This one is just a bit of a refresh, as it's running really well in all other respects.

[Turbo]

After flipping the motor upside down again, I set to work cleaning out the gearbox housing.



Big thanks to Stevem who was able to hook me up with a whole bunch of gearbox spares. I put together the best parts I had, with nice clean and square dogs that will make my gear changes much more solid!





The race engine service interval for an S1000RR, mentions checking and even replacing the shift star pretty regularly.
After looking into it a bit further, it seems BMW recognised it as a week point and subsequently, completely revised the part.
Mine didn't really need changing but with such a physical difference in the part, I thought it'd be a good idea to get the new model fitted up.




Here it is fitted, together with the heavyweight shift detent spring.



So, having decided not to work with the old crank shaft I was lucky enough to be able to track down one that was the exact same spec as mine, in excellent condition.
Rather than doing squish tests, BMW code their bearings and cranks with colours so you know which conrods and bearings go with which cranks.
That being said, as the tolerances are very fine, the only bearings that are really used with race bikes anyway, are the thinnest ones available.
This allows more oil flow and keeps them as cool as possible, without the risk of knock.

Happily my main bearings were all in really excellent condition so there was no need to replace them.
A new set of conrod bearings was certainly required tho!




Top of the pic is my old crank and bottom pic is the new one, before cleaning the packaging fluff off it. The red/green dots are the markers, although the heat in my old crank has discoloured all the red dots.



A thorough clean up of the new crank and a bit of an oil and I can seat it on the main bearings.

Before doing that tho, I had to split the new conrods and install their bearings. The trick to seating these is a dry back side and a bit of engine oil for lube, once it's seated.
Some people use assembly lube, but I only use that in the top end.



Finally time to seat the new crank. Again, plenty of engine oil all over for lube, taking care not to get it in the conrod bolt threads or sealing face of the crank case..





The final step for now is the critical pre-stretch and torque procedure for the conrod bolts. The oem conrod bolts are well know to be poor, and a recall was even done to a whole batch of 2012s.
Some of which had their bolts come loose and throw rods!!
ARP are well know to be the goods for racing hardware so it was an easy choice to install these; following the cleaning, pre-stretch, torque and loctite procedure, to the letter.

[Linden]

Ok, interesting. I'd be interested to know how easy it'd be to do oneself and perhaps consider for next time.
This one is just a bit of a refresh, as it's running really well in all other respects.

Bunch of YouTube vids for what they are worth

[Mstevo]

is that a chip on one of the teeth on the drive gear in your 2nd last picture??
the black arrow is almost pointing to it

[Turbo]

is that a chip on one of the teeth on the drive gear in your 2nd last picture??
the black arrow is almost pointing to it

Keen eyes! Looks like it, doesn't it? Not sure what the arrow denotes, but it's certainly not damage, both cranks have the same mark.
Nah, we paid quite a lot of attention to the crank before fitting it up. Inspected all the teeth and journals thoroughly.
Here's another couple of closeup shots, that pic earlier must just be the way the light was hitting a bit of oil or something.

[Mstevo]

well done ;-)

[Turbo]

The bottom end is looking good so it's time to build it back up. First to fit up the gears then clean up all the sealing surfaces before applying gasket maker and new o-rings.
It's really important to have the goo in the right spots and away from the wrong spots. After a bit of squish, you can easily block an oil channel which would not be good at all.



Next to offer up the crankcase..



Then torque it all down to spec...



The oil pump, pickup and thermostat installed



Then the oil pan can go back on, along with the new magnetic sump plug. Getting closer!!




Next flip it onto the side and fit up the oil pump drivetrain



Followed by the water pump timing chain with sprockets, and new clutch assembly!!



Definitely looking better in here!



Next it's on with the case covers and GB protection



Flip to the other side, in goes the starter clutch and on goes the case cover and crash protection. Bottom end done!!

[Leezx10r]

Such a great detailed write up turbo.
Amazing work


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[Ruckos87]

I must say looking much prettier now.
Great work mate


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[Turbo]

Cheers fellas, It's been pretty great fun to do!!

[Kris]

nice work mate!

[Turbo]

nice work mate!

Thanks mate, it's kept me busy!

Now that the bottom end is all back together, I can measure the piston protrusion from deck height.
If you've not seen this done before, this is a deck bridge that holds a dial gauge for measuring very precise amounts.
You then turn the motor over and measure each piston's protrusion above deck height, at the top of their respective stroke.
You then take the average and max/min to see which head gasket you need (how thin you can get away with!).



New vs old head gasket



Then the new gasket all fitted up



Looking like a brand new motor now!!




Next up it's time to re-fit the head



Followed by the cams and timing chain. Happily with the S1000RR, re-timing is very straight forward. With the cam chain tensioner out, there is plenty of slack to replace the cams with their sprockets still attached.
This means that you just need to set the crank and camshafts to their TDC position and it's good to go.



Next up go the cam bearing caps. I like to use plenty of assembly lube all around the bearings and followers before fitting this up.



Next, torque it all down in order, to spec.



The last thing to do before closing her up is to check and potentially adjust all my valve clearances. Here's a shot of the feeler gauge, checking for the clearance between the cam lobe and the follower.
The greyish black goo is the assembly lube. This helps the parts keep cool and lubricated at the early stages of the first start, after a rebuild, whilst the oil works it's way through the system.



As it turns out, mine were mostly ok but I did have to re-shim a couple to get the clearances within tolerance.



With my clearances all within spec, it was time to put the rocker cover back on.
I took the opportunity to install some smog block off plates here too.



Top end done!!

[Metal-Man]

are you doin all of this just by following directions from a pdf file online or something?
hat off to ya if you are, though. ;-)
I wouldn't have that patience, not to mention the money spent on buying specialty tools

[Turbo]

are you doin all of this just by following directions from a pdf file online or something?
hat off to ya if you are, though. ;-)
I wouldn't have that patience, not to mention the money spent on buying specialty tools

Hey Cam, I’ve done a bit of engine work on various things over the years. All the bike specific stuff comes from a combination of the BMW Repair and Service software and an online parts fiche, available for identifying oem part numbers. The software is about 8GB worth of info and specs, not unlike a Haynes manual.
It does take a lot of man hours for sure, but it’s very satisfying work!!

[Mstevo]

Meccano, Lego, motor rebuilding, it's all roughly the same ;-)

[Metal-Man]

Hey Cam, I’ve done a bit of engine work on various things over the years. All the bike specific stuff comes from a combination of the BMW Repair and Service software and an online parts fiche, available for identifying oem part numbers. The software is about 8GB worth of info and specs, not unlike a Haynes manual.
It does take a lot of man hours for sure, but it’s very satisfying work!!

I could have dismantled it for u :p

as well as lose a heap of nuts n bolts spanners, etc

Think of the weight saving ability tho haha

just don't blame me if u can't find anything u need ;-)

[Turbo]

Meccano, Lego, motor rebuilding, it's all roughly the same ;-)

Hahaha, it really is! Just a bunch of parts that need attaching to other parts.

I could have dismantled it for u :p

as well as lose a heap of nuts n bolts spanners, etc

Think of the weight saving ability tho haha

just don't blame me if u can't find anything u need ;-)

Thanks for the offer Cam, I think I'm fine It does really pay to be organised with this tho.
Was hard to resist the temptation just to undo everything and chuck it in a box. I did it all in stages and kept each part and it's bits, in sections.

[Turbo]

The next stage now that the motor is all back together is to get some oil in there.
I could have attempted cleaning my old oil cooler, but with so many metal filings in and around the motor, I don't want to take any chances given I can't see inside.
I happened to have a spare fitted up, so on it goes. Last step is a new oil filter too before filling her up with new oil.

\

It's a good start, outside is dry and inside no longer looks like Goldschlager!!



The next step before fitting it back into the bike is to prime the oil and pump. Whilst I did put assembly lube and plenty of motor oil all around the insides, the first few seconds of running after a rebuild can do a lot of damage, if there isn't oil where it needs to be right away.
The S1000RR has a handy 17mm nut at the end of the crank so you can run the system up to pressure with a drill as opposed to the starter motor or even the ignition sequence.
The best way is to keep the spark plugs removed and the cold out so there is as little load as possible happening inside.

Here is my handy oil primer tool. We cranked it over for a few seconds at a time, getting more and more oil picked up. Before long, we had full pressure in the system and everything was sounding pretty good.
It should be noted that we turn the motor over by hand before attempting this, just to check that everything was moving freely and not making any weird noises.



Ok, so that all went well, time to put some new plugs in..



Re-fit the coils..



Now it's ready to go back in the motor. I don't have an engine stand specific to the BMW, but there are some useful spots you can fit rather large bolts to.
This made it easy to support the motor in just the right spot with axel stands.
Then it was just a case of hoisting the rolling chassis up, sliding the motor underneath, and lowering it back down.




Then bolt the frame to the motor and we have a bike!!



Home stretch now, so time to connect up the exhaust, loom, sensors, lower injectors, thermostat and air box...



Followed by the front sprocket, chain, breathers, upper injectors and ECU...



Then the last of the fluids, re-attach the radiator then add demineralised water in the cooling system, then fit up the tank with some fuel!



Nothing else for it but the moment of truth.....

[Ruckos87]

Sooooooo good, great work mate. I’m glad you linked the pic of Goldschlager, saved me some Googling!!!


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[Metal-Man]

fuck yeaaa ...

u wanna do my engine? ;-)

I'll pay you with Goldschlager flakes per hour

[Linden]

Nothing else for it but the moment of truth.....

Terrifying is a better description ... when I built Frank it was will it work at all ... and then what is wrong ... No manual for him SS900 engine with M620 wiring with 620 ECU flashed to 904

[Leezx10r]

Such a great write up turbo, well done mate


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[Turbo]

Thanks fellas, it's been great fun to do.
Managed to get out for a quick test on the South Circuit this weekend.
She's tight as a drum and running better than ever!!