So this happened yesterday....

Yes, that is a connecting rod.
Yes, it the oil got hot on the headers and caused a bit of a fire.
Nope, I didn't crash and keep it up even with the rear tire soaked in oil.
Yes, it did bring out a red flag due to the amount of oil that dumped on the track.

So, after about 11k+ miles (all but 600mi on the track) living on the track at and above 8k RPM all the time, the motor let go in a big way. I was at Pacific Raceway in Kent, WA (outside Seattle, formerly known as SIR - Seattle International Raceway) with 2-Fast Trackdays (as an instructor) during the last Super Pole session (think timed event for the fast guys of the day) coming out of turn 2 in 2nd gear, on the gas hard, heading down hill, shifting to 3rd it went bang! Quickly grabbed a handful of clutch to sort out what was happening. Looked behind me to see a James Bond sized smoke trail and knew I had problems. Got off the racing line as best I could and took the escape/run off road going into turn 3. Was very fortunate to keep it up right for sure as this all happens at about 115-125+mph on a curving down hill section of track.

Needless to say that ended the session for everyone. No one was behind me when it happen but a few other riders came through within 10-20 seconds and said there was so much smoke they couldn't see very well where the track was and were concerned there were going to hit a down bike or rider. The smoke was oil mist filled and they had it all over their visors as well.

Oddly enough, it didn't catch fire until about 5 minutes after I had already stopped, the red flag had come out, the track crew were on track assessing the oiled track situation. The fire truck made a bee line to it when it started, from about 1/8th mile up track and got it put out before it burned to the ground because it was on its way to doing so.

Well, there you have it, scratch one 2016 BMW S1000RR that still has never been crashed.

For sale: Slightly used, adult ridden, never raced, never wheelied, only ridden on weekends, never ridden in the rain, never crashed, low miles for year, 2016 BMW S1000RR

 

Bruh




Someone must have video of that crop duster

 

if your connecting rods don't have bolts holding them together, what do you expect? Glad to hear you're ok though. I'm sure it was probably scarier in retrospect than in the moment if you didn't realize what was happening.

 

Impressive! I haven’t seen an entire rod make it out of the cases since the 95 Zx6Rs… seen them cut starters and chop cases and all sorts of things, but the entire rod is cool!

plus you have a really cool paperweight now…

there has to be plenty of used engines out there…. Maybe you could do it again

 

3.50$

Final offer

 

That'll buff out.

 

Don't fall for this fake offer. My offer is Tree Fiddy.

 

Good reason to get the latest and greatest Beamer.

 

impressive

 

Over ten thousand track miles…taking chances. Long overdue for a complete inspect and rebuild. They don’t/won’t last forever…as you now know.

 

Liar. I’ve cash in hand.

 

That’s a piston ring butting up and seizing the piston in the bore issue. The rod then rips the piston pin out of the piston and starts beating itself up and rips off the crank.

that cylinder went lean. Either a dirty injector or fuel you were running.

 

Stock motor ?

 

That's what I was thinking lot of track miles.

 

Damn...

 

Data point, a beemer will last ~11k track miles without a rebuild. That doesn’t seem terrible.

 

Yep

I dont doubt for a minute that I have abused this motor for more than 30-50% of its life. While I use it to instruct at track days, over half the day is me playing and riding hard. So 1/3rd to half the miles are hard miles. It was bound to happen.

Now the decision part comes, do I rebuild with donor motor or part it out and get new bike?

 

Depends on your financials, I would get a new one.