2006 2007 r6 engine reliability question

yamaha is one of the best out there when it comes to warranty work, and paying for labor and parts. 90% of the time, we just call them up, and explaing what we found, and they send us the parts and give us time to fix/replace parts.

and you are right cali...you learn something new everyday. my older cbr had a pressure switch. i have never had any problems with the switches come into our shop, and never really thought about it being only a level switch.

as far as just blaming engine builders, that is not what i am trying to do. i do own an r6, a 2005. i bought it off our shop after it was repo-ed, and it had a bearing that was about to spin, actually, the bearing had extreme wear, and also a wierd wear pattern. all i am saying is that after we fixed the issue, we just put stock parts back in it, followed the specs in the book, and now its got 18k on it and still runs really strong. there are many factors im sure, that will equate to a blown engine, but i know that mine is warmed up, EVERY time i ride. and even when at the track, i warm it up in the morning for atleast 15 minutes. then turn it back off and then on again before the first session. ive not had a single problem with it, at all. maybe we just got really lucky, and found the elusive clearances, or whatever seems to be ailing these things.
(yes, i know that the 05 is different from the 06/07, but it had a very similar issue, if not exactly the same.)

agreed that plastigauge isnt the best, but it works. used in four spots on each journal, and it gives you good readings. unfortunately, that is the only way we have right now to measure the clearances. the shop owner is a cheap ass!! and i dont get paid nearly enough to buy anything expensive like a rod machine.

 

Plastic guage works fairly well to measure oil clearance but it will NOT tell you how round the big end of the rod is.
Large diameter truck crank journals can tolerate .001 out of round and run for years.
Small diameter super high rev cycle engine journals can not tolerate much out of round before they lose the hydrodynamic oil wedge that the bearing surfs on.
As to who owns the high dollar machine that my rods get measured on, it belongs to the machine shop that does my milling work.
Unless you live in a small town on Mars, you can find a skilled guy that needs a few of your dollars to change the set up on his Sunnen in order to check your rods for out of round.
Measuring shell thickness is as easy as slipping a 1/4in section of vac hose over one of your mic jaws with a hard steel ball bearing stuffed in it to use on the inside of the shell.
You can buy a special mic to measure shell thickness, but vac hose and ball rollers are cheap.
Mine has a .2 ball so I just read the mic with that in mind.

 

haha, dude, i live in rome ga. i work in cartersville. both are little podunk villiage towns that house the carpet factory and mill workers, and thats about it. i seriously doubt anyone around here even know what a sunnen machine is? or anything like it.

hmmm, you may be on to something, what if the journals arent round?

 

get a small surface plate, a mag base and a good dial indicator for measuring shell thickness. a bore gage for measuring big bore ends accurately.

 

Sorry sideways skinny i didn't mean to sound harsh but I have built 15 or so 03-05 motors with real good power and unbelievable reliability then I build a few 06 07's and they spin rod bearings very easily so I know what fabb600 is dealing with and i feel his pain I just believe for the majority it is a 06 07 problem not 05 except in the very rare case. No apparent rhyme or reason yet they just do and seem to get more frequent as you try to find the problem. Besides most riders don't seem to understand the warm up process and how important it is as you do. Turn it on hit the starter and do a burnout.:down: Do some research in your area to see if anyone has a ongoing issue and give us a hand to figure it out. Otherwise good work on your motor and carry on.

 

Same motor or was it 2 seperate ones? Did either get new cases and also how many street or race miles on it after the rebuilds?

 

shit!!! just saw this thread. a guy is dropping off a 2007 r6 in my driveway in about 20 minutes!!!!!

is the yamaha factory warranty transferrable?

 

Did you think I was lying?

 

no, just making sure it's covered under warranty.

 

What most people don't consider is the 1000's of people who race R6's and don't have a problem, because people don't post on message boards when everything goes right.

After approximately 50 06-07 R6 builds, we have had only one mystery rod bearing failure and it was an SBK motor.

As far as I am concerned there is not an inherent problem with the R6 motors, they are fairly bulletproof.

I would run one.

Remember guys, these are street motors that you are using in a race environments......unless you do religious maintenance, you will eventually have failures.

 

and that's the type of post that i was waiting for, but was strangely absent in all this thread.

still, though....you're saying 2% on your bikes have had that problem. what would you say is rod failure percentage on other makes? honestly..

 

I have "raced" 2 Honda's and 2 Suzuki's that I have never had any kind of issue even close to this. I'm not saying that Yamaha has a bad motor either,I currently have an 06 and an 07 R6. But I know I have had the same issue now on the same motor w/ in a 2 month time frame.

I would think if any other models had an issue like this there would be a thread about them as well. I'm not trying to make this issue any bigger than it is but, if there is a thread like this one or any of the other threads I have seen for the same issue then I would think there is a reason for it.

 

One in 50 under completely uncontroled conditions, operated by completely different people is good for any brand of bike.


Like I said before....street bike motors in a race enviorment....some times shit happens.

 

This is true, but there are 1000's more GSXR's being raced, and we're not seeing threads all over the Interwebs about them blowing cranks on 3,000 mile street motors after one track day, etc.

Eventually, the anecdotal evidence adds up sufficiently to become actual information/evidence of a trend. I mean, I only personally know 3 people with 06-07 R6's. Dan Carr has an 07, and an 06. Both bikes are at Cooper Perf. as we speak with crank probs. My street riding friend Billy Mitchell has an 06 that he bought used with 2,000 miles on it, and at 5700 (or so) it was the recipient of a new bottom end (under warranty, no track riding involved). The third person is Carlston McCoy, and as far as I know, his is good.

EDIT: I forgot, Dan also has his last year's 06 endurance bike, and it went 9,000 trouble-free miles. So it's 2 of 4, not 3 of 4.

Is it just coincidence that of the (4) R6's owned by folks I know, 3 have crank/bearing/rod problems? Maybe. Add to that these threads (and others elsewhere) and eventually you see a trend.

I'm curious to know how many folks have seen these problems in 03-05 R6's v. 06-07 R6's.

 

with all due respect....one individual doesn't have a big enough sample size to statistacally determine there is a problem. the guy who had the bad r6 swears that every single one he's seen (one) is bad...so the failure rate is 100%.

you really have to look at the big picture and talk to folks (like kws) that see tons of bikes, in race conditions, of many makes. they are going to have failures....just is one brand statistically more significant than the other? that's the big question. and by statistically...i mean by a factor of 3 or 4 times as frequent.

 

well, let me ask you this, chip. many bikes have their own little quirk/problems.

do you feel there is a gixxer frame weld problem?
or a 06/07 r6 tank fire problem?

 

My uncle had a ford truck that lasted for 250,000 miles and he never changed the oil....because he never changed his oil, I have detirmened that I don't need to change the oil in any of my vehicles and they will last at least 250,000 miles.

 

again, sample size.

seriously....do you feel there is a problem on the gixxer frames and r6 tanks?

(problem defined as, they have a significantly higher failure rate)

 

I think the GSX-R frames break if you crash them hard enough. I think every manfs frames will crack if you crash them hard enough.

I think if you crash and R6 and the tank hits the ground, you have a good chance of the tank spliting and it catching fire.

I think if you race a GSX-R you have a good chance of tearing up a shift drum and shift forks.

I think Ti valves wear out faster than stainless valves. So if you race a bike that has Ti valves for a year, chances are, you will have to replace them at the end of the season.

etc...

etc....

etc..

 

That was my point....

Edit: I don't consider crash damage as a defect or a design flaw. The bikes are not designed to be crashed.....sorry.