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Cooked Engine


phil0925
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Hi All, would appreciate some help. Sold my Gas Gas TXT Pro 03 250 last friday. Saturday the guy phones me and say the engine is dead. He sent me some pics of the cylinder head which has what looks like a melted hole in it, another pic of the piston which seems to have a piece of metal stuck to it and another pic of the cylinder inside which has a big gouge in it (I think from the metal that is stuck on the piston). The plastic water pump impeller thread is stripped.

The old pump impeller had been replace a year before as the thread in that had stripped and coolant had entered the gearbox. The gearbox was flushed and refilled and the head was removed and the gasket seals replaced (decoaked and polished at the same time and found to be in good condition without any marks etc the head flatness was checked and found to be good).The water pump was replaced with a full pre assembled new unit which was replaced with care and attention paid to the drive pin alignment. The bike has had very little use over the last 1.5 years hence the reason for selling. Since the replacement pump repair no coolant has been lost from the system. The bike has been used only once on the local trials piste about 2 hours continuous running and several short run times in Total 5 hours running time without a single problem. The cooling fan switched on and off OK and the engine ran well without any signs of overheating etc.

I asked the buyer if he was running fast at the time of the fault (I was refering to the engine speed), missunderstanding my question he replied no as he had only been using second gear. He said he had covered approx 8 kms and had only been running for 30 minutes.......

16 kms /hour for 30 min in second gear ? Does anyone know if extreme overheating can cause the water pump impeller to fail? eg the crank shaft expanding with the excessive heat reducing the pump clearances etc? Are the faults above inline with excessive sustained RPM?

Thanks in advance....

Edited by phil0925
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caveat emptor... even if it was a pile of cack its his bike now.. if it was better than new would he becoming and giving you an extra 500 quid.. no. so say sorry you took it away and it was ok.. what has happened since is his issue and has nothing to do with you.. if he sued you they d laugh him out of court.

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caveat emptor... even if it was a pile of cack its his bike now.. if it was better than new would he becoming and giving you an extra 500 quid.. no. so say sorry you took it away and it was ok.. what has happened since is his issue and has nothing to do with you.. if he sued you they d laugh him out of court.

If it was a private sale, its no longer your problem (as stated above)

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I think older bikes are prone to overheating and seizing from having a slow fan. I have an 07 Pro and 1995 Fantic and they both run hot. The fans run at about half speed and I can't hear it above the engine sound. A brand new GG has a very audible and fast fan.

Your buyer was probably trail riding and didn't notice it boiling over and it seized.

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I live in France and it seems that the law holds the seller responsible in that a buyer can return it within one week eg no sale! In this case he has disassembled the engine and is asking me to pay for 50% of the costs saying its a vise caché (hiden know fault!) . This was a genuine bike well maintained and loved. I just didnt have the time to ride. I know it was good! OK its possible that the pump did cause the problem and the impeller has been found broken on 2 occasions now, once with me up the mountains after a 2 hour run and doing a lot of steep work but I think the fault initial problem was the inner pump seal that leaked. In this case its a new pump and while the bike has been stored the engine was often turned over to ensure the seals didn't stick.

P.S Really appreciate your help thanks all.

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Sorry to hear about your problem - I would do some detail checking on the law. Any chance you can post the photographs?

Do you know why the original impeller stripped? Higher temperatures would soften plastic

I suspect your bike may have had a minor (but significant) underlying fault that came to light under rather extreme riding. For example sometimes coolant hoses can swell with age causing flow restricting kinks where they bend, problems only arise on long steep hill climbs.

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I have to agree with Dadof2 , it is not that common for the impeller to strip out and to have it happen twice to the same bike suggests there is a problem that's causing it to happen.

But when you buy a used bike, you take a gamble, I don't think you should be liable for any repairs. (not in this country anyway)

TLTEL

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At our trial yesterday an older chap managed two sections before his bike broke, something to do with the cylinder head. He only just bought the bike that week from someone local or relatively local. Now I don't know if the old fella has been back to the seller, but I personally think it's pretty bad form that a new owners bike "blows" up first time out and the previous owner just shruggs his shoulders and say tough titties, which is pretty much what most in this topic are suggesting.

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Thedbf if the bike has been abused then it is his fault, and if the bike was overheating and the rider just continued to ride, then it is still his fault.

You can't get the bike to the described condition without noticing unless it was dropped and it had a runaway engine and even then it's still the rider at fault.

Sorry if this seems harsh but can't see how the bike has been running fine and finished as scrap without any sign of a fault that would tell the rider to stop!

Edited by jfc
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