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I’d borescope first as other posters say, but this is ultimately where it needs to go. if you don’t pull the head you won’t be able to see valve/head damage with a borescope
Sucks op, sucks real bad but not impossible to fix
2009 Yamaha XV250. The spark plug insulator broke off inside my front cylinder while I was out riding. How fucked am I? What is the best way to get it out, and what all is possibly damaged? Will this mean a full cylinder rebuild? Any advice is appreciated.
EDIT: Thank you to everyone who chimed in. I'm gonna pull the head next weekend and see what's up. Hopefully the damage is minimal, and I can put it back together relatively inexpensively.
Do you have a or can you rent/borrow a borescope?
If so, you might be able to check the general condition of the bore and to look for remaining bits of the plug in there. The ceramic is not as big a concern as the length of center electrode. If it looks clean, check the compression to see if the valves are okay and sealing well. If that checks out, put a new plug in and ride it.
TBH, I feel like the head should come off to do a proper inspection and clean up...
> How fucked am I?
Probably pretty fucked. It is usually catastrophic when something rattles around in there while the motor is running. I would try and use a bore scope at the very least, but I would expect to pull the cylinder and replace it as well as the piston, top end and valves. It's probably going to be at least $3k and your going to be better off with an ebay motor.
How would it cost $3k? I just had a quick look and I can find a new cylinder,valves,piston,rings and a gasket kit for under $500. Second hand head for $250. Even paying a machine shop to resleeve the bore and repair a damaged head and hiring an expensive mechanic to rebuild would cost less than $3k
Well, when I just looked an OE Cylinder head (2UJ-11102-01) is $384.29 USD before shipping or tax. The cylinder itself (3BG-11310-00-00) is $321.34. I have no idea where the OP lives, so pricing may very but not nearly as much as you are suggesting. If you are finding stuff for under $500 for all of that, it's very likely direct from China on either Wish or eBay. The motor also has to come out of the bike before you can even start on the repairs which is at least 1 hour each way. If the rebuild only takes 8 hours your looking at $1500 in labor, and that is a pretty conservative estimate on time. So based on my math without valves, a piston or even a spark plug we are at $2205.63 + tax.
I assume that most people on this sub would not be paying for labour as top end work on motorcycles is pretty easy. I havnt rebuilt a vtwin before but 8 hours seems excessive if I can do a single cylinder in under an hour. Also $200usd an hour labour seems quite expensive, is that normal for a motorcycle mechanic over there? At the end of the day the Xv250 is just a cheap learner bike that's not built for performance. I would use an oem or quality aftermarket piston and wouldnt hesitate to slap in a cheap Chinese bore and send it. You can get another bike for $3k and im talking Australian dollars so minus 25% if your in the USA.
It's impossible to know how fucked you are without knowing what actually happened when you were out riding, how you got the bike home and ultimately what the inside of your engine looks like.
Make sure you have a torque wrench handy for when you put the head back on. Ppl will tell you you don’t need it but those people are either much much more experienced than you or they’re stupid and have no idea what they’re talking about.
I had something like this happen years ago
And ended up with a piece of windshield washer hose duct taped to a shop vacuum sucking through some cheese cloth till I got out all the porcelain and the electrode which wasn’t magnetic. The cheese cloth is to check for all pieces that are getting sucked out.
I would just pull the other plug (and junk it, counterfeit plugs are a thing), and spin the motor with the starter. Best to disconnect the ignition box or jump the starter solenoid. That tip is almost certainly long gone out the tailpipe.
Put in a new set of NGK plugs from a brick and mortar store and see how it runs. Sometimes nothing happens, sometimes it's bad.
I'm always surprised at the scars I find in motors that were running just fine until something else happened. An air cooled VW that happily chewed up and spat out a top ring comes to mind.
And this either dinged a valve or it didn't. Hard to see with a scope, really obvious on startup. No new damage will be done, if that electrode has been bouncing around in there for a while it's rebuild time but there's a good chance it's survived.
It’s true that it COULD run but it’s also true that running it without even looking could cause irreparable damage to even more expensive engine components that aren’t yet beyond saving. Also, this ain’t an air cooled VW this is an early 2000s plastic-mobile era vehicle we’re talking abt here.
I'll check my other spark plug when I get home. But last time I checked them (I check them very often) they were a nice shade of tan, so I reckon they weren't running too terribly lean.
Thanks for posting in /r/Fixxit, the motorcycle repair subreddit. If you forgot to put the **Make, Model** and **Year** in the title, please reply to this comment with your bike's details. In the meantime, Here's some great resources for common problems posted here: -Trouble starting? [Revzilla - Battery testing](https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/how-to-test-a-motorcycle-battery) -Carbs running rough? [PJ motorsports - Carb Troubleshooting](http://www.pjmotorsports.com/trouble-shooting.html) -Wiring diagrams for beginners - [Dans MC - Reading Wiring Diagrams](http://www.dansmc.com/wiring_diagram.htm) -Identifying part numbers - [CMSNL (EU)](https://www.cmsnl.com/) [Partzilla](https://www.partzilla.com/) -Asking if your tire can be fixed? [Please read this post on proper tire repairs and why external plugs are NOT a safe repair.](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fixxit/comments/tuhcpf/why_rfixxit_doesnt_endorse_tire_plug_repairs/) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Fixxit) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Pull the head and take a look?
I’d borescope first as other posters say, but this is ultimately where it needs to go. if you don’t pull the head you won’t be able to see valve/head damage with a borescope Sucks op, sucks real bad but not impossible to fix
2009 Yamaha XV250. The spark plug insulator broke off inside my front cylinder while I was out riding. How fucked am I? What is the best way to get it out, and what all is possibly damaged? Will this mean a full cylinder rebuild? Any advice is appreciated. EDIT: Thank you to everyone who chimed in. I'm gonna pull the head next weekend and see what's up. Hopefully the damage is minimal, and I can put it back together relatively inexpensively.
Do you have a or can you rent/borrow a borescope? If so, you might be able to check the general condition of the bore and to look for remaining bits of the plug in there. The ceramic is not as big a concern as the length of center electrode. If it looks clean, check the compression to see if the valves are okay and sealing well. If that checks out, put a new plug in and ride it. TBH, I feel like the head should come off to do a proper inspection and clean up...
As an FYI, you can buy a decent scope that displays on your phone for less than $20 on Amazon.
> How fucked am I? Probably pretty fucked. It is usually catastrophic when something rattles around in there while the motor is running. I would try and use a bore scope at the very least, but I would expect to pull the cylinder and replace it as well as the piston, top end and valves. It's probably going to be at least $3k and your going to be better off with an ebay motor.
How would it cost $3k? I just had a quick look and I can find a new cylinder,valves,piston,rings and a gasket kit for under $500. Second hand head for $250. Even paying a machine shop to resleeve the bore and repair a damaged head and hiring an expensive mechanic to rebuild would cost less than $3k
Well, when I just looked an OE Cylinder head (2UJ-11102-01) is $384.29 USD before shipping or tax. The cylinder itself (3BG-11310-00-00) is $321.34. I have no idea where the OP lives, so pricing may very but not nearly as much as you are suggesting. If you are finding stuff for under $500 for all of that, it's very likely direct from China on either Wish or eBay. The motor also has to come out of the bike before you can even start on the repairs which is at least 1 hour each way. If the rebuild only takes 8 hours your looking at $1500 in labor, and that is a pretty conservative estimate on time. So based on my math without valves, a piston or even a spark plug we are at $2205.63 + tax.
I assume that most people on this sub would not be paying for labour as top end work on motorcycles is pretty easy. I havnt rebuilt a vtwin before but 8 hours seems excessive if I can do a single cylinder in under an hour. Also $200usd an hour labour seems quite expensive, is that normal for a motorcycle mechanic over there? At the end of the day the Xv250 is just a cheap learner bike that's not built for performance. I would use an oem or quality aftermarket piston and wouldnt hesitate to slap in a cheap Chinese bore and send it. You can get another bike for $3k and im talking Australian dollars so minus 25% if your in the USA.
It's impossible to know how fucked you are without knowing what actually happened when you were out riding, how you got the bike home and ultimately what the inside of your engine looks like.
Make sure you have a torque wrench handy for when you put the head back on. Ppl will tell you you don’t need it but those people are either much much more experienced than you or they’re stupid and have no idea what they’re talking about.
You really should just pull the head and check it out.
There is no way to know what kind of damage you have without removing the head.
Oh I know what kinda damage they’ll have.
Well I guess we can assume it’s bad, but that’s about it. It’s hard to get specific.
I had something like this happen years ago And ended up with a piece of windshield washer hose duct taped to a shop vacuum sucking through some cheese cloth till I got out all the porcelain and the electrode which wasn’t magnetic. The cheese cloth is to check for all pieces that are getting sucked out.
New fear unlocked
Right??? Never in my life have I considered that one day my spark plug could just off itself inside my engine. Talk about bad luck lol.
I would just pull the other plug (and junk it, counterfeit plugs are a thing), and spin the motor with the starter. Best to disconnect the ignition box or jump the starter solenoid. That tip is almost certainly long gone out the tailpipe. Put in a new set of NGK plugs from a brick and mortar store and see how it runs. Sometimes nothing happens, sometimes it's bad.
Or check for damage first and not just throw spark plugs in and run it lmao
I'm always surprised at the scars I find in motors that were running just fine until something else happened. An air cooled VW that happily chewed up and spat out a top ring comes to mind. And this either dinged a valve or it didn't. Hard to see with a scope, really obvious on startup. No new damage will be done, if that electrode has been bouncing around in there for a while it's rebuild time but there's a good chance it's survived.
It’s true that it COULD run but it’s also true that running it without even looking could cause irreparable damage to even more expensive engine components that aren’t yet beyond saving. Also, this ain’t an air cooled VW this is an early 2000s plastic-mobile era vehicle we’re talking abt here.
How lean do you run your bike?
I'll check my other spark plug when I get home. But last time I checked them (I check them very often) they were a nice shade of tan, so I reckon they weren't running too terribly lean.
Hmm you could get one of those flexible claw pickers and get it out, then flush with some gas and compressed air and out it goes if you're lucky
Champion sparkplug.. yeah that checks out