Burnt exhaust valve

[motorref]

I'm a newbie to posting. I have read many of the threads and have learned a ton! Thanks abunch fellows.

A friend and I were halted from finishing a ride becuase his "04 1150 RT suddenly started "running on one cylinder". We limped her 50 miles back home and he took it to the dealer who discovered the burnt exhaust valve. Apparently the valve was stuck open causing the one cylinder effect. They said something about carbon lodging up in the valve shaft? An $800 repair... The bike was purchased as used and he only had 16k on it! What would cause this to happen?

[smiller]

There have been occasional reports of burnt exhaust valves on the oilheads. Not common, but it does happen. Almost impossible to say with certainty why for any given case, but errant carbon or a stuck valve is certainly a possibility. Also difficult to say why it would occur on a bike with such low mileage... perhaps a valve was badly misadjusted, or perhaps the previous owner was too easy on the throttle which can cause carbon buildup (these engines are a lot happier being run hard vs. babied), or perhaps just bad luck.

 

If properly repaired there is no particular reason to expect a recurrence, and there's not much one can do in terms of prevention but keep the valves properly adjusted and don't be shy with the throttle... put some load on the engine once in a while.

[Stan Walker]

You can also buy "top tier" gasolines. That should help to keep the valve stems cleaner (less likely to stick partly open).

 

Stan

[GordonB]

Depending where you are located, there may be a good independent that could do the repair for quite a bit less.

[motorref]

Thanks for the info. It could be the combination of both easy throttle and low octane fuel. I better watch out for this too as being a motorcycle official for bicycle races, we really lug our engines with slow speeds; especially up hill! I've got 47k on my '04 1150 RS, but after the races are over I usually beef up the RMPs. Thanks

[motorref]

We don't know just what gas the previous owner used, but we're using the best available now for this bike.