Engine swap Speed Triple 2008

Hello Bob and welcome to the Triumph Asylum.

Before you go too far down the road of an exchange engine, could you describe the problems you are having with the existing one ? Maybe we could help you to get it going again.

 

Hi Bob it sounds to me like the head gasket is gone. It would be easy to fix, then empty the engine of it's current oil and coolant. Renew coolant and oil and test fire.

 

Hi mate and welcome
Like the biglad says i would suspect the head gasket
Not the biggest job in the world but best done by someone who knows
If you're handy with the spanners do some research on YouTube
You might find some video on
There

 

Could be mate
There's some strong forces going on in there

 

That doesn't sound all that bad. I'd say the head gasket has failed and is the cause for the milky white engine oil, but the rattle sounds like it is from the left side of the engine ruling out the cam chain and tensioner but could be a valve out of clearance. Some more info might help the diagnosis.
How many miles has it done?
What's the service history?
Has it started ticking recently, got worse recently or has it only come to your notice since you discovered the coolant leak?
Price up the cost of a replacement engine against having your engine worked on, unless you hear the new engine running and know its history you could be buying one that's also got problems. Good luck mate and welcome.

 

Any mechanical noise will get worse in proportion to the oil's reducing ability to work, due to contamination by the coolant.

That isn't phrased very well so here's attempt number 2 - if the oil is contaminated by coolant, it won't lubricate the engine properly, so there will be more mechanical noise.

This is sounding more and more like a head gasket job, which is actually quite straightforward to do at home.

Take the engine out, remove the head, replace the head gasket and put back together. Then using cheap oil, fill up, start motor, leave ticking over for perhaps 5 mins to wash-out the internals, then empty. Renew filter and engine oil and you're good to go !!!!

 

I'd probably get the radiator cleaned out professionally too, just to ensure there isn't any oil/milkshake blocking anything up. Granted; I've never dealt with a head gasket on a bike (so tell me if I'm wrong please!) but I've seen a car where everything on the engine side was fixed properly and the engine overheated because of the gunk in the rad essentially making it useless. A good clue to look for this would be if there's gunk in the cooling galleries of the block.

I'd also stick a straight edge on the head, just to make sure that nothing has warped, if it has a light skim should fix that. A skim would also technically increase the compression ratio of the engine, so a marginally thicker gasket would negate that.

 

Hi Cadaver,
When you took it in to the workshop did they actually check the valve clearances ?
I agree with all the above, suspected head gasket failure, a good flush of both the engine and cooling system with a new head gasket should sort the problem. Check/set all valve clearances at the same time.
As this is more of a labour intensive job than financial, I would definitely carry out the above operations first, not that much to lose only your time.
If the engine is kaput, I personally would look for the same engine then you have your existing one for spares.
Listening to the video and from your description I think it can be corrected, good luck and keep us posted.

 

Good work mate, hope the motor behaves for you now. The plug, if it is hanging from under the injector rail, is on all bikes and on our models is unused. It's probably got something to do with emissions for the US market.

 

Well done Bob.
Hopefully saved yourself a fortune!

 

if no faults will go out in 3 heat cycles.

 

did you do anything to the head bar replace the gasket,normally gasket goes when head is warped so may require light skim or problem will resurface in the future.