Hell Hath No Fury Like a FJR Scorned!

[Mihalis fjr]

A cheap borescope in your laptop or in your smartphone,will resolve this issue..You can see what is going wrong inside the cat and inside the muffler,if something going wrong there..

Also with a digital infrared thermometer on each pipe,will show to you if something going wrong in the engine in each cylinder.

 

[TomInPA]

A cheap borescope in your laptop or in your smartphone,will resolve this issue..You can see what is going wrong inside the cat and inside the muffler,if something going wrong there..Also with a digital infrared thermometer on each pipe,will show to you if something going wrong in the engine in each cylinder.

Marcus, that is so cool to give your bike a colonoscopy! Is there anyplace you won't put a video camera?

 

[Mihalis fjr]

I mean something like that..Αnd yes,looks like a colonoscopy inside the exhaust

https://www.banggood.com/search/borescope.html

 

[Brodie]

I'm curious if a broken reed valve, or a faulty air induction cut off valve would be contributing to this issue.

Brodie

 

[TomInPA]

When did you EVER see an exhaust muffler turned shades of blue and yellow, or the header cherry red? Not me. This is totally outta the park weird!

Just when you thought you have seen everything, you get something like this.

 

[hppants]

I agree, Tom. This indeed is uncharted water for the FJR AFAIK, which is why I'm following this thread so closely to learn something. If he ran the motor at 7 bars (more than once IIRC), that's got to contribute to the already hot exhaust. I fear that now Tesla may have more than one problem - whatever caused the motor to run poorly in the first place, and now the collateral damage from overheating it.

 

[Klubis]

I've seen the red "mid" pipes on both sides of my '07. I was afraid they were going to melt something, but she runs fine now and no damage done.

 

[Harald]

I agree, Tom. This indeed is uncharted water for the FJR AFAIK, which is why I'm following this thread so closely to learn something. If he ran the motor at 7 bars (more than once IIRC), that's got to contribute to the already hot exhaust. I fear that now Tesla may have more than one problem - whatever caused the motor to run poorly in the first place, and now the collateral damage from overheating it.

You went straight from a Gen I to a Gen III didn't you? I'm asking because on the Gen II, 7 bars is where the fan normally comes on. One of the many improvements of the Gen II was more bars on the coolant temp scale.

 

[N4HHE]

Exhaust pressure is the same. Matter of fact, when I restarted it again and let it idle when cold, it gave some minor backfires.

If your air filter has not blown the side off your FJR then you are not experiencing a backfire. As ionbeam has already mentioned the popping sound is late combustion occurring in the exhaust rather than in combustion chamber. This requires oxygen, fuel, and something hot to set it off. If not for air induction one would first suspect an air leak where header meets head. Also suspect carbon in the pipes, or a tang hanging off a sloppy weld which forms a glow plug like hotspot.

 

[N4HHE]

When did you EVER see an exhaust muffler turned shades of blue and yellow, or the header cherry red? Not me. This is totally outta the park weird!

That is pretty easy to produce running a carbureted engine without air filter.

 

[hppants]

Harald - thanks for the clarification. I was mistakenly interpreting 7 bars on the Gen II as overheating.

 

[mcatrophy]

Harald - thanks for the clarification. I was mistakenly interpreting 7 bars on the Gen II as overheating.

Gen 2s don't normally run with 7 bars showing, that's "fan on" temperature. During normal travelling, normal is 4 +/- 1. In my ambients I've never known it sit at 5, but in very hot climates I believe it can. In heavy traffic trickling, it can climb to 7 and then the fans come on, off again at 5 (IIRC).

7 bars during normal running means something is making the engine hotter than normal.

 

[tesla]

delete

 

[Rain Dancer]

Based on the pictures and everything else related in the thread to this point, I think the cat broke down internally. I had this happen on a car once and the exhaust area just downstream of the converter glowed cherry red just like in your picture. As the internal materials broke down exhaust pressure moved some of the debris downstream further blocking the exhaust and changing what portions of the pipe glowed red. I speculate this may be what is happening here. The cat probably wasn't finished breaking apart but as the bike was being ridden some of the materials moved downstream leading to blockage on the muffler now. Easiest way to check into this would be to pull the mufflers. After removing the left side muffler turn it upside down over a piece of cardboard and just smack it with your hand a few times. If you start getting debris out of the muffler inlet it's likely cat converter material. This would be the quickest and easiest way to check it out.
Keep us posted.

Same here, rotary engine and cat went bad. My sister's RX7 I tore into as soon as she had running problems and I saw the glow on the exhaust. New cat fixed it.

Good luck!

 

[snackbauer]

Probably a dumb question, but would this possibly be covered under the Federal Emission Warranty? Or is there even such a thing for motorcycles?

Forget that, you have to live in a state that has an emissions inspection program.

 

[rogdeb]

I think I'd be buying that e-bay deal anyway. If eventually you didn't need it, the forum would be a great place to re-sell.

 

[BkerChuck]

I'm not sure if any state does emissions testing on bikes beyond visual inspection to make sure it's all intact. We have emissions inspection in PA but only on cars and trucks. Never noticed any reference to emission component warranty in my owners manual.

 

[snackbauer]

Emission control system warranty, but it only covers 5 years or 18,641 miles, whichever occurs first. That's a lot less than cars, doesn't seem fair since the FJR competes very well in longevity and mileage with most cars.

I'm not sure about the bit requiring the state to provide emission testing. I can't remember where I read that, probably on the internet, therefore.....

 

[tesla]

I drained all the Sea Foam treated gas, refilled with clean gas, fired it up--no change.

So I pulled out the plugs and this is what they looked like.

And here is a close up of the head. They all looked like this

Here is a shot of the dirtiest plug cylinder.

Here is another one. They were all dry.

Here are the plugs when I first pulled them out. They looked pretty good and with only 1-2K miles on them I decided my problem was not related to the plugs. They do look cleaner but I think lighting played a factor.

So I put some new NGK CR8E plugs in not expecting anything......but I got a big surprise. Hit the starter and it fired up much quicker and effortlessly. Throttle response was much improved. No misfires, farting, coughing and does not die at idle......much quieter too. It took longer but finally got the temp up to 6 bars and noticed that the red pipes were gone. Jumped on the bike and took her for a ride. Immediately realized the beast is back! What a difference in power when its running properly. I still don't understand how bad plugs could create so much heat in the pipes but I'm not complaining. Maybe an injector or 2 corrected itself and replacing the plugs were just a coincidence? If it hadn't been for a few of you telling me to change the plugs it would be at the dealer right now. Thank you!

I want to thank all of you who contributed to this thread and gave me advice. The knowledge base on this forum is amazing. I've normally been more of a taker than a giver on this forum due to my mechanical limitations. However, this may be an opportunity to give back so I decided to take the time to fill you in and post some pictures and hopefully this will help others that run into a similar situation.

 

[hppants]

Very interesting. Logically speaking (or typing), if you have a shorted or fouled spark plug, that cylinder should be blowing the unburnt fuel straight through and in my mind, that cylinder should be colder, not hotter.

Could you please post a picture of the plugs looking at the business end (electrode) side of them? I'd like to see the center and the electrode. Also, can you determine which of the plugs correlates to the cylinder that was getting red? Examine that plug closely - do you see any cracks in the ceramic (either outside or inside)?

Also, perhaps there was some left over "seafoam rich" fuel in the fuel lines and fuel rail. How long did you run the bike after you changed gas and before you removed the plugs?

Regardless - I'm very glad that your bike is fixed now.