Ok Deej here's my take on this.

First, it's Not your Oil. Use a good quality oil in the right weight with regular oil/filter changes and you should be fine. The mech is right in that sometimes when starting a Cold motor you will hear a Slight ticking sound for maybe 10-15 seconds as the oil works it's way to the head and pumps up the lifters. Again it's a Slight noise and is heard upon startup for just a few seconds.

There seem to be Several People up here now with this issue. What are the symptoms and What's the connection between you guys. So far I've heard several thousand miles and the mods done. Well what about things like is it at startup or all the time. Does the sound increase with rpm's or does it stay the same. Is it louder in some gears or others. Where is the sound coming from Exactly, Does anybody know? Is everybody using the same exhaust?

And what about These Mods everybody is doing. Rejetting a bike and re-exhausting it is SOP But what about these things like drilling the hole in the airbox for the vent and removing the smog system and installing the block off plate. Is it possible that doing these things is somehow detrimental to the bike and only showing up thousands of miles After there done. Nobrakes has probably modded his bike more then anybody but he doesn’t have any issues right. Has anybody said screw it and taken their bike to the dealer to see what they say. Has anybody had it happen and then quite? We have to think logically on this and look for a connection because there is one. The people that are having this issue need to get together and compare bikes & mods.

You guys are saying this Ticking Noise is Loud, So loud you hear it Over your Muzzy or Big Gun. That's Freaking loud and it is a Problem. Now NoBrakes say's it's the cam adjuster and I will admit it sounds right and I hope so but I keep coming back to, 1 - I don’t think a slightly loose cam chain would be That Loud and 2 - Just how long does it take for a chain adjuster to click in another notch. I would say sooner then a couple of hundred miles, I would hope so anyway.

I don’t know the answer and if was my bike and I couldn’t figure it out I'd take it to the dealer. This is something we all need to be concerned about and the sooner someone finds an answer the better off we will be....


Update: Yep saw the Jesus post. I think you guys out there are smoking bettter stuff then we are here. [8D]

LV

 

Ok here is some more useful information. As far as the mods and thousands of miles that's not the case. My bike developed the loud ticking at start up at 1500 miles and before any mods, then after a while it was quiet. I was told by the mechanic that it would get quieter, in fact he said that a really quiet bike is not so good either. noise tells you that the right stuff is happening. I'm not going to question a guy that is also a racer and has been doing this stuff for many years. I can't hear mine over the exhaust, and it actually goes away after 5 or 10 minutes of riding. And the chain adjuster taking only a couple hundred miles to get to the next notch? Well it took 1500 miles to get to the next notch so maybe it will take another 1500 or so miles at which I'm getting right there to the mileage. So I wait and see.

 

Whoa there, big fella - I never said it was the cam chain adjuster. That was in reference to Deej's first post on this problem where he was wanting instructions on how to manually advance the cam chain adjuster because that was his su****ion. No one said whether it was or wasn't. I was only saying that if it was the cam chain tensioner, I'd let it do its work on its own without manual intervention.

 

Ya I know, it does make sense though that it would be someting like that except for maybe the sound volume. Just how long should it take for a cam chain adjuster to self adjust anyhow, do you know. You've modded the crap out of your bike and you have thousands of miles on it right. You dont seem to have any issues and neither do a lot of other modded bikes up here. It's weird and I dont know the answer but I am a little concerned about it because I'd like to find a answer Before I do the mods and it happens to My Bike.


LV

 

What exactly is the definition of a tick vs a ping anyway. Anyone tried going up a few notches in fuel grade, say from 87-91 or 93? My 87 Warrior had engine noise on lower grade fuel but it had also been overbored with an aftermarket piston. While our bike was designed for 87 octane I think it has relatively high compression compared to other engines of this size, not going to hurt anything by trying a gallon of 91 in it. I've run all grades from 87-93 and haven't noticed any pinging, knocking, ticking on 87 even when pulling hard.

 

Very strange. I guess we can rule out the mods then. If it was a loose chain you would think you would hear it all the time and it would get worse as the rpm's go up. Going away after 5-10 minutes sounds like something isnt getting lubricated but thats too long.

Ok think about this. as a motor is started and it warms up it Expands right. If something is just barley brushing against something else IE cam chain / adjuster, Perhaps once the motor warms up and expands these parts are no longer touching each other. That would make sense to. I just find it hard to believe that it would take that many miles for the adjuster to adjust but I guess maybe.


LV

 

Really, you run regular. Hmmm I've always gone premium, I figure with the 11 to 1 compression it needed it.

 

I don't disagree that it might be that, I just don't anyone to think that's what I said it was because I didn't and because I really don't know. I don't know how long it will take for the adjuster to take up another notch. I would hope it would be a very long time, otherwise the cam chain will need replacing pretty quickly.

I don't really consider my mods any more than anyone else. Probably the only thing I've done that most people haven't is the 300cc kit, but all that does is replace the cylinder and piston - head, valves, timing, CDI, etc, etc, all all the same as what everyone else is running. And I can't really buy that rejetting the carb or adding an aftermarket exhaust is in any way remotely responsible. I'm at over 3200 miles and I haven't noticed this clicking - doesn't mean it's not there, just that I haven't noticed it. Since I can't ride right now, I did start my bike up in the garage for a few minutes and bent down close to the engine and listened, thinking about Deej and EMS's ticking. I could hear noise, even some ticking, sounded like normal engine noise to me - nothing too alarming. I'm assuming that what they are hearing is much more pronounced and an unhealthy sound as opposed to normal engine noise.

I tend to think the 20W50 might be a possibility in Deej's case - it's a bit thick for Deej's rather cool area. The fact that the noise goes away after his bike warms up tends to support that. But that's just a guess and is easy enough for Deej to confirm or deny by doing a simple 15 minute oil change.

 

I've run all three grades for weeks at a time each producing the same results, so I have been told that grades don't really make a difference on our bikes. As far as the hearing the noise all the time, I talked to a auto mechanic, and I mean a really good one who builds 700hp motors and he said as an engine goes from cold to warm to hot it actually grows upwards, which could explain the noise disappearing after it is hot, like the chain gets tighter. And unless we can shrink ourselves like in the movies and get into the engine we might not ever know what's causing this, but all good discussions and ideas, and that's what it's really about. I promise to post the minute I hear anything.....get it hear anything?.....I know that was lame.

 

So is your bike a hypochondriac?






EDIT - whoops, forgot the smiley