KR-1S.co.uk Forum

well fellas took the kr out for the first ever time today oorr reeet these things anyway got it up to speed through the revs and gears and thought wow i must be quick as its quite warm,5-6 mile later gets on the mway and gives it a bit,noticed temp near red so eased off and came home,gets home and at low revs(tickover)it sounded rough as flip,noticed the water level was a bit low so thought check waterway must be something wrong with that,could not blow up the pipe to cylinder head so barrels off check for blockages none,noticed the i(m guessing) thermostat that goes into cylinder head was not seated right,cleaned it out,put it back togeather and took it back out,sound temp hardly came off blue part of gauge,gets back home and it sounds even worse but again only at tickover(or low revs)noticed water level had gone down again(half cup full if that)and the oil sight glass looks like its steamed up,engine sounded loverly when i had replaced stator coil so whats your thoughts?engine change in morning are mine

If the engine was rebuilt was the cooling system bled of all air before setting off? Just topping up the rad wont work, a bolt has to be removed on the thermostat housing to allow air to escape. Just that when you mentioned you checked the thermostat and had to top up makes me think you actually bled the engine at this point. A top up of half a cup is not unusual after a first run.
Mist on the oil sight glass is normal,especially after a lay up, just remove the filler cap when the engine is hot, and the condensation should evaporate.

I hope there is not to much damage.

Cliff wrote: Just topping up the rad wont work, a bolt has to be removed on the thermostat housing to allow air to escape.

Is there an extra bolt just for that purpose? I don't find such a bolt on the thermostat housing? And it also isn't mentioned in the manual There its says after warming up (and cooling down) check the coolant level in the reservoir tank and add up to the F mark.

ok... now I am scared as I didn't undo any bolts to bleed the engine... just topped up the radiator... ran it till it warmed up and then topped up again...


[-o<

Check the level of the overflow tank, if it goes up excessively, then your head gasket may have failed. Also noticed with mine once, that the water system was so pressurised, it bypassed the o-ring on the impeller and went into the gearbox/clutch and mixed up to cause a foul smelling mayonaise solution.

could be pump seal failure but there is a hole(behind the drain bolt) that should leak water to show you the seal has failed before it gets to the gearbox...check the hole isnt blocked.
there are no bleed screws on the kr...but slackening the thermostat housing would do the same thing....
i find if you fill the rad then lean the bike over from one side to the other the water will go down,top up,do the same,top up...etc will get most of the air out of the engine.....run up till hot...allow to cool for half an hour and top up the expansion n bottle...

thanks Darren

It sounds like a head gasket failure to me if its using a lot of water. I always coat the gasket with wellseal to stop this. It could be that it wasn't topped up fully as well. If it continues to use water then she'll need the head gasket replacing.

My mate had one back in the day and had problems with the base gaskets leaking coolant,worth checking before you do the head gasket. If one as gone you can replace it without taking the head off, by whipping both barrells off together, saves wreckin the power valves trying to get them off.

rad wrote: saves wreckin the power valves trying to get them off.

oh yeah and can i wreck them cheers all gives me plenty to be going on with

Smell the water, sometimes when the head gasket goes, you can smell the fuel in the water.

just had a lad here who knows a bit more about them than me and he thinks it could be the clutch bearing have a listen i uploaded that nearly all on my own

K, that sounds like the clutch. Dose the noise go a way when the clutch is pulled in and does the clutch disengage with out the engine running?

Could be the clutch release bearing? Anyway sounds like what ever has failed is on its way out big time, so I would strip it before it fails completly and you have to strip the engine to collect all of the bearing pieces from everywhere.

also sounds like the flywheel has come adrift but on just enough so that if fires/runs. happened to me at cadwell last yr, thought i had lunched something in the gearbox/clutch and turned out to be the flywheel bolt. fixed with re-torque then loctite. whip that plastic cover off and have a look. whatever it is, the noise dissapears when you blip the throttle so i guess it would be something minor. check the water pump, oil pump, clutch, flywheel etc before removing the top end as its easier and no point wrecking the base gaskets unless you have to. when you eventually fit new gasgets, use a smear of grease as it means they wont stick therefore are reusable

Cliff wrote:If the engine was rebuilt was the cooling system bled of all air before setting off? Just topping up the rad wont work, a bolt has to be removed on the thermostat housing to allow air to escape. Just that when you mentioned you checked the thermostat and had to top up makes me think you actually bled the engine at this point. A top up of half a cup is not unusual after a first run.
Mist on the oil sight glass is normal,especially after a lay up, just remove the filler cap when the engine is hot, and the condensation should evaporate.

I hope there is not to much damage.

The mystery bolt was the temp sensor, apologies for the confusion.

Guessing it was not bled then?