Lost ANOTHER cylinder on the viper

S

srxman06

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Any common problems on these 02 vipers that cause them to blow up? Looks like 1 of the rings broke again and ruined the cylinder. Just replaced the center jug and piston 150 miles ago and now the cyliner on the brake side went.
 

The only thing i found on that one was that the oil injection cable was stretched like the throttle was wide open and was giving it too much oil and possibly leaned it out
 
I am no expert but is that what the piston showed, Lean condition...? You must found the cause if you don't want it to happend again....I am just wondering if there was something else.....

I don't know of any problems that vipers have. Usually if you do your maintenance, they run forever...

JMO

Nick
 
no expert either>The ring broke on the center jug and took out the jug and the ring is gone on this cylinder too. Have no idea where to go with this. Carbs are clean,full of oil,coolant..
 
maybe the power valve hit the ring ???? got any picture of those cylinder
 
My money is on a twisted rod. I know of 3 different vipers with the same issues you're having, all 3 had a bent/twisted rod. They were not twisted very much, but enough to snag the ring. I think they took a shaft the size of the wrist pin & ran it through all 3 rods & could see it twisted. I would check it closely.
 
Known issue with Viper running lean at slow speed and poor water circulation causing burndowns. See my thread earlier. Have to get the aftermarket head, or never run it slow....lol

All my years with Yamaha motorcycles and sleds I have never seen yamaha make such a poor design and not recall it.
 
stingray719 said:
Known issue with Viper running lean at slow speed and poor water circulation causing burndowns. See my thread earlier. Have to get the aftermarket head, or never run it slow....lol

All my years with Yamaha motorcycles and sleds I have never seen yamaha make such a poor design and not recall it.
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does it trigger any warning lights when this happens? And when you say 'low speeds' what kind of riding are we talking about?
 
AJVIPER, When I rode the Viper I rode it hard so no issues. Girlfriend rode about 20 minutes under 25 mph and then hit the gas and it it burnt down. No lights no warning. I thought it lost a spark plug initially. Oh, I always set my carb sleds to run rich and this one was set rich too.

So I called the local Yamaha dealer and he knew the issue well. Poor circulation around the head and a built in lean condition when going slow does them in.
 
dang...any idea what this revised head runs? Did they change the design on the later models, like the 04 or 05 vipers? If yamaha didn't revise the heads for the later models, did they make any changes, ever? Do i need to go aftermarket or can i buy a revised oem one?
 
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perfect...i will take a look at that thread. That was going to be my next question...what carb adjustments can be made to cure the burn down issue? I have 3,000 problem free miles on mine and I'd like to do everything possible to keep it reliable. THanks!
 
I had no warning lights either. was riding normal all day and then lined up next to buddy and raced and about few miles later the cylinder was gone.
 
its running lean or u run poor gaz octane ...show uss the piston someone will chime up with idea
 
Talking with a seasoned fellow sledder the other day. We were talking about burn downs. His experience was that most of burn downs that he knew of happenned at the end of a WOT run. He went on to explain how on WOT the amout of fuel and cold air rushing in the motor helped to keep the pistons cool and after the throttle was snapped shut the heat build gets so intense that you burn a piston. His rule of thumb was after a long WOT run is to let out the throttle gently or slowly as not to trap all the heat into the cylinders. He himself has never had a burn down. Not sure if he is just lucky or there is some merit to his thinking.
Most people say that" It was running so strong or soo good" just before they burnt a piston.
 
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