Unofficial Royal Enfield Community Forum

Royal Enfield Motorcycles => Bullet Electra & AVL => Topic started by: karlcorrea on January 17, 2013, 02:53:38 pm

Title: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: karlcorrea on January 17, 2013, 02:53:38 pm
Hi guys,
         As you guys may have heard Sandy caused a lot of flooding where I live and my Royal Enfield Electra X 2008 was completely submerged in 10 feet of water. I made a fatal mistake by not attending to her instantly as soon as the water receded. Here's what's happened. I sheltered the bike, used the kick start to see if the decomp works and it did.. and I left for a two month vacation. When I got back I drained the entire engine and primary case of fluids and there was water in the engine. Now the kick start won't budge. It will when I hold the clutch but not otherwise. The  decomp switch moves but nothing happens. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9I9OsiDI2UA
I love my bike dearly and am deeply saddened by this. A friend of mine suggested I spray some PB blaster(rust blaster) into the engine after taking the spark plug out and let it soak for a couple of days to remove the rust on the rings. But I am scared that even if the piston moves after that, won't the rusted rings cause a problem later on, scratching the walls when the engine runs? Its winter right now and I have two months or so to fix her. Hopefully I don't need to open up the engine cause I've never done that before and I'm not a professional mechanic.
All suggestions will be greatly appreciated.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: motomataya on January 17, 2013, 04:31:23 pm
Two months with water and maybe even some salt water. If you can do an insurance claim just total it. Otherwise you have a LOT of work ahead if you want it to run again. If it was salt water you now have a parts bike.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: ace.cafe on January 17, 2013, 04:33:47 pm
Prognosis is not good.
Chances are high that the engine will need an entire disassembly and complete rebuild.
Insurance claim might be the best course.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: Arizoni on January 17, 2013, 10:42:30 pm
After 2 months with water in the engine not only are the piston rings rusted and bonded to the cylinder wall but it is very likely the cam lobes are rusted and areas on the ball and roller bearings races are as well.

The connectors on the electrical harness are likely corroded.  The wheel bearings are probably rusted.  The gears and bearings in the transmission are likely also damaged.

IMO, when something like this happens it is imperative that all of the fluids are drained and replaced as soon as possible.  Even a week's delay can cause problems.

This is a good time for using WD40 for its intended purpose, driving moisture out of electrical connections, by spraying all of the connectors on the wiring harness.

  The engine then needs to be started and run until it is hot, then the bike needs to be ridden at least 20 miles to drive out any moisture lurking in the gearbox and wheels.

Unfortunately, in this bikes case, too much time has elapsed sense the bike was drowned.

Hopefully, the insurance company will offer a fair value for the bike.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: ERC on January 17, 2013, 10:55:41 pm
Have been repairing salt water submerged motors all my life, after that length of time all the steel parts would never stop rusting or corroding. Even after soaking or hosing off with fresh water.The aluminum will never stop corroding. If you have insurance collect on it.  ERC
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: 1 Thump on January 18, 2013, 03:05:50 am
....And after claiming insurance give them a low ball offer to buy it back. If they take it the fun begins !
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: Kevin Mahoney on January 24, 2013, 10:30:20 am
ERC
Why do they keep corroding after washing etc. Sounds interesting to me.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: ERC on January 24, 2013, 01:31:41 pm
Good question it seems that the salt absorbs into the aluminum and the corrosion doesn't stop. The aluminum on the older American made motors seems to hold up better than the ones made overseas. Another thing that seems to affect the new VST injecton is when the ethanol attracts moisture and lays in the bottom of the tanks it eats the coating they put on the aluminum and never stops corroding. ERC
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: barenekd on January 24, 2013, 06:42:35 pm
This modern cast stuff is so full of holes that the salt easily gets inside the metal and doesn't wash out. Modern Asian castings are what we used to refer to as pot metal. It is really horrible, weak stuff! If you don't believe it, try to TIG weld this crap! Or drop your Triumph on its side and see how easily the footpegs break off! Actually I broke two footpegs off Triumphs. I didn't drop the second one. It was another of those "Cheated Death Again" situations!
I don't know whether the Europeans or Americans still know how to do quality castings, but it seems to be a lost art. Typical of today's world, go with the cheap crap.
Bare
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: Arizoni on January 24, 2013, 09:41:54 pm
Although it isn't pot metal which is basically a zink based material, the sidecovers and other aluminum parts on many bikes are die castings.

For those who don't know, a die casting uses a metal, multi-piece die which as a cavity inside it.  The cavity produces a precision casting that requires very little machining making them an inexpensive way to make a complicated part.
The die is filled with aluminum under pressure thru gates that are usually quite small.  These small gates are easily cut or broken off after the part is ejected from the die cavity.

The outer surface of the casting which is in direct contact with the cavities inner surface is very smooth and has quite a high degree of quality and integrity however, shortly after the molten metal is injected the small gates that fed the die solidify, usually before most of the metal in the die has.

As the metal in the die cavity that has not solidified cools, it shrinks.
Because the material in the gates are solid, additional material cannot feed into the cavity resulting in a very porous material.
Often, the high quality outer surface material is only .030-.050 thick.
This is the reason attempting to weld die castings is futile.

If this outer surface is machined away or if it is scratched or corroded the porous inner material can soak up fluids resulting in further corrosion.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: barenekd on January 24, 2013, 11:23:30 pm
And after all that, the castings are crap compared to what was made in the old days! Old English and European bikes were easily welded when they got a hole poked in them. The Asian stuff really were good looking parts, but flimsy and basically unrepairable. It may be a different material, but it welds just like pot metal.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: karlcorrea on April 15, 2013, 06:15:48 pm
Hey Guys,
          Thank for all the advice. I finally got the engine off the motorcycle. Seems the rank shaft is fine. It took some work since the piston was frozen to the cylinder walls as expected. A blow torch and some hammering with a wood plank got it free. So now the a very good mechanic has taken the parts to hone. I purchased the gaskets and battery( YTX14AHL-BS Chrome Battery) for the same off ebay and amazon. However the if the piston rings don't come off without damage I would need to buy new ones. For the life of me I can't find any available piston rings off any website for the 500cc Lean Burn Electra X engine. Do you guys know the dimensions of the piston rings or which model of the enfield could have the same size of piston rings?
Fingers crossed...I am so excited to get her running again. One of a kind motorcyle serisously. Will post some pictures of the engine rebuild.
Cheers.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: Arizoni on April 15, 2013, 11:19:40 pm
Hitchcocks Motorcycles shows standard size pistons with rings or just piston rings are available for the Electra X on page 232 of their 2013 web catalog.
Type 232 into the little white window at the top of the page in this link:

http://content.yudu.com/Library/A20fxh/HitchcocksMotorcycle/resources/index.htm?referrerUrl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hitchcocksmotorcycles.com%2Ftest

They don't list any for oversize pistons or rings for the Electra X.
Title: Re: HELP!!Hurricane Sandy flooding effects on my Enfield (Piston stuck?)
Post by: Gypsyjon on May 02, 2013, 03:43:55 am
I say total it too....in the case of boat engines, you have a matter of hours to the water out, fresh oil in and get it running..otherwise, you pretty much have a boat anchor..