Possible causes for pinking?

[fcasado]

Fuel in South America is sh1t, you THINK you're using high octane fuel, but most of the times you're not. What's written on the pump not always means exactly what's going into the bike's tank.

Ahh, and IF you fill up in Foz do Iguacu bear in mind that petrol (gasolina) has 23% of alcool

And if 'pinking' is what I think it is, mine did the same when heavily loaded in Europe...

 

[Warthog]

Superb. Thanks for the added input everyone. Exactly what I needed. I can now ignore certain issues and concentrate on others. Getting a new tyre from BMW today anyway so may change the oil and filters too as they've seen some abuse. on the down side, I will need to keep going as I am re the revs and gearing. Given that I am a roll-on, roll-off rider back home (especially when pootling) it is a different style than I am used to. The bike is perfestly rideable, but is a distraction from the rest of the journey, and I can't thrash it to impress the the young latin ladies.... Plus that earns me a crack in the lid from Kristina and that is never cool...

 

[ELIMINATOR]

Greg, I thought your oil comment might be off the mark. We are making assumptions as to what the noise is that Warthog is hearing. He possibly is assuming that it is pinking, it might be the noise of a hot laboured engine rattling away using a light grade of oil.

But there again it might not.

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

if u wantto stop it pinking ..

you could retard the static timing a tad.

you could try opening the exhaust valve clearance a 'bit' - to give it more thermal transfer time on the seat.

you could push the choke lever on ' a bit' to richen it up - ( if your choke richens the mixture )

you could lift the needles in the carbs by one notch

you could open the spark plug gap a bit more

you could buy some octane booster and add it to the fuel.

hows that for starters ?

 

[Greg Masters]

Greg, I thought your oil comment might be off the mark.

No, I stand by what I said. The wrong oil in the sump does not cause pinking.

If the noise is actually the big ends gone, then that could be down to the oil!



As a sidenote, if the engine is burning oil, that can cause pinking as engine oil has a very low octane rating (seriously!).

But, either way, the motor appears to be shagged!



Greg

 

[davegs]

Pinking

Having read the above worrying posts, i thought i'd throw in my farthings worth. (farthings were part of the ancient english currency and not a miss spelling for farting) I have done a few thousand miles in the west and mid west in the USA on my 2001 1150 GS. 95 octain fuel is not common (or wasent) indeed it gos down to 81 octane !. i and compatriots have run our bikes on 83 octane, the only problem was a slight decrease in power, but most of the time we were above 7000 feet and up to 14000 so fuel was not the only issue. BUT IT DID NOT PINK!. I would suggest that either the ingtion timming is out and / or there is a problem with the motronic engine managnment system as this should compensate for octain ratings ./ pinking.
I would suggest a visit to the nice ? dealer and have a dianostic carried out
probably wont help but it might as I am sure this is the root of the problem.
I even ran (by mistake ) it on leaded in Morocco and no ill effects ( now
catless!) but NO PINKING!
thats it, I'm going to bed !
happy pinking dave GS.

 

[cookie]

Having read the above worrying posts, i thought i'd throw in my farthings worth. (farthings were part of the ancient english currency and not a miss spelling for farting) I have done a few thousand miles in the west and mid west in the USA on my 2001 1150 GS. 95 octain fuel is not common (or wasent) indeed it gos down to 81 octane !. i and compatriots have run our bikes on 83 octane, the only problem was a slight decrease in power, but most of the time we were above 7000 feet and up to 14000 so fuel was not the only issue. BUT IT DID NOT PINK!. I would suggest that either the ingtion timming is out and / or there is a problem with the motronic engine managnment system as this should compensate for octain ratings ./ pinking.
I would suggest a visit to the nice ? dealer and have a dianostic carried out
probably wont help but it might as I am sure this is the root of the problem.
I even ran (by mistake ) it on leaded in Morocco and no ill effects ( now
catless!) but NO PINKING!
thats it, I'm going to bed !
happy pinking dave GS.

USA uses a different way of measuring octane. add 10 to US rating (more or less), so 83 is really 93 (more or less) in our money

 

[Warthog]

No, I stand by what I said. The wrong oil in the sump does not cause pinking.

If the noise is actually the big ends gone, then that could be down to the oil!



As a sidenote, if the engine is burning oil, that can cause pinking as engine oil has a very low octane rating (seriously!).

But, either way, the motor appears to be shagged!



Greg

Bugger it!

If added pedals to my gearbox and I'm going to cycle the rest of the trip!

 

[Steptoe]

This thread is in danger turning into a type of "medical dictionary" syndrome.

You look up your minor symptoms, and find you have the symptoms every fatal disease known to man.

Why worry, it doesn't help .

 

[Greg Masters]

Bugger it!

I think I'd prefer the pinking!



Greg

 

[Warthog]

This thread is in danger turning into a type of "medical dictionary" syndrome.

You look up your minor symptoms, and find you have the symptoms every fatal disease known to man.

Why worry, it doesn't help .

As you can no doubt guess I am a two-wheel hyperchondriac!!

JUut to add fuel to the fire, the BM bloke here in Santiago took it for a spin when I left it for a fitting of a tyre to the rear, and said (from what I understand) that it is some part rattling in the throttle body/injector. This would explain why it only happens on the right hand cylinder, but (IMHO) not why it happens only under heavy load and not with a hand full in Neutral!!

I give up: que sera, sera.

I'm just going to fill up with diesel next time and be done with it!!

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

throttle body synch is way out - one cylinder is lean - one is doing all the work.

lean cylinder is pinking - problem sorted.

its good to get all the info - eventually.

 

[Warthog]

throttle body synch is way out - one cylinder is lean - one is doing all the work.

lean cylinder is pinking - problem sorted.

its good to get all the info - eventually.

Is it possible to have the throttles go out of sync in a relatively short space of time? I ask as Neil, over in the UK did a full throttle balance and valve clearance before we left and that was only 3500 miles ago, albeit over a short space of time.

 

[Warthog]

its good to get all the info - eventually.

Don't be so cheeky:

So why? I am effectively limited to 75mph, tops, as I have to back off the throttle as soon as the crackles become audible from the right hand cylinder. I don't want a holed piston back in the UK, let alone out here!!

 

[(RIP) Kaister]

anythings possible.


except money growing on trees - i haven't seen that yet.

cheeky monkey

 

[Steptoe]

that it is some part rattling in the throttle body/injector. This would explain why it only happens on the right hand cylinder,
!!

I doubt if the rattle in the R/H throttle is anything to do with the pinking. A lot of GS's have rattley R/H throttle bodies, very common, doesn't cause any problems, apart from the noise.

Pull the cat-code plug (if fitted) and try the link in the picture attached - it gives you a slight more amount of fuel.

My bike runs with it permanantly, has done for the last 20K miles.

 

[Warthog]

Collected the bike today. Best service I've had from a BM dealer and its all the way over here. Wasn't too cheap mind, but hey. Air filter was dusty but not too bad.
Oil I will change in some bike shops backyard in the next town instead of paying for BM labour charges.
Tomorrow morning I'll whack my code plug wire to suit Neil's photo and see if that helps.

Not convinced by the mechanic's diagnosis of throttle rattle, though. It does rattle on both sides but under the circumstances described above I still get this additional sound on the right hand side. Could be another throttle component, but not in Neutral the way they demonstrated today. Oh well. I may have a look at the plugs after the the next haul to see. I may see if I can feel any vibration through the throttle body.
In the meantime, I will assume the worst, and play it safe and avoid this noise actually arising.

Does pinking cause a drop in power?

Interesting if it does because the bike stilled pulls fine, when it happens....

 

[Burfcontrol]

Just a long shot. Check all exhaust mounting points and junctions. I had a cheap Y-piece which fractured along the mounting point under the gearbox. Couldn't see it until I took it off, but it was rattling like a bastard although only at a particular rev range. Sounded sort of hollow and metallic, like pinking.
As I say, it's a long shot but worth a look.
There was another thread on here somewhere with a similar problem caused by fractured crash bars.
Just get hold of everything and give it a good wiggle (phnaar phnaar).

Good luck - and enjoy the trip. Worrying about what might happen in the future won't stop it happening but it will ruin what your experiencng in the present.

Jim

 

[sjwb]

Let us get this RIGHT!

Pinking is caused by incandescant particles (carbon) in the combustion chamber igniting the charge BEFORE the spark. A noise generally light in tone

Detonation is caused by uneven flame travel, exacerbated by high load and not necessarily low crank speed and of course incorrect ignition timing. In fact high speed detonation is deadly and will wreck a motor in seconds. Detonation is heard to be hard and lower in tone than pinking.

As for American fuel classification being different to Europe, don't we all use RON as the standard?

 

[cookie]

As for American fuel classification being different to Europe, don't we all use RON as the standard?

no

but i did get the point difference wrong