Talon 1000r engine rebuild

[spakins]

Hi All,

Unfortunately my talon was ingesting dirty air. Still investigating how this happened, but a local bike mechanic did a leak down confirming the piston/cylinder is the culprit. My talon has 1k miles and is out of warranty. The shop thinks we discovered early enough that other components were not yet damaged but a tear down is needed to confirm.

Compression is 95lbs in rear cylinder and 125lbs in front (4500’ elevation) vs 138lbs spec.

I have two questions:
1) should I go the route of a rebuild vs finding a new engine from a wrecked bike?

2) if I do rebuild, should I go with a high compression (11.5) piston. (I live and ride at 5,000 elevation and would like a little more power without the complexity of a turbo).

Appreciate any advice you have.

Phil

 

[Admin]

 

[906UP]

Sorry to hear about your trouble, sucks for sure. The air intake/filter system on the Talon leaves a little to be desired.

I'd look at it this way......
What is a used engine going to cost? Remember, a used engine brings it's own risk of not knowing the history of prior use, you could be buying an engine that has suffered wear from the same scenario.
Rebuilding/upgrading is likely to cost more if you're paying someone else to do the work but should be warranted if it's a reputable shop (ask before you agree to the work). Possibly cheaper route if you're able to do the work yourself, plus you'll know everything is new & within spec.

....and welcome to the site, lots of helpful folks here

 

[CID]

Someone else lost a Talon engine with low mileage and the throttle body tubes (or something in that area) weren't connected properly. Honda replaced his engine. If your connections weren't correct from the factory, you might still have a case regardless of the warranty expiring.

 

[HUCK]

I would ask your dealer to help out and see if Honda might cover under good faith help. It can't hurt .

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

If you are going to rebuild the engine you may as well throw some better parts in there while its apart. I would do 11.5-1 pistons, Kibble White +1mm oversize valves and a DCR camshaft while its torn down. And if you can swing it, find a good race engine builder in your area and have him port the head and do a 5 angle valve job when you get the valve seats cut for the bigger valves. At sea level that shoud put you in line with a Jackson turbo'd Talon horsepower wise.

 

[spakins]

Thanks for everyone’s advice. I may talk to the dealer and see if Honda would be willing to help.

@SLOWPOKE693, in terms of the build, your suggestion is in line with what I had in mind. I’m familiar with where to secure those parts, but not sure about the tune. Do you know where I could get a tune to support those upgrades?

I live in NV and do some riding in CA so want to keep my stock pipe to not draw attention to the CARB police.

 

[MDFMac]

as for a tune. your in NV. there are dynos there. back around 05 ish i rode armagosa with the HMF guys. some one there should be able to do it. but unfortunatly you cant just buy a tune for most of the mods you can do. jackson has there own tune and you cant even mod that.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Like @MDFMac said, find a place that is familiar with motorcycle/utv dyno tuning and have them write you a custom tune. If you are anywhere near HMF and they are willing to dyno tune your car, use them.

Don't forget to add a wide band O2 sensor bung to your header.

 

[SLOWPOKE693]

Another trick to give you a few extra HP is race fuel. I exclusively run a 50/50 mix of VP 110 leaded race fuel and mobil super unleaded in my Talon and KTM 350 EXC-F...... And my Honda lawn mower. Race fuel smells great! 🤣 Throttle response is alot better and the butt dyno acceleration test tells me it is quicker out of the hole and coming off corners vs just plain pump gas.

There are other VP race fuel blends out there that are capable of producing significantly more HP vs my method but paying $215 for a 5 gallon pail is crazy unless you are rich, I am not.