885i big end failure!

[pip 885]

i have a 1999 885i tiger which was running fine when all of sudden the engine seized!!. when i stripped the engine down two of the three big end shells had brocken and were badly worn, especially the middle one. the bike has only done thirty six thousand miles and has been regularly serviced,has anyone else had problems like this, as most of the people i have spoken to say that these engines are very good and reliable.

[JetdocX]

Were you losing coolant?  Was the oil milky?

[pip 885]

no, coolant was fine as was the oil level, when the engine seized the temperature gauge was reading normal and the oil light was off, i am completely baffled why it happened.

[JetdocX]

Had you been doing regular oil changes?  Were you inspecting the filter for metal?  Maybe there was some advance warning signs in the oil filter?  Just wondering.

Did the noises change at all before it got quiet?

Barring any abuse, I'd expect an engine to frag itself way before that mileage if it was a production/assembly error.  

Plans?  Used engine?  Sorry for the bad luck.  Got pictures for us?

[Chris Canning]

The 885i is one of those engine that Triumph produced like the 595 engine :roll: and in the end got sweeped under the carpet,hence why the 955 was rushed out,so much so it appeared in the Tiger before the bike the engine was built for the Daytona,sorry for being honest but it was a dud( I had 2 both new  :( ),there are some good ones out there but jeeze there sure are a lot of bad one's,blown head gaskets are a favourite with them.

[pip 885]

thanks for the replies, i am not sure what to do with the bike now! do you know if an engine out of a later 955i would fit ,and if so would i need the engine managament unit as well.

[Chris Canning]

Almost certainley it will fit,but you will need a heart and lung transplant,ie injection/ecu,one of Triumph's quirks most parts off the 885i have a different number from the 955 but will fit,ie all the body work i have on my 955 is off an 885i.

[pip 885]

a friend of mine who is an engineer has had a look at my engine, he tells me that there is very little wear in the big end journals on the crankshaft and that i will get away with just fitting new shells.this is good news, but he couldn't see what had caused the problem? the shells that had failed had disintigrated, the bronze inner linings of the shell had came away from the metal outer part !! he told me that it could have happened because of the wrong sort of oil being used, but i allways use totally synthetic oil, but the person i bought the bike from only ever used semi-synthetic. iwill rebuild the engine with oem shells , iwill replace the main bearings as well while ihave it apart and just hope that it doesn't do it again! does anyone know where i can get a resonably priced complete gasket set as the original triumph items seem really expensive. another strange thing is that the shells in cylinder no 1 were unmarked, no 2 were completly destroyed and no3 were pretty bad and one had snapped in two.

[Timbox2]

wasnt there an issue on the 885 engine of the chrome plating coming off the big end bolts or something like that??

[Bixxer Bob]

wasnt there an issue on the 885 engine of the chrome plating coming off the big end bolts or something like that??

Why would big end bolts be chromed...???  :roll:

[Sin_Tiger]

Normally only liners are chromed, never heard of that on Triumph engines though, usually restricted to high combustion temperature engines like turbo diesels.

Can't think of a reason for chroming big end bolts unless you have an HD  :lol:

[Chris Canning]

It wasn't chrome,it was the plating,the internal engine bolts had the incorrect plating on, which flaked off and blocked up the oil ways.

[pip 885]

hi, thought i would let anyone know that rebuild of dead big end engine has started, crankcases have been throughly cleaned and inspected for damage or any clues as to why it all went horribly wrong. every thing seems to be ok, i stripped the oil pump and everything looks undamaged, but in my haynes workshop manual it says that the outer rotor has a dot marked on it which should face outwards,it faced inwards on mine!! i dont know if this would make any difference as it looks exactly the same either way? i have got to fit the new big end shells and check to make sure they are ok, and then i will clean up the head and grind the valves in , i`ll keep you posted on progress, it will probably take me a while as i only get a few hours here and there of shed time,but one day she will be back on the road , one day!!

[KuzzinKenny]

Hey pip 885 !! i wouldn`t put anything back together untill you find something wrong !! you could have the same problem when its been rebuilt  :shock:

just my thoughts !!

KK

[pip 885]

i`ve checked everything over that i can think of, and even had my mate who`s an engineer and very knowledgable cast his beady eye over it , but we still havn`t got a clue why it went wrong. we can`t find anything wrong with anything inside the engine , all i can do is rebuild and hope for the best. :roll: here`s to good luck