New Motorcycle Issues

[Steve G.]

  The bike.  2022 Royal Enfield Himalayan. 441cc  EFI.  The perfect fit for a family member for his 6 miles commute to work, 7.5 months a year. New price $4450.
  Early issue turned out to be faulty handlebar  kill switch.
  After the first dealership oil change and check over,  the bike began burning oil on cold startups, 2-3 minutes of considerable white smoke. The dealership noticed this when they were installing the new kill switch. They put a  ‘boroscope ’ camera inside the spark plug hole, revealing cylinder wall carnage, severe pitting they said. Now it’s gone from a bad kill switch to  complete engine removal and head/cylinder removal, with possible complete new engine  under warranty. Certainly new piston and cylinder.
  Luckily it’s winter time!!!

  What would cause such carnage? Broken ring?

[hardrockminer]

If the cylinder wall is scored one can guess it's a broken ring, or perhaps a piece of a valve, or even a piece of the piston.  The engine has to come apart for a definite post mortum.

[Steve G.]

  They said it’s coming apart. Strange, it did not lose power output  when it started smoking. And, after it was warmed up, it stopped smoking.

[Twisted_Twin]

Better hope the service adviser isn't the guy who used to work for Pacific Motosports

[Galactica]

Strange, it did not lose power output  when it started smoking. And, after it was warmed up, it stopped smoking.
[/quote]

Didn’t loose power?  It’s an Enfield.  How would you tell the difference? 

[Steve G.]

  Good point Ross, it’s not a powerful engine at all.
  The dealer, International, does not inspire confidence  in me. A complete new engine perhaps.
 At least RE has a 3 yr lunlimited guarantee.

[Twisted_Twin]

  Good point Ross, it’s not a powerful engine at all.
  The dealer, International, does not inspire confidence  in me. A complete new engine perhaps.
 At least RE has a 3 yr lunlimited guarantee.

I'm curious to see how this plays out.

I think they make some good looking bikes and you don't need goofy horsepower to have a lot of fun. If the warranty support is good, that's a lot of bike for $4500

[Steve G.]

  Good point Ross, it’s not a powerful engine at all.
  The dealer, International, does not inspire confidence  in me. A complete new engine perhaps.
 At least RE has a 3 yr lunlimited guarantee.

I'm curious to see how this plays out.

I think they make some good looking bikes and you don't need goofy horsepower to have a lot of fun. If the warranty support is good, that's a lot of bike for $4500

  I much prefer the 650 twin. It really is a bargain right now at $4999. Great engine.

  I’ll keep everyone updated on this. I’ve seen many Smokey engines, but it’s usually easy to guess the problem based on engine characteristics.   Not this one so far.

[hardrockminer]

If you hadn't mentioned the cylinder scoring I would have first thought of valve seals.  Oil leaks through the seals into the combustion chamber when the bike isn't running and causes it to smoke on startup.  The smoke clears after a couple of minutes and the bike would run fine.

If the cylinders are scored I would guess there is a compression issue.  If the mechanic is anywhere near half deceent he would have done that first, along with a leakdown testt.

[rz5mark]

Could it have inhaled something, debris from manufacturing ?

[Steve G.]

  It could have inhaled something. Heck, they have Friday and Monday bikes out of Italy, surely they have a Tuesday and Thursday bikes out of India??
  It only started smoking AFTER the dealer did the first service. Hmmmmm?

[Galactica]

Like Bill says, hard to say until you do some basic things.  Valve clearance, compression test, leakdown test.  These three basic things should help narrow things down a bit.   Haven’t heard much to give confidence in International though.

[Steve G.]

  I got out of dog sitting for an hour. Went to the shop service desk. They don’t want to talk about it.
 We shall see.

[Twisted_Twin]

You get a free can of mustache wax while you wait in the selfie area though.

[Steve G.]

    Absolutely!   And hang out with my fellow “motordude bro’s”  with matching super tight jeans,  sipping  espresso matcha,  on the new chesterfield lounge they’ve just set up.
 Oh BTW, they are also the new Indian dealer, and CFMoto dealer, so you’ve got a chief sitting in the middle of 2 UTV’s.