I went to ride my friends Zephyr Monday(the one I painted the engine in)and started it up and about 5 seconds later the oil pressure light started to flicker on and the engine started knocking somewhere down low. I figure between me and the fellow that owns it and my other friend that was riding it last Sunday, it has about 45 minutes of riding time on it since purchase late last fall. I pulled the engine, torn it down and here is what I found in the oil pump screen and the oil pump filter. Lot's of metal in a matrix that looks like a paper shop towel. The only way I can think of it getting in the engine would be that the last guys that built it overlooked it when the engine went back together and it must have sat in a corner of the lower case for a while till it broke loose and ended up in the screens. I started to question whether I did it somehow when I painted the engine but I didn't even take the side covers off or the oil pan and I don't have paper shop towels, I use rubber gloves most of the time and when not I use old towels and such. The number four rod bearing(bushing?)is eaten up the worst but the rest aren't bad and neither is the rod journals. I took the crank, rods, and bearings out to a machinist friend with the Kawasaki crank and rod specs and he said they the journals will polish out and the rod will re-con easy so when he gets done he will tell me which bearings to order. There was no traces of the stray metal anywhere else in the engine, not even in the oil filter. Here is the damage.
The lower screen is plugged level.
After I dug the stuff out I see the screen gasket has been sucked partially in.
The oil pump filter screen was also completely blocked.
There was about this same amount in the bottom screen.
It will be back on the road before you know it!
