JE piston story. So long before I had an n54, I had a bike from 2016 to 2020. It was a 2010 KLX 250sf, and it had a single-cylinder dohc engine at 249cc. It was really my first ever vehicle that I started seriously tinkering with. Exhaust, intake filter, re-jetting the carb (basically old-school tuning) changing the final drive sprocket for taller gearing, and eventually I did a big-bore upgrade, where I had my cylinder bored out from 249cc to 351cc (BIG a$$ upgrade!) and was provided a new piston, rings, wrist pin, & gaskets. I learned A LOT, and I was freaking scared I was gonna screw up my perfectly-functioning, low-mileage bike. But I wanted more power, so I did it. It was essentially a top-end rebuild of the engine, involving cooling disassembly, valvetrain removal, zip-tying the timing chain, sliding out the cylinder block & removing the piston head, then reverse to install, & breaking the new cylinder & piston in before going ham. The guy who provided the kit ran it as a business for our bike's community. He sold them regularly for years, and I was provided a JE piston with a sheet that displayed all the measurements & machining parameters, along with the invoice to the guy, & the JE Pistons logo. I didn't know what any of it meant, I just installed it, lol, according to the instructions with the piston ring diagram & everything, etc. So the bike is finally put back together, fresh oil & coolant, everything checked over line 6 times, and I go out to ride out. It rides fine for a couple of days on & off, and I'm being careful to not rev it too high, and to vary the revs. It overheats. First time I've seen the temp light on the dash, and I pull over. Bike refuses to start back up for saftey. It's a pretty cold day, and bike is still hot 10 minutes later. I start it up again when temp light goes away but it overheats again. Some Harley Rider drove by in his built LSA chevy c10 pickup and towed me home. Turns out, the bike has been burning oil like crazy. It holds 1.6L of oil, and the indicator showed there was like none left. It had only been like 900 miles, and intervals are supposed to be every 3500 miles. So I had no choice but to take it apart again. I called the guy who sold the kit, he said "something's not right, send me back your cylinder & piston, and I'll check it out." while implying that I installed something wrong. He gets back to me a few weeks later and says that the rings failed, and he hasn't seen it happen before, but it started happening with a few of his other customers too, so he's looking into it, and his voice sounded sad. We stay in contact, and two months later, sends me my cylinder back, freshly honed, & a brand new piston & rings & gaskets, to install it again. He calls me and says JE piston sent him a bad batch of rings, and it screwed over him & all his customers. I only had to pay for return shipping the first time, so this guy essentially ate the cost of warranty-ing everything, multiple times. Felt bad for the guy, couldn't imagine a supplier f-king up like that. Bike ran great when I installed everything the second time, and kept going hard on it until I sold it in 2020. Every brand has its bad day I guess..
Idk why SEMA gets so overhyped when it's a show for speciality shit that most of us end users wont use or need.. the PRI show is way better since they actually show things that the typical end user would need/use
Good on ya man love seeing a company grow big ups!! Im from down in new zealand rippin on the n54 and love ya content, gota few drag videos on ma channel if ya wana look ✌️
JE piston story.
So long before I had an n54, I had a bike from 2016 to 2020. It was a 2010 KLX 250sf, and it had a single-cylinder dohc engine at 249cc.
It was really my first ever vehicle that I started seriously tinkering with.
Exhaust, intake filter, re-jetting the carb (basically old-school tuning) changing the final drive sprocket for taller gearing, and eventually I did a big-bore upgrade, where I had my cylinder bored out from 249cc to 351cc (BIG a$$ upgrade!) and was provided a new piston, rings, wrist pin, & gaskets.
I learned A LOT, and I was freaking scared I was gonna screw up my perfectly-functioning, low-mileage bike. But I wanted more power, so I did it.
It was essentially a top-end rebuild of the engine, involving cooling disassembly, valvetrain removal, zip-tying the timing chain, sliding out the cylinder block & removing the piston head, then reverse to install, & breaking the new cylinder & piston in before going ham.
The guy who provided the kit ran it as a business for our bike's community. He sold them regularly for years, and I was provided a JE piston with a sheet that displayed all the measurements & machining parameters, along with the invoice to the guy, & the JE Pistons logo.
I didn't know what any of it meant, I just installed it, lol, according to the instructions with the piston ring diagram & everything, etc.
So the bike is finally put back together, fresh oil & coolant, everything checked over line 6 times, and I go out to ride out.
It rides fine for a couple of days on & off, and I'm being careful to not rev it too high, and to vary the revs.
It overheats.
First time I've seen the temp light on the dash, and I pull over. Bike refuses to start back up for saftey. It's a pretty cold day, and bike is still hot 10 minutes later. I start it up again when temp light goes away but it overheats again.
Some Harley Rider drove by in his built LSA chevy c10 pickup and towed me home.
Turns out, the bike has been burning oil like crazy. It holds 1.6L of oil, and the indicator showed there was like none left. It had only been like 900 miles, and intervals are supposed to be every 3500 miles.
So I had no choice but to take it apart again.
I called the guy who sold the kit, he said "something's not right, send me back your cylinder & piston, and I'll check it out." while implying that I installed something wrong.
He gets back to me a few weeks later and says that the rings failed, and he hasn't seen it happen before, but it started happening with a few of his other customers too, so he's looking into it, and his voice sounded sad.
We stay in contact, and two months later, sends me my cylinder back, freshly honed, & a brand new piston & rings & gaskets, to install it again. He calls me and says JE piston sent him a bad batch of rings, and it screwed over him & all his customers. I only had to pay for return shipping the first time, so this guy essentially ate the cost of warranty-ing everything, multiple times. Felt bad for the guy, couldn't imagine a supplier f-king up like that.
Bike ran great when I installed everything the second time, and kept going hard on it until I sold it in 2020.
Every brand has its bad day I guess..
Vader solutions in AZ does them too now
Does what?
love to be the first to watch your videos john, im selling my 2019 q50 this week and im getting myself a 2010 335i e92 thanks to you
Good choice!!!
Make sure it’s n54!!!
@@paulpachl3137 2010 is n54
@@paulpachl3137 n54 ftw!
Good to know. I just got some acl rod bearings put in cuz nobody had king rod bearings 😄
Idk why SEMA gets so overhyped when it's a show for speciality shit that most of us end users wont use or need.. the PRI show is way better since they actually show things that the typical end user would need/use
Good on ya man love seeing a company grow big ups!! Im from down in new zealand rippin on the n54 and love ya content, gota few drag videos on ma channel if ya wana look ✌️
75% of the video was your face!
Im placing this comment here so you can see it some more. 😊