Oil pan aluminum or magnesium?

[Ishirock]

Yesterday I dropped of a curb and caught the flimsy stock bash plate on the edge of the curb and broke off the mounting bracket. This put a nice quarter size hole in the oil pan of my Tenere and spewed fresh synthetic oil all over the place. After removing the oil pan and assessing the situation it looks like a weld job is my only alternative before I leave on a 3k mile trip to Oregon from Ohio in less than a week. I checked at the local Yamaha dealer and the $250 pans are on back order so I must not be the first to have this issue.

I have the pan scheduled to be welded on Monday, but I was asked if it was Aluminum or Magnesium over the phone. Does anyone know? This is the large oil pan, not the small oil pump inspection plate. If it is Magnesium I will need to find a different welder or go with liquid steel.

If the weld job comes out OK I will be spending the $250 replacement dollars on a new skid plate so this doesn't happen again.

 

[tomatocity]

You are not the only one to beak the pan and the others had it welded. I think PNWrider was one the the casualties. Do a search and you will find the posts.

 

[stevepsd]

Aluminum

 

[EricV]

Magnesium is much, much more expensive than aluminum. It's rarely used in automotive or motorcycle manufacturing now. There are other chemical issues as well. Burning VW blocks come to mind from the old air cooled days.

The pan should repair just fine and re-use of the metal gaskets is not a problem.

Good luck on the SW Motec skid plate. There is a report on the forum of someone cracking/breaking the oil pan through one of those already.

 

[stevepsd]

If you already broke your oil pan, the SW-Motech skid would not have been my first choice.....

 

[wfopete]

If you already broke your oil pan, the SW-Motech skid would not have been my first choice.....

::026:: An SW-Motech skid plate (and most others) serve only to catch the broken parts after your "Oh Sh-t!" moment.

 

[stevepsd]

So what skid plate do you recommend?

Unless you are planning on doing some extreme off-roading, then my choice is the AltRider plate. It allowed my ST to survive the devils punchbowl in the Colorado Rockies...I should have had the Rumbux or Jaxon's (neither were available then).

 

[Dallara]

So what skid plate do you recommend?

If money is no object - Jaxon's at RideOnADV (http://www.rideonadv.com/Ride_On_Adv/Home.html)

If that's too expensive, or you want a bit more access for cleaning the engine area, etc., and you still want the best protection - RumBux (from our own forum member, EricV)

Those two bolt entirely to the frame, as does one in development but not in production yet - the ACD.

All the rest bolt in some way to the engine, and some even to that ever-so-fragile sump you already broke. To my knowledge the only one that attaches to the frame in the back and *ONLY* the big engine case lugs at the front is the Hepco-Becker. Every other one available, including the AltRider, in some way bolts to the smaller ears and tabs of the sump at least for one mount, or has some sort of "ear" or "tab" itself or part of its mounting that can punch a hole in the sump or case.

There are entire threads here on this forum devoted entirely to the skid plate issue and the various pluses and minuses of each. A quick search should find you plenty of info.

Just my two centavos... YMMV.

Dallara



p.s. I ended up selling an Altrider skid plate after getting it home and seeing how it mounted, and then promptly bought a RumBux.

~

 

[stevepsd]

If money is no object - Jaxon's at RideOnADV (http://www.rideonadv.com/Ride_On_Adv/Home.html)

If that's too expensive, or you want a bit more access for cleaning the engine area, etc., and you still want the best protection - RumBux (from our own forum member, EricV)

Those two bolt entirely to the frame, as does one in development but not in production yet - the ACD.

All the rest bolt in some way to the engine, and some even to that ever-so-fragile sump you already broke. To my knowledge the only one that attaches to the frame in the back and *ONLY* the big engine case lugs at the front is the Hepco-Becker. Every other one available, including the AltRider, in some way bolts to the smaller ears and tabs of the sump at least for one mount, or has some sort of "ear" or "tab" itself or part of its mounting that can punch a hole in the sump or case.

There are entire threads here on this forum devoted entirely to the skid plate issue and the various pluses and minuses of each. A quick search should find you plenty of info.

Just my two centavos... YMMV.

Dallara



p.s. I ended up selling an Altrider skid plate after getting it home and seeing how it mounted, and then promptly bought a RumBux.

~

Although I have a AltRider skid, and am thinking about the Rumbux skid (if I can keep my AltRider bars), I was impressed with how well the AltRider plate protected my ST, without causing any damage to the front mounting locations on the case (not mounted to the sump in any way, shape or form btw) or ANY damage to the ST; it uses the same large boss that the Hepco-Becker attaches to along with a wimpy bracket that attaches to 2 of the 6mm screws on the plate next to the oil filter.

One this one ride, I ended up exposing my skid (& ST) to more carnage than many on this site, and was impressed with how well the Altrider plate performed...it sacrificed itself and kept all the precious black stuff inside the motor.

The Altrider plate was not so fortunate. I bent it in so many different places, that I ended up cracking almost every weld on the plate and even bent the very thick rear mounting bracket. This occurred on what turned out to be a 'double black-diamond' off-road route in the Colorado Rockies, one of the most dangerous trails in Colorado, filled with steep steps, boulder filled river crossings, and filled with baby head boulders for miles and miles and miles. Some that stopped me dead in my tracks from such severe hits on the skid.

You can read about my adventure here:http://www.yamahasupertenere.com/index.php?topic=2252.msg37747#msg37747

I ended up using a 12 ton press to straighten out the skid and mounting brackets and re-welding all the broken welds and it's on my bike now.

I don't really care how most of the plates mount to the motor, and am leaning to one of the frame-mount only skids, but it appears that the front mounting bosses that the Altrider and Hepco-Becker use are strong, probably strong enough for what most people on the site would expose their ST to. But you never know. Don't know if I was just lucky or.....

 

[Koinz]

Steve, I have always been told that the weld should be stronger than the metal it's being welded too. It looks like in this case the weld is too brittle and cracked down the length. Altrider should take note of this considering all the welds were pretty much consistent.

Oh, and good product testing on your part as well. ::012::

 

[stevepsd]

Steve, I have always been told that the weld should be stronger than the metal it's being welded too. It looks like in this case the weld is too brittle and cracked down the length. Altrider should take note of this considering all the welds were pretty much consistent.

Oh, and good product testing on your part as well. ::012::

What was interesting is that wherever the plate was welded on both sides, it held (very few places, btw). When I re-welded the plate, both side were done. I mentioned this to Jeremy at AltRider as a product improvement....

 

[~TABASCO~]

Steve, I have always been told that the weld should be stronger than the metal it's being welded too. It looks like in this case the weld is too brittle and cracked down the length. Altrider should take note of this considering all the welds were pretty much consistent.

Oh, and good product testing on your part as well. ::012::

This is true.. But there are more factors involved. It has to do with the series of aluminum involved, pool depth, Etc... Also if the parts are tempered. If this is re welded it will probably be stronger in the weld but it will fracture and crack on the out side of the pool of the weld. That is is the new week area... The best way to 'fix' this is to add a brace on the inside and weld all that in. Or re weld it all up and have it heat treated... ::008::