Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Rebuild Update


Finally I was able source last major part and most expensive part the Cylinder/Piston assembly, had to run around place to place through almost half of the city and had to make 20+ calls and pay in-advance to source the part.

This is the updated Cylinder Piston block straight from the 2020 390, Part No. 36JP0031


The full Head work has been completed and Head has been assembled. New Valves and it's lapping done, Valve clearances checked and Shims replaced according, new Valve oil stem seals, new Intake and Exhaust Cams assembled, new Spark Plugs. What's left on the head to is swap the Oil Pressure and Coolant Temperature sensor from the old Head and put in new Timing chain, tensionor and guides once the Block is in place.

Whats left to be done is put the new Block, Clutch plates, change the water pump seals for preventive measure, cleaning and de-carbing the injector and throttle body.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Your issues looks similar and 80-90% same as mine. Welcome to the club.
22k kms is too soon for needing a full engine rebuild. There is nothing like a new engine. But apart from the inner casings where Engine number is engraved you can pretty much replace everything you want with the engine making it like brand new!

Everything in the bottom end should be OK, I am not sure how much mechanically sound you are, so just don't go by whatever service center says, try verifying manually everything whatever they say needs to be changed and broken, if you dont know how to check, then please post pics here so anyone one of can help or take a friend who knows stuff.

1. Check for crank bearing play(try pulling and pushing on the crank rod up and down). If no play then no need for full rebuild. (99% this should case is my guess given the kms run). So it wont be 45-50K bill if you dont need this job.
2. Check the cylinder walls next, if no scoring(vertical lines) visible on them means you can just only check/change pistons next.
3. Check Piston sides for scoring, if no scroing then replace only the Piston rings, if you see scoring then change only the Pistion
4. Change everything else the top head - 4 valves, valve lapping, valve oil seals, timing chain, both chain guides, Camshaft and Cam rod(optional based on wear)
5. Changing clutch friction plates would be good if you changing everything in the head and pistons.
6. While you are at it changing Coolant Water pump seals would be good as a preventive measure.

Costs expetced before you get into the job. Perpare your wallet
1. Full Rebuild = 40-45K
2. Only Cylinder/Piston block and Head work = 30-35K
3. Only Piston and Head work = 25-30K
4. Only Piston rings and Head work = 15K-18K
5. Head work only = 8-10K

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Hi guys,

I was hoping I could get some advise on my bike (RC 390, 2015).

Around 9-10 months ago, I was consistently getting the low oil pressure warning for ~3 months (I took it to the SVC twice, where both times they filled up the oil). Especially while riding longer distances, it would pop up. Soon, it would start appearing within 10 mins of riding itself.

So I took it to the SVC a third time, where he checked this issue, and said that there was white smoke (even though I couldn't see it) and that it could be some engine issue with the piston rings (not sure if he said rings, I don't know much at all about engine parts). I decided to get it checked out over the weekend. On the same Friday, I was travelling on a highway road, and there was a loud sound and the bike turned off while riding. I got the battery etc. checked so it seems like an engine seizure.

After this, due to this covid scenario etc. the bike has been lying unused for 6 months. I'm finally getting it repaired this month, from a reputed mechanic in Bangalore (KTM always seems to be shoddy and not skilled to work on this).

However, I've known friends with similar issues where a mechanic quotes ~30k and ends up giving a 60k bill. This has been my experience with many KTM centres across cities as well on all sorts of parts.

So I was hoping to be better educated on this before going. Considering an engine seizure, and that an engine is opened up rarely, I want to get everything done properly, so that it's as good as new. What are the parts that are normally changed? In such a scenario, is there a concept of a full, new engine?


Thanks!

Edit: 22k kms

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

RLP has its own parameters. If you put the bike in a paddock and if the speedometer works, then either you have engine mounted speed sensor or rear wheel mounted speed sensor. If the vehicle's reading gets low or reads 0 when the front stationary, it means you have a front wheel mounted sensor.



Thank you Kiran. Seems KTM has been working with the heat management and, yes those are coolant orifices. The more the coolant orifices, the better the cooling efficiency. Keep us posted.

Cheers!
VJ

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Rebuild Update

Slowly but surely parts have started to arrive 1-by-1, the Head assembly came in yesterday to SVC straight from Pune! The whole shipping crate was kept under quarantine for 4 days before opening the individual parts boxes! Still waiting on Piston/Cylinder assembly to arrive, it's out of stock everywhere in the city, due to lockdown it'll take some and I totally understand!

This puppy came straight fresh out of the foundry, manufacturing date 29/Jun/2020. Latest MRP ₹5565!
This is the updated 2017+ head bearing the part no. JY511137 compared to older pre-2017 head part no. JY511067.

Notice the 1st image left side coolant channel in the head has 2 small splits vs 1 big split in older head. There are also 2 extra small channels right side above and below, this was missing in older one! Hoping it'll run much more cooler now and fan should kick-in later than before!

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Yes, I got it doubly wrong - even the non-ABS classic Pulsars/NS-RS had only a magnetic sensor.

So your model doesn't have a pulser ring. That's interesting - it explains why the rotor bolts are bulging and normal hex instead of the usual Allen bolts they use there.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

the rear abs speed sensor is there as part of the abs mechanism. i dont think the rc has rlp

even without abs (like the older model ktm 200's) the ktm's never had the worm gear setup.. it was a sensor on the front (attached to the fork leg with the wire going up, to inside the headlight assy area). iirc it picks up the readings off the rotor bolts as they spin. i've had this sensor replaced once when the speeds were showing up erratically.

in case you put the bike (390) on a paddock and test, i guess the speed from rear wheel is displayed on the console (because the front is stationary and it also doesn't have any sensor on the engine side like a cbr250r does.)

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

Top speed performance is irrelevant. If your bike is showing signs of losing performance like power drop or heat increase or odd, noises, best to check engine . Top speed depends on the tyre conditions, road conditions,uphill or down , bike oil condition.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

So if put on a paddock, it displays the rear wheel speed ignoring the front? So, Rear is the secondary input or only there for lift off protection?

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

From what I can say, and from my experience of the Duke, the Duke doesn't have a transmission speed sensor like the CBR or other bikes. The bike primarily, takes the speed values from the front wheel and not from the rear wheel. Even with the paddock on, for even the 2019 ones the speed is taken from the front wheel only and not from the rear.

Cheers!
VJ

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

My plain-jane understanding of the 2-wheeler ABS system is that it needs atleast 2 speed sensors - one that shows road speed (reference for the ABS computer) and another from/on the wheel ABS should act. Post ABS introduction, Bajaj has removed the "normal" worm-gear speed sensor from all vehicles (eg: NS/RS). So my guess is that the rear wheel speed sensor supplies the normal speed indication on the speedo/for ABS reference and also might act for rear wheel lift-off (RLP). It is easy to put a pulse-r ring on the rear wheel than a worm gear. That's why it was indicating speed even on paddock. I don't remember seeing/reading about an internal speed sensor on the NS/RS/KTMs. Actually I wonder if it's different to mount the sensor on the rear wheel vs. countershaft because they are anyway connected.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

yes, i got confused.
the rc390 has an abs speed sensor on both wheels (the tiny black thingy near the abs ring).. and these collect the speed readings.
there is no internal speed sensor.
what model year is yours ?

the earlier 200's (non abs) have a speed sensor located on the front fork .. i've had it replaced once on my D200. i got it confused with this.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

I think what you are referring to are wheel speed sensors? i think they just sense wheel rotation differential (one wheel moving faster than the other) to sense wheel lock amd activate ABS. I could be wrong though, please feel free to correct.

It definitely has an internal speed sensor though because the bike was indicating speed while on the paddock.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

there is a speedo sensor on the front (fixed on the fork).
and maybe one on the rear?? because its an abs model.. am not sure about this part.
but it definitely doesn't have one in the gearbox like the cbr250 does.

i wouldn't be too worried with the speeds you are hitting, and there are no ecu updates as such that affect the rev limiter thus far. the rev limiter is still at 10500rpm and there will be a small variation in top speed depending on conditions.

Re: KTM RC 390 Ownership Experience

I am just as clueless as you. As I mentioned, the redline being reduced is just speculation because that explains the top speed coming down. Along with the other possible explanation, speedo error.

Besides, that's legit the most difficult question ever. The bar graph tach on this thing is smaller than an ant. I bet I couldn't tell you even with a microscope.

Nevertheless, let me get back to you with how much this thing is spinning currently.