00' R6 engine noise

My 2000 R6, with almost 16,000 mi is making a "clunking" or "knocking" noise while it is running. I can hear it mainly while it is ideling, and the clunking noise speeds up with the engine speed. It has grown louder since I have noticed it, and I have stopped riding it, but I am unable to figure out what it is. It sounds like it is coming from the right side (as you are sitting on it), near the timing chain, up by the camshafts, but upon inspection, the chain seemed tight. Anyone have any ideas?

Normally chains sound like a rattle, and kind of go away as the RPM's go up and change around. I can think of 3 posibilities:

1. Piston slap. I don't think its this, but its a possibility.
2. Rod Knock. Again, I don't think so, but a possibility.

3. The knock of death. It sounds to me more like detonation more than anything else. At least that's how detonation is usually described. You could be on your way to a seisure man. What octane gas are you using??? What I would do is drain all the gas that's in there right now, and put higher octane in there. If you're already using 91 or 93 octane, buy race gas. Don't go to leaded, typical VP stuff should be fine. If the higher octane cures it, then its detonation. Race gas is kind of expensive, but a little bit of race gas is cheaper than an engine tear down by the shop. If it is detonation, then it needs to be fixed pronto. Cuz it'll lead to pre-ignition too, and your engine will go bye bye in a hurry if it was still alive at that point.

There's also something else you can do to see if its detonation. You said that you checked the cam chain, so I'm assuming that you know how to take an engine apart. If you don't, then don't do this. If you do, then go ahead and pull the head off and check the top of the pistons. You'll see the piston(s) that have detonation with scaring around the edge of the piston head. It'll look like someone took a punch or something and just went Flinstone style on its sorry ass.

Another way you might be able to check is to just look into the spark plug holes with a light. It can be hard to see, and sometimes inconclusive, but its easier than hauling the whole head off. Just have a look around. If the pistons look like your dog got to them, then you know what it was.



Sorry about the bad news man, but I don't want you to get stuck somewhere. Detonation and Pre-ignition are bad news. Of course there's the possibility that it could be something else that's totally harmless, but the way you described it... Better safe than sorry. Good luck man.

Thanks for your input; I appreciate it!

As far as the gas is concerned, I always put in 91 octane... I live in a pretty small town, so I don't know how likely I am to find a higher octane gas, but I will look around and see what I can find. Do you know what leads up to/causes detonation or pre-ignition? Unfortunately I am not familiar with these enough to know...

Detonation happens when it gets too hot in the cylinder. Higher octane gas is harder to burn, so it doesn't explode and or burn from the outside. The knocking you hear is a sound wave that happens when the normal flame goes out and explodes around the edge of the piston and cylinder. Squish bands help prevent this.

Pre-ignition happens when one spot in the cylinder gets SO hot that it ignites the mixture in the cylinder before the spark plug. The result? It blasts a hole right through the piston because of the 2 flames slamming together. What causees this is either a small piece of metal that's in the cylinder, carbon build up... anything that's in there that kind of protrudes so it gets WAY SUPER hot.