Hi I have a 2005 zx636, whilst riding the bike this morning one of the connections for the pc3 came loose, and my bike quickly ran on 3 cylinders. I wasn't able to get home to get it fixed and rode the bike a further 40 miles. I was giving it some stick and I am a little worried as to whether I did any damage to the bike whilst riding on 3 cylinders. I have now fixed the loose connection and the bike runs fine on all 4 cylinders.
Were there any negative effects by riding on 3 cylinders for an extended period of time? Please voice your inputs..

 

Why give a sick engine stick for 40 miles? Guess that you were not too worried then. Congrats on it running fine for ya now. I would still check the plugs. Although they may have cleaned up now.

 

I was giving it some stick because I initially thought that it was a bad spark plug. I was trying to clean it..
Is it possible for the unburntgasoline in cylinder #4 to pass through the piston rings and into the oil?
This is my main worry.

 

No worries. Any fuel would just get sucked out the exhaust valve anyways. You are not gonna hurt it by riding on a deal cylinder like that, so don't sweat it.

 

The pistons rings will not allow any unburnt gas to pass by them, just like when the engine is running normally. The unburnt air/fuel mixture will just get compressed and shoved out the exhaust where it would be ignited in the muffler making for a little backfiring.

Now you said the PC3 connection came off and this is an 05 636, so I assume it was not controlling the fuel injection nozzle and not even spitting fuel into the throttle body anyways. I bet the engine was running pretty cool for that 40 miles also.

I wouldn't worry about it, newer vehicles like the 2006+ Ram HEMI will shut off fuel to 4 cylinders making it a 4 cylinder engine whenever you are at less than 50% throttle. The only difference being that the crankshafts are still counterbalanced.

 

no negative done there, dont worry about it.

 

if your worried about it getting into the oil then just simply do an oil change, problem solved-o!

 

how can u tell if you're riding on 3 cylinders?

 

It says "Triumph" on the side of your gas tank.

 

Now that's funny! 675cc FTW