Exhaust Leak. HELP!

I've had my 2002 VFR800 for a year now with no issues and it has about 25k on it. Yesterday I was out for a ride and noticed the engine had an audible exhaust leak combined with occasional sputtering. This morning I found the leak with my finger but it is coming out of a hole in the engine just below the exhaust port on the rear left cylinder. The hole looks like this:



(picture of the forward port, couldn't get a good picture of rear port)


These holes look like they were machined in by Honda and are near each exhaust port, but I can't find any references in my shop manual or why exhaust would be pouring out of them. What is the purpose for these holes? The bike doesn't leak fluids, blow smoke, or have any other issues. I'm at a loss on this one and I don't want to rip the engine apart without some idea of what is wrong. Suggestions?

 

Are you 100% sure it's coming from that? and not just from the header gasket?

At any rate, probably best to snug the header bolts.

As for the holes, I do not know what they are. Maybe PAIR ports that have been blocked? I don't know what the PAIR system looks like on the 5th gen.

 

Here is a picture of my front head RH exhaust port before I fixed some obvious damage and a broken stud (long story). You can see that small port below the exhaust port but I don't think it's open to the exhaust flow. I do think that you may have a bad gasket.

 

Damn Jethro got everything in his library :thumb:
Check all the clamps at header and the pipe, check all the bolts make sure they are tight.

 

I investigated further and pulled the spark plug and found this!:



as far as I can tell the spark plug came loose/fowled out, melted the threads, and the heat worked it's way up the header until it had melted the spark plug boot. I think that hole is a drain for any moisture trapped around the head and when the boot melted it started blowing exhaust out of the hole. I'm a little surprised this happened and not entirely sure why. The bike was recently serviced by Honda and plugs should have been installed to the right torque. I bought a new spark plug and the engine held compression when I cranked it, but I'm worried there may be damage to the engine. Hopefully there isn't any damage to the threads or pistons otherwise the bike has turned into a time bomb. I'm going to take the bike in to Honda to be inspected one I get the new boot and have the bike running again.

I was only about 2k miles from the scheduled inspection of the spark plugs, but I think I might check them all now. :/

Thanks for your guys' help.

 

damn that is an ugly mess, i would not think there would be any engine issues due to it

 

Hope it all works out Joe.

Q: You said the bike was recently serviced by Honda. What did they do? I've accepted that I need to pay people for my inability to do shit, but if someone worked on my bike/car and I experience a problem shortly after them performing the work, get ready for an earth shattering kaboom.

 

Oh hell yes, if you had your local Honda dealer do the plug change and service, I don't care how long its been ...take it back with that messed up plug and show that the mechanic didnt do his expert job that you paid hard earned $$$$ for. Time to talk to the owner............JMO....let us know

 

I hate to tell you if it was hot enough to melt steel plug base, what did it do to the aluminum piston and head? WTF is that? I've never seen a plug like that, even on the web. Where did all the metal from the plug go? Inside cylinder? You probably should do a compression test at least. Check the plug threads in the head first.

There's other ramifications from that much heat and pressure. Best not to go there now.

 

Hello… I know this was 10 years ago but I had the exact thing happen to me but mine did it in Utah and I am from Canada… what was the end result with your engine?