For 4600 miles ot the 5500 miles my kawasaki zx12r has sucked sand through the engine. I first learned about it when I went to do some upgrades to my bike at 3475 miles. I went ahead and finshed my upgrades and did not ride the bike until I took it to the dealer. They did a compression test and a leak down test and determined from that that there was not a problem and no damage to the engine. In all my years of working on engines, the only way I could tell if sand had done damage was to look in side the engine....
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They also told me per the kawasaki factory rep. That my upgrades can void my warranty. I road the bike for about 800 miles to see if the upgrades helped and no sand got in. So I put the bike back to stock as I did not want to lose my warranty and it started to suck sand throught the engine again. On 11/9/03, I called the dealer who first looked at it and told them it had sucked sand through the engine again, they told me that they are refuseing to work on my bike. So I called kawasaki and they told me to take it to another dealer. I told them the only one I trusted, was a kawasaki dealer in riverside. But even though I gave them a letter telling them the only work I will allow was a new top end, they went ahead and only did another compression test and leak down test. The new top end was denied. Also the first time I took the bike in to be fixed, I was told sand going through the engines would not affect them. If this is so, why do they tell you in the owner manual to never run them with out and air filter? I don't want to have to try and control a 550+ lb bike at about 70 to 75mph because it locked due to a defect in the filters allowing it to suck sand into the engine. I have more documentation and pictures but will need email address to send them too. I also know of several others who also have or had this problem. I have also learned that kawasaki knew of this problem when the first zx12r's came out in the year 2000. Thanks for you help. *Ak