Honestly, if I were in your position, I'd pull the motor out and pop off the main and rod bearing caps and see if all looks OK. There is the fear of contamination that I mentioned in a previous post, but there's a possibility that the bottom end can be salvaged or even used in this bike after simply carefully checking it out and confirming that all is well. Seems decent heads are going for $125~$150, so a thorough exam of the bottom end might be worthwhile (remember that main and rod caps have to go back on in the same place and same orientation that they were to begin with).

 

Wow, so sorry to hear it was basically the worst possible scenario. At least you didn't spend much on it, I'm sure you can get most if not all of your money back. Would love to see if you find anything interesting when you tear it down. It was thrilling following this thread in real time!

 

I'm slowly getting the rest of it torn down, make some progress then hit a roadblock needing a tool I don't have. I'll be sure to report back what I find. Thanks for all the help guys!

 

And yeah...still interested in those forks should the whole thing end up as a parts bike...

 

I'll let you know!

Havent made much progress lately, wife had me renovating the laundry room. I've got the engine ready to separate the case, hopefully get that done tomorrow. I did find a couple foreign objects in the oil pan. One piece of metal about the size of a penny and some non metallic piece, maybe gummed up fuel?

 

Finally got the case separated and noticed it's not the first time it's been apart, the bearing caps and connecting rods had already been numbered. I noticed the numbers didn't correspond on any of them though... the manual is clear about keeping them matched, what issues would this have caused?

Piston #2 is pretty marred on the top and edge of the crown which corresponded to the marring on the cylinder head around the valves. All the cylinder walls look fine though. Aside from the cracked head this is the only visible damage I've been able to find so far.

 

So they took the time to number everything, but not follow through with it. Awesome.
Kind of reminds me of the Seinfeld car rental episode;
"You see, you know how to *take* the reservation, you just don't know how to *hold* the reservation. And that's really the most important part of the reservation: the holding. Anybody can just take them."

 

Apparently so. I was very careful not to mix them up so I know I didn't do it. Also realized I have JE pistons that I'm guessing are 1mm over based on the markings.

 

Don't understand spending $550+ for forged pistons + the boring costs & gaskets & the time and trouble and everything else, then trashing your work by throwing it all back together as if you know nothing about engines.

Still haven't seen anything that would explain what happened to that head. What are the chances the motor was filled with only water and froze up?

 

I hadn't thought about that but definitely a possibility. It was only water when I drained the system and had been sitting in a barn, don't know for how long. The crack in the head had me puzzled but frozen water could explain it. And the major warpage on the head gasket. Should the marring on the piston cause concern?