All right here goes a long drawn out story!!! I noticed a tiny tiny head gasket on my 01 busa. A professional mechanic that works at a motorcycle shop said he would save me some money and take it to his place and do it on the side to save me money. I ride the bike to his house and drop it off. Months go by and the bike never got touched. Finally one night he asks me if I could go ahead and pay him and he'll have it knocked out they next day. Me being a trusting person I pay him. The next morning I get a text saying "your bike won't hold fluid, when it's turned over it leaks every where. The individual states "I think it would be best just to find another used engine to put in". So we went from a tiny head gasket leak to needing a new engine on a bike I rode to him. Something didn't feel right. I had my buddy go and pick the bike up for me. Since my buddy is a professional mechanic on large engines he wanted to look at the bike before I do anything.
So the bike sets a few weeks until me and my bud have time off together. We start breaking down the engine. We mark every bolt as we go. When we got to the cams/chain we marked the arrows pointing inward parallel with the casing with a red grease pin. The arrows pointing up in yellow and the chain rivets that are above the arrows in yellow as well. So in our eyes this is gonna make things easy because the "pro mechanic" cranked the bike so the cams must be in right. We go to pull the head and 3 or 4 of the head nuts were only torqued to around 20lbs the rest were about 38 so issue one!! The head was NASTY!!! The head had obvious blow by and lots of caked in coolant. I was shocked any professional would put a head on like that and not ask me if I would like it sent out so issue 2!! So knowing the head needed work I take it to a local shop that has an amazing reputation and is known to be very very honest. He checks the head and finds most of the valves need reseated. He then checks to see if it needs milled. He flips the head over and puts the bar across it. He noticed that every where the head is low that it is extra shiny. The mechanic states "who ever did your bike messed you over. It looks like they used a rotary tool on your head". Being a very reputable mechanic and on his game he asked me to bring in the block. He finds the same thing done to the block. So in order to keep things as close to stock height with out doubling the base gasket he sells me a gen 2 block at a great price and he sends the head off to be serviced.
So I got the head back, new block, new rings and every gasket I need to get the bike going. Me and my buddy (the large engine mechanic) start to put the bike back together. Everything is going smooth as butter. Well smooth until we got to the cams and timing chain. We lined up our grease marks and the rivets that go with the grease marks. We should have been good since the guy that had my bike said he turned the bike over. Well he didn't install the cams or timing chain correctly. He never had any intentions what so ever of making that engine run. Oh and guess who won't return my calls either! he installed the cams on a gen 1 with the arrows marked 1 parallel to the block facing each other. The arrow pointing up only had 13 pins between them instead of the 15 it needed. So now I wonder if I would have paid him for a used engine if he was just going to flip the cams correctly and give me back my own engine. Oh and if you know anything about engines you caught that this one was never cranked or even hand turned to pressure test the bike to see if it held fluids. With the cams like that the engine won't do anything except lock up.
So a few shout outs to my buddy for helping me tear down and put the engine together
Oh and for anyone near the DFW area I highly recommend Cycle Werks in Fort Worth Texas. The dude is honest, straight forward and will only put out the best stuff. I can't say enough good things about him and his shop.
So the bike sets a few weeks until me and my bud have time off together. We start breaking down the engine. We mark every bolt as we go. When we got to the cams/chain we marked the arrows pointing inward parallel with the casing with a red grease pin. The arrows pointing up in yellow and the chain rivets that are above the arrows in yellow as well. So in our eyes this is gonna make things easy because the "pro mechanic" cranked the bike so the cams must be in right. We go to pull the head and 3 or 4 of the head nuts were only torqued to around 20lbs the rest were about 38 so issue one!! The head was NASTY!!! The head had obvious blow by and lots of caked in coolant. I was shocked any professional would put a head on like that and not ask me if I would like it sent out so issue 2!! So knowing the head needed work I take it to a local shop that has an amazing reputation and is known to be very very honest. He checks the head and finds most of the valves need reseated. He then checks to see if it needs milled. He flips the head over and puts the bar across it. He noticed that every where the head is low that it is extra shiny. The mechanic states "who ever did your bike messed you over. It looks like they used a rotary tool on your head". Being a very reputable mechanic and on his game he asked me to bring in the block. He finds the same thing done to the block. So in order to keep things as close to stock height with out doubling the base gasket he sells me a gen 2 block at a great price and he sends the head off to be serviced.
So I got the head back, new block, new rings and every gasket I need to get the bike going. Me and my buddy (the large engine mechanic) start to put the bike back together. Everything is going smooth as butter. Well smooth until we got to the cams and timing chain. We lined up our grease marks and the rivets that go with the grease marks. We should have been good since the guy that had my bike said he turned the bike over. Well he didn't install the cams or timing chain correctly. He never had any intentions what so ever of making that engine run. Oh and guess who won't return my calls either! he installed the cams on a gen 1 with the arrows marked 1 parallel to the block facing each other. The arrow pointing up only had 13 pins between them instead of the 15 it needed. So now I wonder if I would have paid him for a used engine if he was just going to flip the cams correctly and give me back my own engine. Oh and if you know anything about engines you caught that this one was never cranked or even hand turned to pressure test the bike to see if it held fluids. With the cams like that the engine won't do anything except lock up.
So a few shout outs to my buddy for helping me tear down and put the engine together
Oh and for anyone near the DFW area I highly recommend Cycle Werks in Fort Worth Texas. The dude is honest, straight forward and will only put out the best stuff. I can't say enough good things about him and his shop.
