Honda 1971 CB350

So last weekend I have the engine to Ben @ Extreme Creations.  He was optimistic that it might just need a tune and new spark plugs to get it going again. So was I… until he took it apart and sent me an email with some bad news. I guess this is the risk one takes when buying a wreck off eBay!
- Suspect it’s been run with a considerable amount of water in the oil judging by the colour of the oil that came out of it .

- Stuffed started motor.  Was disassembled only to find it had been messed with before & had a burnt out winding

- Did a compression test & found one cylinder was way down on compression so took the head & barrels off & found a lot of damage

- It looks like it’s been run for quite some time with a damaged piston as there has been pieces of ring bouncing around in one cylinder that damaged the head, there’s even a piece of ring embedded in the head.

- The cam & rocker arms have also copped some heat damage that looks like it’s come about from poor lubrication possibly from the water in the oil.

The outcome?  List of parts to be replaced:
Starter motor, head, barrels, pistons, possibly valves , cam, rockers, & the shift linkage.

And that’s without expecting the bottom end :/

Ben suggested I try and find a new engine altogether that might be less work/money.  So asked a few wreckers and used findapart.com.au but nothing came back that was worth following up.  Wreckers either had nothing or couldn’t comment on the condition.

So he’s in the middle of pulling apart the bottom end and buying new parts from the US on eBay…

Cost estimate at the moment looks something like this (pending bottom end condition): to get it mechanically sorted and a lick of paint to make it look pretty = $3k-ish. Opting to polish the large engine covers might add another $500 or so.