ok, pistons hit valves...repair $
 

looking to buy a VTR, and want to do it on a budget. i got time, and my labor is free.

Been looking at Craigslist and came across a couple of good looking bikes with bad engines (20-30k miles), so I'm assuming CCT went bad, jumped time. They are asking $500, and they look pretty sharp.

so...looking at heads and gaskets at a minimum. worst case would be a bent rod, bent crank..

what am i lookin at at the various stages?

Have not seen one with bent rod and crank from a CCT failure... While the VTR is an interference design motor, there seems to be sufficient combustion chamber deck height that unless the valve comes apart and the head turns sideways the damage is limited to valves, piston top and sometimes the valve guide is cracked.
So figure a replacement head, new valves, springs, cottors, seals, gaskets and such as the base minimum. And you might get lucky and just need gaskets and 4 new valves and seals.

Then know it could be a full take down if the piston is damaged enough to need replacement, and then Id never do just one, or even just pistons without a bore refresh, look at bearings, transmission ect... I just don't do 1/2 jobs..

I turn more customers away for that "just get it running" plan than anything else.. Sorry, not your guy...find someone else.

It would be interesting to cost out both scenarios, at least from a parts perspective for us DIYers.

A- 4 valves, gaskets
B- Complete Cylinder Refresh

-Tom

My 2 cents. $1000 for 2 clean superhawks with blown engines? I'd buy them both, keep one, buy a good used engine and replace it on the one I want to keep, & part out the other bike and you'll probably end up have one for nearly free.

That sounds like a fantastic deal to me. I bought mine with bad valves for mire than that. I asked the same question about likely piston damage here before buying it but didn't get a solid answer.

Mine had the front head off already. The PO had ridden to the end of the road and it started making a lot of noise. So she goes and gets dad and husband who started it and rev a few times before deciding it should not be run. Took it to a shop that pulled the front cylinder and gave them a $2000 plus estimate. Next stop craigslist.

I cleaned the top of the piston well and had to look very hard to see even a hint of the valves hitting. All 4 valves where bent so bad that the heads where almost parallel to the top of the piston. I had to use a hammer to straiten the valve heads some before I could compress the springs enough to get the keepers out. Even so the everything but the valves survived. I found 4 new valves and a 2 shim kits in the classified at a good price, bought new head gaskets and valve seals. Total cost was only about $250. You could do the whole thing including keepers Eric suggested thru partzilla for under $300 plus cost of shims.

I agree with captainchaos except I would not bus an engine, I would fix it. I am sure the head will be fine. Even if not a new one is only $531 at partvzilla.

Oh and since fixing mine I have put over 30,000 miles on it without a problem. That includes finding the rev limiter a number of times, confirming it is not possible to hit it in sixth gear at 5,000 feet and proving one of these things can cover 86 miles in under 45 minutes (does use 3.87 gallons of gas though). I am not easy on it and it just keeps on going.