Well, here is a long over due update on my engine. Things are moving along like fire & ice – the pace is glacial with a few angry volcano eruptions along the way.
Let me save you a long read and offer some suggestions for anyone that is engine shopping.
• Expect that it could take months and months to find an engine, you may get lucky but don't plan on it.
• If you find an engine, first thing is to get the VIN from the donor bike, the deal may stop right here
• Get copy(s) of any titles, salvage titles and/or insurance settlement paperwork because they will provide a good indication of the actual number of miles on the engine and will help with registration and sales later
• When they say the engine is bare or complete, get an explicit listing of what is and isn't coming with the engine 'cause there is no industry standard on what a 'bare' or 'complete' engine includes.
• If the engine is guaranteed, find out how that may be affected by the delay in assembly and the time to when the bike is actually being ridden.
• Ask if they are the direct seller or broker
• Get the name of the business owner and his phone number early in the deal, if the engine is being brokered, get the name and contact info for the actual seller, this way you have the contact info you will need should you have to move up the chain because of problems
• Ask if the engine has actually run since the accident, ask about damage, ask how it has been stored.
• Have the seller look in the exhaust ports for oil (don't tell them why you are asking for this check, and give them incentive to ignore a little wetness). (This is a Ticker test, per Yamaha)
• Once the engine arrives do a thorough inspection, then do a cylinder leak-down test; passing this, do a valve adjustment and verify the engine rotates smoothly
• Complete the engine and install.
The odyssey:
After accessing the damage to my engine I decided that a replacement engine made better financial sense than repairing my engine. It has been an educational path to this point. It turns out that used FJR engines are exceedingly rare and salvage companies are – ahem, casual about getting the correct information.
I contacted a list member who is selling a friends parted out FJR but the engine had more miles than what I preferred. I contacted a less than honest Ebay seller. I requested quotes through several national salvage networks. I called and called and called independent salvage companies, first locally then moving out until it was a coast to coast effort. I contacted insurance companies – what was I thinking? Don't bother. I called dealers and asked for help, ideas and any business contacts of theirs that may know where to find an engine.
By the end of October I found a 10k mile, complete '04 engine that had been run after the accident, and came with a guarantee. I purchased the engine from South Park Cycle, LLC. 1498 College St., Beaumont, Tx. Leon at SPC became the only person that I have ever added to my speed dial. I had a bunch of questions for Leon but he had to go ask someone for the answers and would 'call me right back'. Ya, sure. So I called Leon back, then he complained that 'they' hadn't given him the answers, so he was going to 'right then and there' get my answers and 'call right back'. Ya, sure.
Leon and I did a slow dance for a couple of weeks, and in spite of not having all my answers yet, I purchased the engine. I hung up from Leon and immediately went online and found that my credit card had already charged for the engine, but it was charged to Los Angles Motorcycle Salvage 425 E.58th St. Los Angeles, Ca. So, Leon was just a broker arranging a drop shipment and not the actual seller. That explains the communications gap; doesn't excuse it, just explains it.
Leon was going to call when the engine was shipped. So I called Leon a couple of days later and Leon had to 'go check'. So I called Leon a couple of days later and he says it has shipped. I asked for a tracking number, which they finally produced a few days later. Then I found out the tracking number was bogus and the engine hadn't shipped. Enough, I called to cancel the deal only to find out that the engine had now actually shipped. They also finally produced the VIN from the donor motorcycle that died in a rear-end collision. The VIN decoded into a 2003 model year bike with a sequence number of 149. So, they shipped me a '03 engine that was from motorcycle #149 delivered in CA, most likely sold in '02. Now I wonder about the 'low miles'. I finally got Jim's phone number at LA MC Salvage and called him directly. Jim says that the engine had been run after the accident and was in tremendous condition, don't worry because it's guaranteed.
I started watching the UPS LTL tracking number the way some people watch stocks. Pickup, distribution center, loaded, dispatched, estimated delivery date 11/5/07. I *might* get in some late fall riding! On 11/2 the tracking updated, saying that the trailer had incurred a malfunction which had just been repaired and was now departing LA. %#$*&@!!!!!! Finally, on 11/9 the engine arrived.
It turns out that my 'complete' engine was actually a bare engine. The 'undamaged' engine has a crushed plate on the back, due to accident damage. We repaired the engine, then moved all the parts off of my engine to complete the bare engine. In a stupid move, I had my dealer do a valve adjustment so we could run a valid compression test. Per FSM, compression should average 228 psi, with 200 psi as a minimum. Cyl #1 blew a 165; Cyl #2 puffed 200 and Cyls #3 & #4 were around 65 psi. Mother phucker! Well, sometimes an old engine that has been stored for a long time may simply have stuck rings, time for a leakdown test to find out. The leakdown rate was around 18% against a factory limit of 7%. The pressure is going out past the exhaust valves. There may have been a chance for this engine if it was leaking past stuck rings. I already own an engine that leaks past the exhaust valves, albeit at a 100% leakdown rate
On the plus side the engine's exhaust ports are oil free. Whoopee. I call Jim at LA Salvage and he is shocked. I don't give a shit that he is shocked. I offered Jim a chance to find a creative solution, such as paying what ever it took to bring his engine back up to spec or we call it a blown deal had he would pay my expenses and prepay shipping for the engine and I will have it sent back to him. After consulting with ??? he called back and said he would pay expenses and take the engine back. It was now Thanksgiving, the '03 engine was stripped of my parts, including the back engine plate and was put on a shipping pallet awaiting the prepaid shipping number.
After phone calls, person to person networking and internet searching I found a bare engine just 8 miles from my house at Rick's Cycle Salvage, Plaistow, NH!!! In this case, their 'bare' engine was a box of parts, they sold the engine cases leaving the crank assembly, tranny parts and the cylinder head forlornly sitting there. It kind of reminded me of a deer gut pile. I declined.
Next day -- SCORE, a couple of good ol' boys in South Carolina have a '04 engine with less than 5k miles but it was a bit pricey. This was a bare engine, actually very bare when they described it to me, making it even more expensive. I royally pissed them off with all my questions. To their credit they did come up with the title and salvage paper work for me. The '04 engine was in fact a '07 which at first sounds great. It does have some damage to the left side covers. And damage to the right side cover. And a small dent, and…. Then we start going through the '04 vs '07 differences, such as the lack of VSS sensor and a few other things leading me to decline the engine. It's was now November 29th.
Also on 11/29 we finally got the prepaid shipping paperwork and the engine left for CA. The charges on my card will have been there generating interest charges for nearly a month while this has been grinding on. It still remains to be seen how hard it will be to get my account credited.
On 11/30 I went back to my very patient dealer and we went through my engine in more detail. I have decided to end it all and have my engine repaired. He will give my an actual part cost next week. I will need a whole cylinder head, some parts on the crank are still good but it may be more cost effective to replace everything instead of paying labor to salvage the parts. The dealer needs a Yamaha tech to come check out the chain gear on my crank and see if the crank should be replaced. The cam chain and all associated parts are out of there. Right now I'm $1k into this and all I have to show for it is a disassembled engine. There is a slight chance that the crank and associated parts can be reused. The cylinder block will probably be ok. Part costs will come in someplace around $3.2k if everything gets replaced and labor will be around $1k to $1.5k. I may have some issues with the middle gear (unrelated to the cam chain), they will look into that next week also. My dealer says that he will try to find some way to help me with the costs and keep them below the estimates.
My dealer is putting up with all the BS pretty well, I haven't been told to go away. While Leon could have better contact skills he has worked for me and has done a good job. He was a big help when the engine from LA was found to be a dung pile. I would do business with Leon again. I do believe the guys from LA Salvage intended well, I don't think they totally meant to deceive me. To their credit, they appear to have voluntarily honored their guarantee. I do think it's a huge problem that they are so clueless about the parts they are selling and indifferent or worse in providing accurate information. I won't be doing business with them again.
Ain't this swell! Thanks for 'listening'.
