Ok, here's the scenario..

I was on the 805 fwy, heading north to work in Downtown San Diego.  About a mile after I was on the fwy, I hear this wierd rattling empty can sound.  I thought it was my new muffler loosing baffle.  The more I rev it, the more I realize the car was slowing.  At about 70mph, suddenly I see my tachometer drop, but the bike was still moving, having trouble w/ the wheels.  I pull my clutch in, and pull over.  Try to start again, and hear nothing but clicks.

I then proceed to duck walk the bike to the nearest gas station, about 8 blocks from the next exit.  I check my oil, and was astounded to see there was absolutely none in there ! ! !  I buy oil, and try to put it in, thinking it would help (I konw it wouldn't anyways right?)  only to see what was wrong.   Once I poured the oil in, IT GUSHED RIGHT OUT OF THIS PRETTY BIG CRACK IN THE BOTTOM FRONT! ! ! !   So pissed, I just parked the bike at a strip mall across the street (leaving a trail of oil behind.)  and then walk about 4 miles to my nearest friend's house (my house is far if fwy isn't taken.)  and then came back w/ a truck, to take my bike home.  

Now I don't know waht to do.  I could either sell the bike as a fixer upper, buy a new engine, or take apart the old engine and try to fix it.  My friend who works on bikes said it's a cracked crank case, and that it could be fixed.  but I don't know...  any suggestions??

Are you sure it's the crank case and not a cracked oil pan?

There could be any number of things wrong with the engine because it had no oil but it could still be rebuildable.  It may be worth your time to pull the engine and see the extent of the damage before looking for a new one

You'll be lucky if it didn't cease.

I agree with 70. Before you make any decisions, your gonna wanna inspect the engine and actually figure out what happened and the extent of the damage. IF its not that bad, you should be able to repair it. If not, i believe i saw an engine for sale (needing a side cover, but you can just use yours) for $300 bucks plus shipping in the for sale section. Anyways, check your engine over in the daytime, when you can see what your doing and the extent of the damage. Report back here and we will help you with what we can.

Totally...You can regrind for bearings, new cams, then bore over, get some White Bros and make yourself a hot little 555!  Proly all for around $300-350.

hahah Dom that sounds awesome.. now if only I knew where I can go about and do that! =)..  yea, I saw the engine in the for sale section..  Kinda close too, so I can just pick it up.  But I dunno if it'll fit a '98, cuz the engine came from a 2002 or '01 model.  Any help??  I also saw that race engine someone was selling..  thinking about that too .. anyways, I really hope it didn't cease, as the engine barely had a lil' over 6000 miles on it..  

Could it be because I was pulling wheelies yesterday afternoon on our sunday rides??  ionno..  errrr

Well Chbix is selling a motor in your neighborhood .... 2001 ... buy that and you're home free ... no brainer...
Cool.
Srinath.

yep a 2001/2 motor will fit just fine.  if you feel like being really cheep, I still have a set of engine cases that I'd sell ya really cheep.  I'll pm ya about it.

seems like they said my old engine case would fit..  I wanna see if Dom could help me make my bike a 555 first, or if I could maybe get that race engine.  If I'm gonna hafta fix, might as well upgrade at the same time right?

Dgyver is the really one to ask about the 555, he has one.  

You can go to www.whitebros.com and see how much they charge for the gs500 pistons and rings then call machine shops in your area and see who does bikes.  Come to think of it you might not have to regrind for oversize bearings...yours are probably fine, but the bearings themselves and the cams might be shot...but you might need new valves and guides...hard to know without looking.  Having the new valve guides pressed might be spendy...I also don't know whether dgyver is running bigger valves or if you even need to for a 555...  PM him, he will be able to clue you in to everything.

sure, upgrades are great, especially when they are known to sacrifice reliability.......  555 motor + street riding = bad idea.  555 motor + track riding = good idea.

davipu, was it you or dgyver that has the 555, I get your names confused sometimes.

it wasn't me.  

555 motor, on a bike that's pretty much a mess around semi stunt bike, COULD be a good idea=).. ionno.. u tell me..  I just want the power...  what exactly could the drawbacks be??

with the added power(heat) in the thinner cylinder walls, it is great for racing whare you have lots of air flow. but for stunting/ street riding you are going to have reliability problems, as well as carb/ exaust problems.

Not to second-guess you here, but are you sure the drain plug didn't just vibrate loose and fall out?  (See richard's pictures on the NOOO!!! engine seized. thread.)

You may also be interested in what he/we did about it.  See the Engine Swap cont. (the motion picture) thread.

He didn't go for an "upgrade" though.  That's up to you, of course.

Good Luck!  

Quote from: Domdavipu, was it you or dgyver that has the 555, I get your names confused sometimes.

Yep that's me with the 555.

My pistons are Wiseco, but don't bother contacting them about buying any, they won't make them. JE will make them. I was able to trade around to get mine. After boring the stock sleeve, there still is enough meat left to be safe. I may not look like it since the bottom of the sleeve is thinner than the actual wall. Installing the piston and compressing the rings is a real pain since the inside taper on the sleeve is now gone.

Running stock size valves but they have been necked. Currently with a lightly ported head. Haven't had another milled yet. Using Megacycle cams (384-20) with a .417 lift and heavy valve springs. Valves don't float until around 12,5. Eventually may install different shims & buckets.

There really is not enough room to run larger valves in a stock head. About the only way is to install a 4-valve head.

The rest of the setup: stock carbs with 1/2 plugged slides, V&H advancer, K&N lunchbox, full Yosh and Barnett clutch.

The motor runs very smooth and idles like a dream. There is a slight hesitation when the throttle is opened fully too fast. Haven't felt like tweaking the jetting yet until I put it on a dyno. Next time I go to get tires for my TL, I plan to take it along for a dyno run to tune the carbs.

be thankful you didnt get oil on your rear tire and crash

hey tebo,
i live in SD too. don't have any good suggestions regarding the engine rebuild/upgrade but i do suggest taking it down to national city motorcycles on 1500 block of national city blvd. those guys are real nice and knowledgeable and have no problems taking a look and giving free advice.  specfically mike and rob.  i think they were telling me stories about how they souped up a gs500 back in the day and raced it.  maybe you already know about them.   wish you luck.

see you on rancho santa fe drive when you get back on.

hahah I live in Eastlake, and they had talked to me, and helped me about how to put in a front sprocket (once I buy it.)  really nice guys.  I'm always in NC, cuz all my friends and most my family r there.  

anyways, DGuyver, if you have resources on how I could get ALL those things together, it might be interesting..  Also what exactly are they...  I have the guy willing to pull the swap, but I just need to find all the parts.

Kerry, I'm sure it's a crack.  I saw the oil GUSH right out of it, and I took pictures, but I need to load them from my friend's cam first.  It gushed out of the front bottom wall, at about a 4 inch line...  I almost cried..

seems like going w/ the bigger displacement is the current plan, unless I can find a good modded engine I could run.....  may not be the best idea for most of you, but hey...  do what you can, let it ride out, and see where you can go..  

(please realize, I'm also a guy who owns a 450hp turbo/nitrous honda CRX ::4 wheel motorcycle::, an IS300 w/ turbo and a Supra 6spd etc., and an 88 BMW M3, who has a 2.5 Evo3 race engine waiting in the garage to get swapped in(hoping for at least 400 hp all motor in the end of this project.).  Which means I'm not really for reliability....  I just like fast, from awkward things that aren't really meant to be THAT fast in the first place...  go figure.)