well i would, but as long as it has compresion it shoudl be fine.

I just got that engine/motor off of ebay for $95...unfortunately it's $125 to ship!  That's how they get you...
Anyway, if I'm swapping them (as rangerbrown suggested), should I do it myself (is it that easy and not too time consuming), or should I just get it to the mechanic and have him do it? 

or...should I have the mechanic just take the parts he needs from the engine I just purchased.  It does seem like alot of time/trouble, though, taking apart and piecing together 2 engines, but mine is a '97 and the one I just purchased is a '90.  I'm just concerned with that extra wear and tear on the other parts...

I would NOT swap the engines; no need to go to all that trouble. You'd have to remove the exhaust (broken bolt nightmares), the carb intakes (air leak nightmares), swap the ignition components (missing screws nightmares)... just forget about engine swapping for now.

The shipping cost isn't really unreasonable; engines are heavy and bulky, so I don't think the shipping costs are out of line. I'm glad you were able to find such a good deal on an engine, even though you really don't need the whole thing...

Any good mechanic can swap the cylinder head as an entire assembly pretty quickly; talk to your wrench and ask him which is the cheapest approach. My guess is that he'll want to swap the heads, rather than disassemble the head to swap the individual valves; that would be time-consuming and aggravating, and you'd need to have the valves lapped to fit the original valve seats. Chances are that the valves in the "new" cylinder head are OK, and they probably fit well into the valve seats, so you can avoid all of the work involved in disassembling the head and screwing with the valvetrain.

Hell, YOU could swap the head by yourself, using common hand tools, in less than one day; a Clymer manual would show you everything you need to know, BUT keep in mind that the valves in the new head will have to be checked for clearance, and probably adjusted, so letting the wrench do it for you will probably buy you some peace-of-mind.

Again, talk to your wrench, and let us know what he suggests. Common sense tells me that the low-buck approach will involve swapping the entire head as a single unit, then adjusting the valves. As long as the valves in the "new" head are serviceable, you should be on the road not long afterwards...

Sounds like great advice...thanks!  I'm going to call him today and see if I can just have the engine delivered straight to his house and see what he says about swapping heads.  Thanks for all the help guys/gals! 

@Maxtrucker

And how, pray, do you swap the head without removing exhaust (broken stud nightmares) and carburettors (air leak nightmares)?

This board never ceases to amaze me.

ok...mechanic says that it would be easier/better just to swap engines and not just the heads. make sense? 

if the engine is ready to run, then it would be faster to just wap them (engines that is)

Yep, if you buy a running engine just swap the whole thing.  Then you can tear down the old one, find / fix the problem, and have a spare or sell it off.

cool...a swap it is.  and soon an engine for sale!

Yea a swap it is and I'll put some money on the damn old motor - my bet ... its better than the one you're swapping in. Send it to someone who knows - Like Dgyver or Bob Broussard or someone who works on them for dropping in a race bike and he's going to build a killer out of that. I also suggest getting a new mechanic. And yea a parking lot of an apartment - you can swap the motor in there. You'd need a old mattress and some basic tools.
Cool.
Srinath.

I read the ebay add for the engine you bought and it said that it had electrical problems. I vote for swapping the heads, and new rings while you're at it. You could do it yourself in a day, if you have a weekend, even better. If you put a cover on your bike when you're not working on it, it'll keep the appartment mannager from bitching 

Seriously, a head swap is no big deal, and anyone should be able to do it. And the rings are so easy to do, and you'll have acces to them while the head is off. You'd be kicking yourself if you put the thing back together only to find that the problem was the rings, or partially the rings.

Be sure to check the valve clearances on the new (to you) head before installing it. If you don't want to adjust the valves yourself, you'll save lots of money by taking in just the head instead of the whole bike.

Good luck 

why can't you all just live in the san diego area?   thanks for all the input.  well, the engine is being shipped to the mechanic and once he gets a hold of it he's gonna check it out and see what is the easiest/least labor intensive (cheapest) thing to do.  I'll be sure to enlighten him with everything you've all posted.  Keep an eye out for updates...   again...move to SD...the weather's nice down here.