Hey, I seemed to have accidentally seized the engine on my GS and I'm trying to buy a new one soon, but any of the same model ones are expensive. Can't I just buy a 1997 gs500 motor and throw that into my bike using all the 2007 parts (carb, boots, headers, starter, etc)? I know the mounts would fit but would it run fine?

What's your level of expertise on mechanical issues?  How did you accidentally seize it?  What are the symptoms?  What have you checked? Tried turning it over by hand? Some of these fine folks might be able to point ya in a direction where a new motor may not be required depending upon the situation with a bit more detailed information,  and if not, can then tell ya all ya need to know about compatibility.

Oil starved, I didn't notice the leak from my oil cooler. It wont turn manually, and I took it apart as much as I could, brought the rest to a mechanic, and he said the crankshaft snapped. I'd say on a scale from 1-10 (10 being best) my mechanical abilities are like a 6 or 7

do you have a scrap yard near where you live? scrapyard motors r cheap but there as-is so sometimes you get a great one and sometimes u get a lemon.... doesn't hurt to ask if they have one for your bike tho

Quote from: dominickbuff on April 24, 2017, 08:18:27 AM
do you have a scrap yard near where you live? scrapyard motors r cheap but there as-is so sometimes you get a great one and sometimes u get a lemon.... doesn't hurt to ask if they have one for your bike tho

I called all the ones nearby, they said they don't have anything. Best bet is engines on Ebay

1997 engines won't have oil coolers, and have a gear driven tach, in short, its better to go up 1997 to 2007 then it is 2007 to 1997. try to find any engine that had the oil cooler, you will avoid the issues, I think they started in 2001.. so hard to keep track.

edit: where are you at in the world? Maybe I could help you out.. whats the price you're looking to spend, about around?

You need a 2004+ GS500F engine if you want to avoid extra troubles. '89 -'00 and '01-'02 have different wiring harnesses than your bike. You would have to swap over a wiring harness that matches the generation of the engine.
Election tach started in '02 so if you swap to an earlier engine you will need to get a tachometer from '89 - '00 to match.
Also the models with fairings need an oil cooler. Assume Suzuki engineers included this for a reason. None of the engines before 2004 had oil coolers. If you take the fairings off to improve airflow to the engine fins you could use one of the earlier engines.

Also, I'm not 100% sure but I think the carb boots changed as the carbs changed in '02 and '04. I'm not sure if that would cause any troubles.

Haven't done it myself but others have taken the one pickup generator plate and rotor out of their F model engine and put it in the used E model engine they are using to replace it's 2 pickup plate assy and the wiring hooks up without any harness change.  Tach should work OK, electronic tachs started with 04 models, 01-02 are 2 pickup same as E models.  Will need to plug the tach drive hole in the E head.

Removing the lower fairings like Bluesmudge suggests should solve the lack of oil cooler problem but I'm not sure that's needed depending on bike usage.  I like GSs naked myself.