Is it worth it?

As many of you know, I purchased a 90 VFR 750F with 3667 original miles on it. (see pictures) Back in 92 it was laid down lightly but the front end hit a tree and almost all the plastic was destroyed. It was stored in a basement until last August when I got my hands on it. Also, back in 97-98 the basement flooded and 90% of the bike was underwater. After getting it back to my place, I've done most that I can and I took it to the local shop to get the motor looked at. I am able to spin the crank with no grinding or noise of any kind so it looked like I was on my way to an easier rebuild.
I got a call from the shop and I went down there to look at it. The carbs were pretty much solid shut, butterfly valves rusted and locked up. They looked good from the top, but looking down where the carbs sat, all but one of the intakes are rusted. They did a compression test to each cylinder and 3 of them showed NO compression and the other one showed comprression. I'm not sure what the number was but at least there was some. He quoted me roughly $2800 to tear the motor apart hone everything 20 over (if they can) and get it running. That's just getting it running and nothing else that is wrong with the bike.
Do you guys think it's worth going through all this trouble getting this beautiful bike back to it's original form? I really don't want to part it out because I love this bike. Let me know what your thoughs are. If all else fails, I might need a whole neweer motor. Anyone know where I can get one that is running in great shape?

 

Check e-bay for new motor

I've had good luck w/e-bay, particularly if you can wait until riding season.

There are several VFR motors being offered now.

Maybe a member can tell you what year motors will interchange with your chassis.

 

There have been quite a few VFR motors lately on E-bay that claim to be good runners and they go pretty cheap. I have a spare set of carbs that you can have cheap if you find a motor. They are missing one vent tube and the velocity stacks otherwise all there and clean. Let me know.

 

Here is a complete engine without carbs for $350! item #4614075278

And another for $225! Item number 4583215656

I like this one the best as it has carbs and no visual corrosion like the others.
Item #4574525724 for $225


Man you have to fix it at these prices!!

 

I've seen all these motors on eBay and yes they are cheap, but how well do they run? If I were to buy it and pay all the money to ship it home just to find out that one of the cylinders are bad or something else is wrong with it, I'm basically back to where I am now. If i get my motor rebuild at least I will know that it will work like new and the shop will guarantee their work. If I could find a 90-93 vfr bike that is wrecked but still runs and I could go and hear it then that's a different story. I can't believe that the motor is that bad of condition. I'm going to go and take some pictures of the carbs and intakes tonight. I'll post them up and you can see what I have to deal with.

 

You'd be better off taking that money and getting another bike. If the bike was under water for any period of time no telling what else is wrong with it on top of the damage already done from the accident. Chances are by the time you are done getting it back into shape you will have spent much more then the cost of another VFR not to mention all the head aches you'll encounter.

 

All avenues have risk and only you can decide how much you want to take. I for one would be willing to risk $300 on an e-bay engine. I wish I could have found one as cheap as these for my ZX11 when it needed it.

 

Well, I uploaded pictures of the intakes for everyone to see. It looks bad, but I think overall it will be worth fixing up.

 

snowman:
I showed these to a friend of mine who runs a machine shop in Northern MA. All he does for a living is rebuild motors. Not motorcycle motors - mind you - but he knows his stuff.
He said he's resurrected worse, but usually for vintage "classic" motors during an antique restoration.
Based upon the what he sees in your photos, the water penetration appears to be 100%.
He said if a rebuild is what you're thinking, your MUCH better off getting a "dry" motor off ebay for a few hundred bucks, and getting that rebuilt.
You'll be much happier, and richer/less poor for your efforts.
Hope that helps.

 

Yeah, I figured as much. I'm gonna wait until the engine is removed from the bike and the heads are taken off to see where we are at. It's a shame that this bike sat for so long with so little miles on it. I'll keep posting updates as soon as I find out more about it.

 

Ok, if need be I have the oppurtunity to purchase a 1997 motor with very little miles on it and I was just wondering if it would be a direct fit into my 1990? Would I need to get a different wiring harness, hoses, radiator, carbs etc? thanks.

 

update

Well, come to find out, the only problem with the motor is that one cylinder has a groove on the wall that goes all the way around where water must have been sitting. There is no run or any other marks in any of the cylinders. Even the heads, valves and springs are fine, they just need to be cleaned! It's still going to cost too much to get that groove taken out so i bought a different motor that came from a 91. The bike will be running soon! I can't wait to hear it start for the first time. Oh yeah, they added power to the bike before they removed the motor and all the electronics worked and it turned over. :smile:

 

update

sometimes people just piss you off. I knew buying something like a motor off the internet was a bad idea. The "new" motor came to the shop and come to find out, the flywheel doesn't spin. You basically have to put all of your weight behind it to get it to move. My original motor that was in a flood moves like butter by hand!! The carbs are good though so that is one good thing. I'm going to try again because this company had two motors there. This time I'm going to get confirmation that the motor cranks over very easily before it gets shipped. Good thing I won't have to pay for this one, only shipping and I get to keep the first motor. Maybe I will be able to salvage some parts off of it. What an upward battle!:yuck:

 

The adventure continues.

I've bought a lot of parts on ebay and was ripped off by Yowser Yamaha (formerly zerovette) and bought 2 HJC Chatterboxes that were garbage, but on the 30 or so other ebay buys were great deals. It's always good to check seller feedback if you're using e-bay.

 

Well, I never got the second motor from this company. They sent a picture of the motor and it had a nickel size hole in the block under the clutch case! Why the crap would I want a motor with a hole in the block! I told them they could keep that motor and I would like a refund on the first motor. Well, long story short, they are refusing to refund any of my money so now it's going to get dirty with the credit people.
On a much better note, after looking at my original motor some more and taking it over to my uncles house today, we both confirmed that my block is FINE!!! :smile: All I will need to do is take out the pistons and just hon the cylinders. He has a honing devise and all I would need to get is new rings and then a new gasket set. Of coarse, if I knew this sooner I would have saved a lot of money by not buying a crappy motor and taking mine down to the shop to have them just tear most of it down. I could have done that myself, but I just didn't know. So, I'll be posting again soon on the progress. I really hope that I can get the original motor running again. Oh those pictures of the brownish rust color intakes I have posted, they just wipe clean!! Maybe I will get it running by the end of the summer.