To rebuild or not to rebuild

[waylonh]

i'm doing a bearing and seal swap on my 01 Bigfoot with 465hrs, and i'm contemplating an engine rebuild. The engine is right there just asking to be pulled. I have all axles out, and i'm idle waiting on bearings to arrive. I have the exhaust removed, clutch removed, breather box, cold air intake out.


Money is tight, but if it's a justified cost, i'll do it. The only engine issues i know of are float seat is leaking gas into my crankcase, and causing the engine to puke oil massively. (possibly pvc valve or worse case....headgasket) This engine starts cold, idles well, and charges the battery, so...............do I do it?

[thebuggyman1]

What kind of motor? What's the cost on a complete rebuild? Freshen? Sounds to me like you may have worn rings not bad needle/seat. If the cost of a rebuild is $900 but a new engine is $1000, what's the point?

[golpher76]

If you rebuild it yourself it shouldn't cost that much for new rings. I just rebuilt a yamaha vmax600 motor with new piston's and rings and gaskets it was only about 110 bucks.

[Roger S]

You can take the engine apart and see what shape the parts are in. Rings and gaskets for a vanguard will be about a hundred.

See my friends in Dickson for parts: EC Distributing

[gearhead1937]

Have you done a compression test? My gauge comes with a hose that lets me hook shop air to it. Put the cylinder at TDC, keep it from rotating and listen for leaking air. Out the exhaust and you have exhaust valve issues, if you hear air coming out the oil filler or breather hole then your rings/bore are usually to blame, head gasket would be a little tough to determine. On a car/truck you look for bubbles in the radiator. Of course this is with a 4-stroke motor. Just a simple test to help determine if a rebuild is necessary.