Picked up an engine for cheap

[Travis]

I just picked up an engine from an early CB750 from Craigslist. It's taken apart but all there. The crank has been polished and balanced and is still in a bag with notes from the company that did the work. The guy had the engine listed with other stuff under the title "cleaning out the garage". He had a broken snowblower (bigger 2-stage), steel rims for a tahoe, a 3 wheeled stroller thing you run with, and a kids pedal go kart looking thing. We wasn't willing to separate anything and he wanted $100 for everything or $50 if you took everything as well as a pile of junk wood and some other construction scrap next his garage. I took it all. I'll burn the wood and have about a bag of garbage to throw away, hopefully sell the snowblower for $50 and sell the other stuff for whatever I can get for it to pay for gas = free engine!

The engine in my 75 is stuck and I'm not sure how bad yet (bought it that way and haven't gotten around to digging into it yet, too many projects!), so I might build this one up instead. We'll see!

 

[Andy]

Nice find! There's a guy with a '72 and no title trying to sell one locally on CL here. Asking $400 He says it's all there and original but the engine is stuck. No picture. Selling as a parts bike. Maybe I'll let it sit awhile and go take a look. It doesn't seem to be going anywhere. No title is a tough deal in this state. Might be able to get it for $200.

 

[Travis]

Titling a non-title bike is a pain in the ass in most states is seems. I think my days of buying bikes without titles are over. Unless the deal is so good it's worth the headache or they change the laws regarding untitled bikes.

Here's a shot of the crank I got with the engine. I don't know how much work like this costs, but it looks pretty anyway.

 

[Travis]

This a '78 K8 motor and not an earlier one like the seller said.

 

[Andy]

Highly polished. Very nice looking work!

 

[K2750tracy]

Travis i picked up an engine last fall from cl for $50 along with a bunch of useless parts and some good stuff too. had an older 4 into 4 exhaust that i sold for $90 [rough] and 3 oil tanks i sold 2 for $30 each, the engine was apart and has a cycle x cam and 836 cylinders & pistons plan on putting it together and putting in the cafe next year.

 

[K2750tracy]

oh that $50 engine also had no serial # stamped on the block any idea why that might be?

 

[Travis]

Wow nice find! Regarding the no numbers on the engine... I've heard that some manufacturers sell replacement cases without numbers. Either that or it's stolen and someone machined or filed away the numbers. Does the area where the numbers would be look like it has been messed with?

 

[K2750tracy]

The serial # box is untouched still has factory paint. Must be a replacement case. Wonder if this could be Cycle X engine? Since it has the cycle x cam and 836 cylinders. I havent been into the lower end yet, who knows what i might find in there.

 

[Travis]

Yeah it must be replacement cases then. Hopefully you find some more Cycle X goodies in the lower end. That $50 engine might have well over $1,000 in parts in it. I have a good friend who builds engines at Cycle X and I know the owner Ken. It's a great shop. If it weren't for them, I probably would be into CB750s at all. I'm sure I'll buy a lot of stuff there when I get around to rebuilding one of the engines I have.