Blew the engine on my KZT00AE. Can’t find another one. Is there an engine that would be easier to find that mounts up with minimal fabrication?
Sorry to hear that. I can only imagine your frustration. Not sure where you are in life, but a lot of the ppl in this forum are retirees with plenty of time, and I see some suggest you tear down the motor and do all the work yourself. You may not have time to do that, so that may be frustrating for you to hear. It would appear to me you are looking for a replacement engine, not a project.
Im sure an engine will turn up should you do some indepth looking. I do hope you get back on the road soon.
Btw did your mechanic quote you a price on the rebuild? And what part of the engine "blew," and what are the circumstances around that?
You are right in so much as there are many "mature" members on this forum however many of us Oldtimers still hold significant jobs (we are not all in gods waiting room passing our twighlight years tinkering in the garage) however what we we do have cumulatively is probably close to a 1000 years of experience with both motorcycles and life. When it comes to buying 40 year old motors we know it is a lottery (the example quoted by Mikaw is $750 as a starting point for a rebuild which is fine but the poster already has a core to rebuild with an unknown defect so there is a $750 saving straight off the bat) below is a dictionary that life teaches you when buying such things
Low mileage
Compared to what ?
How can they prove that ?
5k mls a year is low mileage but after 40 years is 200k mls !!!
Running well when removed
They all ran well at some time !!
Fully rebuilt
By who and with what ?
Poor idle, probably wants the carbs cleaning
Or it has a burnt valve, cracked head, sunken valve seat,holed piston, broken rings etc or is just worn out !
I think you can see where I am going with this, anything "Z" or "KZ" is commanding a premium and so every scamming low life will jump on the bandwagon to make a buck selling worn out broken crap.
The starting point really should be to establish what is actually wrong with the motor, either by yourself or spend a little to have someone else evaluate it's condition objectively. Just my point of view IMHO