ANATOMY of a SICK SAITO
PART ONE: Disassembly & Inspection

      Sometimes no matter how hard you try to take care of an engine, corrosion finds a way to ruin your investment. Here we have a fairly new Saito 100 that "looks" great on the outside. But it was running bad and sounded equally as bad. I recommended to the owner that he remove the engine and let me check it out... And that's where the story begins...

It's a nice looking engine on the outside...

Here's what it looks like on the inside!

You are looking at MASSIVE rust on the crankshaft, rear bearing, and the rod is coated with a layer of rust as well! Let's dig into it deeper...

The Piston & Rod are nicely coated with rust and carbon.

The piston is somewhat scuffed, lots of carbon on the top. The piston ring is pitted and will have to be replaced.. Let's go a little deeper...

Severly worn camshaft, and it's corroded. The housing is coated with rust from the camshaft. The the lobes are extensively worn down. The camshaft will have to be replaced.

The prop hub was seized on so tight that it took a puller and took extreme HEAT to remove it.

The front bearing seal fell off, the bearing is rusted as is the crankshaft! The crankcase is OK but will require extensive cleaning to remove the layer of rust it accumulated.

The crankshaft is in bad shape but salvagable. The bearing support surfaces are OK and the crankshaft is straight.

Another look at the crankshaft... There is some pitting but it's minor. The drive gear for the cam seems to be OK, but the counter balance needs lots of work. The rod journal is OK.

This is a close look at the piston & rod. It's not a very pretty sight! I've seen 25 year old engines look better! The piston will require lots of attention. The piston ring is pitted but not stuck. The rod will clean up OK.

Destroyed bearings. Both are corroded and the seal has poped off the front bearing. Stainless Steel bearings would not have done this. Needless to say, these are history.

While we are waiting for replacement parts to arrive, the engine is going through several stages of cleanup. The first stage is to chemically remove all the rust, then the parts will be measured to see how much wear has taken place. If the parts spec. out OK then they'll go into the cleaner followed by the tumbler for final polishing.

PART TWO: Clean, Inspect, Re-assemble