I just pulled the side off my 86 300 Bayou to replace the timing chain and found this chip out of the case. Is this the end of my bottom end?

 

Can you move the crankshaft...up or down or in and out or is it still solidy in place?

 

I can't move it in any direction.

 

But it will rotate as it normally should? Then I would clean up the chip area, fill in with a good quality epoxy such as Marine Tex, and run it. The other choice would be to replace the case half....which is a bit of work....a large bit of work....

 

She's all back together and been out for its first short drive. So far, so good.

 

Good to hear...and figured so. Run it and enjoy it!

 

Unfortunately, I noticed this morning that it's leaking from the head gasket. They resurfaced the head gasket area when the cylinder was bored out and I double checked the head torque with 2 different torque wrenches so I assume the head may be warped, even though it didn't leak before I took it apart.

 

May not be warped. Are you sure all the head studs were all the way into the cylinder? This happened to me not long ago as the work was a bit of a coop thing ( will never do that again...LOL ). Also, I now use the head gasket spray ( spray both sides of the head gasket ), copper in color but I don't remember the name, but I can provide if you need it.

 

That could very well be have been the problem. When I checked the torque on them after running it yesterday I couldn't get them to torque properly, they kept twisting like the bolt was bottoming out before it tightened down.
I think I'll use a real Kawasaki head gasket this time. I wasn't impressed with the quality and thickness of the Namura gasket that came with the top end repair kit. I wondered how something that thin could seal in the first place. New, it was less than half as thick as the OEM Kawasaki gasket I took out of it.

 

Finally got the correct head gasket for it and all is well, no more compression leak. Apparently the head gasket is different from 1988-up and that's what came with the Namura top end kit. The '86-'87 gaskets are much thicker and have large holes that o-rings fit into that '88 and newer don't have.