Got Hot - won't start
 

Any ideas for troubleshooting? Blaster was ran several miles full throttle, had a short rest & rode again. On the 2nd ride, down shifted to turn ran about 20 yards and died. Started smoking and won't start now. There is compression. Checked sparked plug, checked carb. Not wanting to turn over. Any ideas on what to check?

What did the plug look like? black, tan, white or grey? Sounds like you ran it lean and scored or burnt the piston or jug. Did you do a compression check, or just your finger over the hole? even a burnt piston will put out 30 -60 psi, depending on damage, way too low to start, but still feels good to a finger pressure. get a psi reading, a description of the plug, and maybe pull the exhaust pipe and see if you can look at the jug/piston to see if it is burnt.

Will check on the recommendations you gave me. Forgive my ingornance here, is a piston fixable? If so is it a cheap fix or is it best to get a new engine?

Unless you totally smoked the crank bearing or bent something, 2 strokes are pretty easy to fix, and the air cooled Blaster motor can be repaired with minimal parts and expense. A good piston and gasket set runs anywhere from 50- 100 bucks, depending on what brand you get. taking the jug off and reboring to fit new piston, 50 bucks tops. Sounds like it still turns over, so it is not siezed, could be something minor, or at worst a burnt hole in the piston, in that case, as long as the jug is not scored, you could just hone the jug, get a new piston and rings and reassemble, I put 2 jugs and pistons in my son's snowmobile last year, from start of job to running motor took just a little over 2 hours, and thats because I had to refill the antifreeze and burp the lines. Main thing is to keep a close eye on jetting, 2 strokes love to run lean, they will make great power....for a few minutes, then melt. Thats what happened to my son's sled, just got it, took it for a ride, was impressed with the power, then a mile or so from the house....smoked. Turned out the guy grass dragged it, so it was jetted for summer, not 20 degrees...super lean. Ran like a raped ape, for about 5 min.