Bought the bike "trusting a stranger" and based on general condition of the bike. Had a slow oil drip. Previous owner said it "ran great" before he put it away but might need a shim adjustment.
Started by replacing the battery, changing the oil (added an aluminum crush gasket), then started to see what general condition it was in. At this point the bike idled well. When I took it out on the road (about half a mile), it was noticeably smoky and lacked power - hit or miss when trying to accelerate. Got home fine but not ready to ride.
Let it sit over the winter, then got a carb rebuild kit to clean up the carbs (thinking that was part of the choppy acceleration). Found that the carb for cylinder #2 had a stripped out air/fuel adjustment screw. Also, philips-head screws were seized up for one of the mounting bars (no luck with PB Blaster but yet to try the torch). Ordered a new set of carbs off eBay for ~$200, thinking I'd need the adjustment screw. Yet to install them, though.
Next, tested compression. #1: 95psi. #2: 80psi. #3: 75psi. #4: 95psi. Same result with wet test (re-test after adding ~tablespoon of oil to the cylinder). Chatted with friends and read about this scenario, sounds like it will probably need a new head gasket. Also read that this could be leaky valve guide oil seals, which I can replace at the same time.
Meanwhile, the slow drip of oil still comes from the oil drain plug. In hindsight, it might be helped by a copper crush washer instead of aluminum (Cu being more malleable). TBD.
Also added household weather stripping to one of the air box covers because the gasket was broken in two spots.
Also disassembled the fuel valve/petcock because it developed a slow drop after I took off the fuel tank. The large gasket between the petcock assembly and fuel tank looked a little flat, so I ordered a new one - decided to get it off eBay because only the full rebuild kit was available on motorcycle part sites.
At this point, my next step is to take off the cylinder head, inspect, and replace gaskets. Found a couple of good YouTube videos walking through the clean-up process (famous last words?). We'll see about the compression after that! Not sure how this forum is typically used but I'll post an update after I get everything back to good.
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