2002 Suzuki intruder 800, engine problem

I have the possibility of buying a intruder 800 for $700 bucks.
However the bike previously broke down along the side of a road and
"there was loud noise coming out of pipes and the throttle was weak"
says the current owner. however he is too cheap to repair it himself.
I would like to get a quote on a new engine for the bike and just see
if the frame is worth the $700 or if anyone might know what those
noises could indicate that would be helpful as well. I'm sorry for the
small info but this is all i was told

 

The problem could be absolutely anything. You can't just buy new
engines for bikes, as a rule: you have to source used ones. As you
really don't seem to know what you're doing, I'd recommend that if you
want a bike, you buy one that's in good running order.

 

I saw one on craigslist for $300, but the owner said that the engine
needed a whole lot of mechanical work, so I passed on it.

A *new* engine would probably cost $4000 to $5000. But you can
probably find a running engine from a wrecked bike at a motorcycle
salvage yard for about $1000.

So you have to figure on the total cost of the bike after being
repaired as being around $1700 to $2000.

You can probably get a good running bike with minor cosmetic damage
for $2000.

Suzuki built the basic Intruder 800 engine for many years and you'd
think that
everything would be totally interchangeable between model years, that
an engine from around 1990 should fit into the 2002 frame.

But there are annoying little engineering changes from model year to
model year that might cause you to have to buy other parts to make
your salvage yard engine
work in your 2002 frame.

You might want to go to www.bikebandit.com and study the online parts
fiches to see what the differences are year by year. Some of the most
annoying changes might just be electrical connectors that won't hook
up...

 

thanks man the info was alot of help. I was just trying to see if it
was a good project, apparently not.

 

It *could* be a good project for someone that knows what they're doing with
bike engines and can work out what is wrong (or at least what it isn't)
before parting with their cash.

It could be as minor as a broken exhaust baffle, or it could be *really*
serious.