Any logical explanation as to what this is?

[Zephyr]

Hey guys, first post here. First off I'd like to say I'm really thankful to find a forum like this, there's a plethora of information here. Hopefully somebody can point me in the right direction here.

About a week ago I picked up a new to me '06 EC300. It looked to be in decent shape, started up good, idled good and pulled very strong through the gears. Supposedly has a newer top end, unsure of the hours but the bike has an hour meter under the seat reading 304. Had ok compression at 160 cold. Anyways, I was planning on taking it out for the first time today other than putting around the yard, and it started running a bit funky. Idle was inconsistent, weird power losses in varying parts of the powerband that made no sense, weird rattling, etc. so I figured I'd pull the carb and reeds off and take a gander. Carb looked a bit dirty inside, okay maybe it needs cleaning out. So I take the reed block out, there's just a small chip on one of the petals, ok no bigggie, and then I am greeted by whatever this stuff is.

[Zephyr]

I am scratching my head here pretty hard

[Zephyr]

Piston appears to have some small dimples on it, rod looks a bit rusty. Looks like maybe part of the motor casting has some chunks missing.

[john r b]

I'd pull the jug off, something is not right.the metal pieces in your hand how thick are they?

[Zephyr]

About 1.5mm thick, appears to be some sort of hand cut pieces of aluminum scrap. The other item seems like some well heat cycled JB weld or the likes. Odd though, as the reeds have no evidence of any kind of epoxy on them, nor the inside of the engine cases.

[gasgasman]

The previous owner installed those "wings" to change the air flow through the intake.

I would toss them in the trash.

[hamilton]

You think it might be a home made intake divider, like a power now valve, that was epoxied together?

Question is what's still in the engine?

[Zephyr]

I was kinda thinking it might've been some homemade intake creation, problem is all the pieces were just bouncing around loose. What would be the purpose of such a thing?

Just got the head off, I don't see any evidence of impacts or gouging fortunately, jugs coming off next so we shall see. I can only imagine how much crap must be floating around in the bottom end. Definitely going to be splitting the cases, I'm just glad I caught this before I ended up with a rod hanging out of the block!

On that note, what would you guys recommend for a gasket set? I've seen Athena makes one, are they on par with oem stuff?

[gasgasman]

Looks like the diverter was epoxied together and sitting vertically in the center of the intake.
I don't see any reason for it.

If you do split the cases, have the crank stuffer bolts staked. They do come loose.
Athena makes good gaskets.

[risk74]

The bottom part of the cylinder that supports the intake side of the piston appears to be broken off as well.