In the event this thread has not totally died for lack of input, and if anyone is interested,
I have some revelatory information regarding this whole debacle with my bike. Yes, there were carbon deposits to be found, for sure, but there was also a substandard cam chain tensioner installed unbeknownst to me. Since I bought this bike years from the original owner at 500 miles, he may not have even known about it. Either the dealer, or perhaps the Mom and Pop shop who adjusted my valves put in a manual cam chain adjuster. Per my current mechanic, those things are supposed to be adjusted every 5000 miles. I didn’t even know about its presence in my bike. Cam chain started stretching, no adjustment over tens of thousands of miles, and….well, you get the idea that things didn’t end well. The cam chain is extremely loose currently, so much so that the cams have either jumped a tooth or the timing was set improperly the last time timing was set (or the cam chain may be so stretched that its causing the timing to appear off due to the slack in the chain).
I doubt that I have any legal recourse at this point, but at least it’s nice to know that it wasn’t anything that I personally did wrong. But man, is it difficult to find a competent mechanic. Hopefully the new mechanic that I’ve retained is one that I can keep for the long term.
