My motorcycle has been eating a decent amount of oil lately. Do I need to replace the piston rings on it? or is there some other reason it's chewing through oil. I can't find any leaks anywhere. so my guess was that it's burning it. I'm probably putting a quart in every 1000 miles.

Also how hard is it to rebuild the engine?

It's gotten so cold out here i can't ride anymore so i guess nows the time to do it if i need it.

 

Rebuilding an engine is not hard... as long as you can follow directions. Where you run into problems is mods dished/domed pistons, a shop that can actually do motorcycle heads, cams yada yada. There is also a question of tools. I have about 8K in tools, and still find myself needing specialty tools. If you attempt it. I would suggest that you take your camera with you. Take a pic of everything before you take it part, and thing that have a specific order. The best thing I could suggest is that you invest in a large quantity of zip lock bags, a roll of masking tape and some markers. Bag and tag everything. List where it goes, and what it is, ie: head bolts, or front cam gear. The job its self isn't difficult, just take your time. You can get as radical as you want (read as afford).

 

Amen.
a basic rebuild will require a torque wrench, lots of metric sockets, a ball hone, inside mic or caliper set (for taper and spec inspection) and some basic hand tools..

you don't NEED 8 grand in tools like our pimp engineer shinobi, but it helps.

i got a few grand myself in tools.. many specialty tools i made myself tho.. and like shinobi said, i still need different stuff sometimes..

a lil mechanical inclination and you can pull it off.

 

I guess the question was more... Do i need to rebuild it?

Part of me has been wanting to turbo the bike.

So i was thinking a better option would be to buy another engine. Slap it in there and rebuild my current one and beef it up a bit to get ready for a turbo. Any thoughts?

That way if my turbo'd engine goes out i'd have another to fall back on....

 

Please don't mistake my comments for meaning that you need all the tools under the sun. Just take your time, and have fun with it. To answer your question if you can afford two engines that would be the way to go. As far as the turbo that has been a hope of mine for a a while. Start looking for a small enough turbo, waste gate, blow off valve. dished pistons, and on, and on. Just do your research, and don't let people who say they know how to plumb a turbo blow smoke. I only know two people who have put turbos on motorcycles. My GF's father "Bill" who won World of Wheels with his turbo CBX in 1987, and A guy I work with "Mike" who had a turbo charged alcohol injected Triumph.
Both of these men a speed sick. Bill says things like "if it ain't fast it's just disco". I will try to digitize Bills photos of his CBX it was a bad MF.

 

Yeah... I've actually located a turbo for about 100 with an internal wastegate. It's a TD04 turbo out of a WRX it's a decent sized turbo. I think it would fit under the fairings. My brother in law would be helping me and he's done a lot of work on turbo cars. Just never a turbo bike. so he's up to the challenge. It should be interesting to see how it turns out.

does anyone know where to get a used engine? I looked on ebay and was only able to find 1 or 2 but they looked pretty beat up. I'm looking for an 03 ZX6r