Now, the purpose of these photos is for a lesson to all on this forum. I know that I've never seen anything like this either. I'm definitely not posting these to give Nervkiler a hard time about this bike...because actually this 1997 is in great shape with only 1600 miles. The chrome is excellent and it looks well kept for 11 years...but unfortunately, it looks like a previous owner did a little bit of tinkering on this bike.
When the bike came here, I noticed this muffler with the packing sticking out, as you see it. It looks as if someone cut off the end, removed the guts, welded in a new baffle, and painted it. They installed a pipe nipple in the end...and the packing was sticking out when I first saw it.
Then last night I decided to check this muffler. The packing was packed hard against the muffler outlet (and that stuff will cut you too). With further checking I decided to remove the packing. What a job, but I got it out.
All this packing and carbon was all the way up in the pipe (which has no guts) and stuck hard against the outlet. I think this is what caused the exhaust gasket leak that was confused with a bad head gasket. The muffler was plugged.
Who could expect this kind of "time bomb" when buying a used bike?
The "Good News" is that I'm gonna take a chance and put this engine back together. I don't think it needs a new head gasket. I'll re-torque the head, seal the headcover and adjust the valves, and I'm betting the bike runs just fine.