Hey guys, awesome forum you have! I recently bought a 1988 Savage for a great deal, it just needed a little fixing. Bought a whole bunch of parts, put it together, filled her with oil, and realized it had a pretty good leak. I didn't think much of it as the alternator cover gasket looked pretty bad, and the oil looked to be coming from that area. Long story short, I got the bike going, replaced said gasket, saw the oil was still leaking. Unfortunately, it ended up being a crack in the crankcase that I didn't see when I bought the bike.  The crack is inside the bottom rear engine mount hole (see attached picture).  My question is, and I am hesitant to even ask, will the crankcase from a 1996 Savage accept the guts of a 1988? I can get a used 96 engine for $50 from a local classified site. I can't imagine it is possible due to the change from 4 to 5 speeds, but I figured I may as well ask and see if any of you guys have some words of wisdom.

If you want to save some time and money.....I would suggest you give JB Weld a try.  I have used it in similar situations and it holds up fine under engine heat and oil.  I believe it will solve the problem and hold up for a very, very long time in this application.

You will need to first get the area very clean and free of oil.  Get the hole toward the top so that no oil from the engine will come back into the crack or bolt hole.  Use Acetone and scrub the area, and do it a few times as the acetone and oil will creep back out of the crack....compressed air will help to clean it up.

Take the bolt and find a thin heat shrink tube that you can put over the bolt and shrink into place, and is thin enough that the bolt will slide back into the bolt hole.  You can use a shorter bolt and some washers to allow you to tighten the bolt up while the JB Weld cures. Put some of the clear packing tape on the washers so that the JB Weld will not stick to the washers.  Mix up the JB Weld and coat the inside of the hole and the crack with the JB Weld, put one washer on the bolt with the tape toward the engine block and put a light coat of JB Weld on the bolt and slide it into the block (then clean the JB weld off the threads), then put on the other washer tape side in and tighten up the nut.  JB Weld sets up slowly and will continue to slowly flow downhill - you may need to watch the area for a half hour and keep pushing the JB Weld back into place if it is flowing out of the crack....having the crack at the top helps, and you can make cardboard or tape barriers to keep the JB Weld in place.

Let it harden overnight, then you can remove the bolt and washers...you make need to use a hammer and punch.  The bolt will slide out of the tubing, then you can take a pair of needle nose pliers and roll the heat shrink tubing away from the JB Weld and get it out of the hole.  Then you can grind/file/sand the JB Weld to clean up any runs or rough areas, then spray some matching silver paint on it.

I know it sounds like a weird way to repair an engine - but it does work and will allow you to get the bike on the road at minimal cost.  You can then ride the bike and find out what else you need to do before going to the time and expense of transferring parts to another engine block.....and you would most likely be better off finding a good 5 speed bottom end that won't need the cases split to move the transmission parts over - that is a very labor intensive process.