Don't they look purty?

Prolly not, at least beyond figuring out which way the arrow is pointing.

But I have higher self-esteem now!

 

Those are the same jugs the pistons came out of. The shop did a great job I think!

 

Only to you TD

But seriously, they will always have some carbon deposits on them because they are internal combustion engines that run on carbon based dead things.

If the bike is burning oil like a Kuwaiti oilfield in the 90's then it will be thicker and softer.

 

Have your machinist true the bottom of the cylinders, it will cure the base gasket leak problem. Especially if you are going to different cylinders, they could have been bad leakers. Some cylinders came from the factory with very flat surfaces and never leaked (mine), but some were leakers right away.

 

I'll disagree with one comment, I like the Hayden oil fix and I use James silicon impregnated base gaskets with the fix and throw away the paper gaskets it comes with. (I hate paper base gaskets.) I can't think of a reason not to stick them in there since they are cheap and the do provide an extra oil barrier.

 

Opted to keep the Hayden fix in the package for now. All back together, runs like a champ! Just a slight exhaust leak that will go away with a minor adjustment.

Feuling will send me the correct studs, but I couldn't wait for them to be shipped so I went ahead with new OEM studs.

Thanks to all for your advice - helped out a lot!!