[n4mwd]

I just looked at your photos. Now I feel bad. There is supposed to be a cam chain guard that goes around the sprocket on the crankshaft. In your first photo of your last post I can see that it is broken off. Unlike the chain guard over he cams, this one is molded into the case.

At this point in time, its probably OK to just ignore it. As long as your chain tensioner does its job, there shouldn't be any problem.

Now for the bad news. That chain guard is also the reason why you need to split the case to get the cam chain out. Since yours was broken off, there was no need to split the case. If I had seen that photo before I would have said something. Sorry about that.

A few last points.

Are you absolutely sure that the harmonic balancer gear and the crank gear did not become misaligned when you moved the crank to get the chain in? If it is misaligned, the engine will run for a while and then the crank will snap in two.

Are you certain that there are no obstructions in the oil system that could cause the oil to not flow good. Copper tube thing replaced properly, etc.. What bugs me is that something caused your cams to starve for oil and go bad like that. We never really figured out why.

In any case, now you're an expert so if you ever have to rebuild another Ninja engine, you'll be able to do it in your sleep.