Hi All,
Firstly thank you very much for all your input. I now know how it feels to be the guy that's receiving the bad news from others.
Honda's are definitely not my speciality. Maybe in the meantime I'll keep my eyes out for a used GXV-160 on a chassis damaged machine as the chassis I've got here is in near perfect shape and certainly doesn't reflect the state the engine is in I guess.
Cheers,
BB.