Cool, what was wrong with the '92?
It fired for less than a second and lost compression. I was thinking head gasket, broken circlip, ring, or something like that. Before I pulled head and cylinder I talked with Dave. He knows this engine well and said the crank was also likely bad so went ahead with a full rebuild. I could have managed a top end but have never split cases or anything like that so off to Dave for a full rebuild. The cylinder was still OK and didn't need re-plated. New bearings, seals, crank, piston, rebuilt water pump, etc. later it runs great. I should be set with it for a while now.
Dave is a good machinist also and rebuilt a worn out brake pedal on my '79 KX250. That part is discontinued from Kawasaki and the cheapest e-bay NOS replacement I found was $200.00. Dave machined and pressed in a new sleeve into the wallowed out bolt hole. Now nobody will ask me why I had a cut out from margarine tub lid glued to the side of the engine case. It was to keep the brake pedal side to side motion from wearing through the case.