TRX 450 exhausting out the intake
My dad bought a well used TRX 450 (yea its not an ATC but its still a honda) and we got it running but it was blowing the exhaust out the carb. and it had a lot of crankcase pressure too. Took the exhaust off and it seemed to run a lot better so we figured the muffler must be plugged. Cut the muffler open and it was clean. Ok so we pull the rockers so the valves would be closed, pressured up the cylinder with air and no leakage out the intake or exhaust but there was a slight hiss of a leak somewhere. So we pull the head off and the head gasket (metal shim gasket) has been hot and warped and fubar'd in general and was leaking. Roll the engine over and notice the huge ridge at the top of the cylinder so we pull the sleeve and now its getting bore and a valve job done. Anyway what we still can't understand is why it was exhausting out the intake. We checked the timing chain and its tight but we did not check the cam timing. If the cam timing was off enough for it to exhaust out the intake I wouldn't think it would even run. Other then needing a little throttle to start it seemed to run ok other then no compression and exhaust out the intake. It makes no sense. This is the first 450 we've been into and I was just wondering if any of you guys knew what might cause this.
1984 200X bored .040 over, mild port work, K&N filter
Planning on custom exhaust, XR200 carb and cam