Can this be salvaged? (Cylinder head)

Ship em both to Millennium Tech and they will fix them better than new. You pick the CR you want to run, mild to wild.

Hammer

Just rock the rod side to side and up and down. How much movement to uou get. The wrist pin bearing was ok right?

no way any needles came out of the lower rod bearing with out lower rod having obvious side to side and/or radial play.

but it sure does look like needle impacts.

just another FYI, I had an 03 and bought an 07 OEM crank assembly (under $200) and that fits as well. A brand new head is pretty cheap as well, I'd either buy a new one or get that one worked by someone competent rather than get another used on ebay.

If I had to, I'd file or dremel down the rough spots, and run it. My preference would be to find a good condition used head.

The bigger deal is figuring out if any of the loose crap got below the crank. I don't know off hand if there's room for that to happen, but if you leave crap in there, it'll most likely destroy your top end again right away.

Since it's a 2 stroke and the bottom end is sealed from the top, I believe it's impossible for the needle bearings to get into the bottom end. If I'm wrong on this, someone please correct me.

Something made those marks.

Look at my old kx85 head sanded it down and ran it.. I’ve had over 40 hours on it