'78 KZ1000 makeover

sorry porchev914, i thought above you said you only ordered one, Thats why i said that. Your engine is looking real nice so far.

No apologies man, my post was ambiguous. I did say I was waiting on one particular 18mm o-ring to assemble the cases. I would have made the same assumption

I drug my freshly painted frame into the house and laid out a harbor freight $6 moving blanket and wend to work this afternoon :woohoo: First went in the assembled bottom end:





I seemed to have misplaced some of the bottom motor mount hardware, so I made some new ones out of stainless nuts and some 1/4" stainless rod. Stock on the left, my stuff (including a titanium motor mount plate) on the right:



Then I got the rear suspension bolted up:



Followed with the front end:

Once my Z1E order shows up tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll get the pistons and jugs on. For those who have assembled these engines before, what's your take on copper coating for the base gasket? I've heard it both ways, and I definitely do NOT want a base gasket oil leek!

Looking good mate. I have a copper base gasket which does not leak but I used the standard head gasket as the copper head gasket always leaked no matter how or what sealant I used.

porchev914 wrote: Once my Z1E order shows up tomorrow or Tuesday, I'll get the pistons and jugs on. For those who have assembled these engines before, what's your take on copper coating for the base gasket? I've heard it both ways, and I definitely do NOT want a base gasket oil leek!

I did the copper coat on mine when I put it together. I haven't had any leaks around the base gasket at all. I did spend a bunch of time making sure that the mating surfaces were perfectly clean before I assembled it.

BTW the bike is looking spectacular!

I put mine together and my base gasket leaked bad. So i bought some gasganich as suggested by cometic gaskets. Of course iam bored out to 80mm also, but i really hope its stops the oil leak. I will hopefully be putting the top end baxk together tonight.

That looks awesome! It's exciting to see it coming together. :woohoo: I'm sure you're a little excited too! :lol:

i copper coat base and head gaskets usually.
unless i have some kind of a good reason not to.
like the gasket has sealer made into/onto it.

nice progress keep up the good work.

leon

Thanks for the kind words my friends Considering Leon has built a bajillion engines, Josh is every bit as picky as I am and powerstrokes' experience, I think I'll get a can of copper coat. The last thing I need is oil leaking on my brand new bike!

Now Leon, is the copper frame so terrible? I know it's not black, but it's gotta be a close second

OK, pistons on:



I did copper coat the base gasket, and will likely treat all the gaskets the same.

Then went on the cylinder, which by the way, was a PITA. I put the head on just to keep it closed up. I did lay the tank back on it to see how it would look.



I didn't take pictures, but I replaced the center cam chain roller in the block and its rubber dampers with new OEM parts. I also replaced the rubber tensioner roller and the front plastic rubbing block with OEM parts as well as the idler gear rubber dampers. I did not replace the idler gears, as they seemed to be in good condition with no slop and smooth bearings.

The head is going to come apart so that I can replace the valve springs and stem seals. While its apart, I will clean up the intake ports a little and smooth out the exhaust a touch. Just blend things in a little, nothing crazy or drastic.

Tomorrow I'll put the subframe and battery box on, then it'll look more like a complete motorcycle.

man i don't know what to think about all this progress :evil: !

dayum son you been getting some work done.it's almost like you are planning on finishing this project up or sumthin :whistle: .

yeah the copper is better than blue,red,yellow,or green thats for sure.

it kinda goes with the forks too ...

leon

we are watching you sir ...