Another Z1-B getting a resto-rebuild.

Art makes Kawasakis oem pistons.

Kidkawie wrote: Art makes Kawasakis oem pistons.

Thanks Kidkawie. That was surprising (but good) news to me. Given the huge spectrum of Kawasaki Heavy Industries' business activities, I'm surprised that they didn't have piston manufacturing in-house. I now see that ART is also an OEM supplier for Honda and other Japanese manufacturers too.

I'm 99.9% certain that this is the original motor for this bike. The engine # is just 183 ahead of the frame #. That looks about right from what I can gather.

That suggests to me that either the odometer reading of 18,500 isn't anywhere close to genuine, or that this motor suffered an early top-end failure in the hands of one of the PO's. Owner abuse/neglect or 'factory lemon' warranty job? ... who knows. Given the Z1's reputation for reliability the former sounds the most likely.

Kidkawie wrote: Art makes Kawasakis oem pistons.

True. Here's a new old stock Genuine Kawasaki KZ650 piston. Ed

I used the carb cleaner from sharpertek also with good results. I'd be interested in how the brightener works for you. I did get the more aggressive cleaner for aluminum but have not tried it yet.

BritGuyUSA wrote:

eddiem wrote:
what solution do you use in your ultrasonic cleaner?

Right now it has a solution formulated for carb gum and varnish removal as supplied by the cleaner manufacturer Sharpertek.

To clean the cases/head/cylinder after I wet-blast them I'll change over to a formula made specifically for aluminum 'brightening'. I'm still doing my research on which product is going to be the best for that.

eddiem wrote: I used the carb cleaner from sharpertek also with good results. I'd be interested in how the brightener works for you. I did get the more aggressive cleaner for aluminum but have not tried it yet.

Their carb cleaner is pretty effective, plus I like the fact that it is filterable and re-usable. Which more aggressive cleaner did you choose?

Unfortunately I'm a few weeks to a month away from that stage now. I just (today) ordered a new Eaton V4 10 hp 120 gallon compressor for my blasting cabinets as my old 60 gallon 5hp Campbell Hausfeld is on its last legs and barely up to the task anyway. Those things use a LOT of air.

The new one will blow 38 cfm @ 100 psi all day long, so I can double the size of the nozzle in the wet-blaster and get some serious, continuous cleaning power! They've promised me a 1st week of December' delivery date so I'm going to re-plumb the shop with some 3/4 inch lines while it's on its way.

BritGuy, are you a professional antique bike restorer? Bike shop owner? Very impressive garage.

This is the cleaner I was telling you about. I tried it today and it seems to work pretty good but I can't say beter then the carb cleaner. I just got a new ingersoll compressor that's 7.5 hp and sure do like it for the blast cabinet I'm sure you will be happy with a 10hp.

BritGuyUSA wrote:

eddiem wrote: I used the carb cleaner from sharpertek also with good results. I'd be interested in how the brightener works for you. I did get the more aggressive cleaner for aluminum but have not tried it yet.

Their carb cleaner is pretty effective, plus I like the fact that it is filterable and re-usable. Which more aggressive cleaner did you choose?

Unfortunately I'm a few weeks to a month away from that stage now. I just (today) ordered a new Eaton V4 10 hp 120 gallon compressor for my blasting cabinets as my old 60 gallon 5hp Campbell Hausfeld is on its last legs and barely up to the task anyway. Those things use a LOT of air.

The new one will blow 38 cfm @ 100 psi all day long, so I can double the size of the nozzle in the wet-blaster and get some serious, continuous cleaning power! They've promised me a 1st week of December' delivery date so I'm going to re-plumb the shop with some 3/4 inch lines while it's on its way.

car5car wrote: BritGuy, are you a professional antique bike restorer? Bike shop owner? Very impressive garage.

No. No. And thank you. I just wish that I could spend more time in there.

eddiem wrote: This is the cleaner I was telling you about. I tried it today and it seems to work pretty good but I can't say beter then the carb cleaner. I just got a new ingersoll compressor that's 7.5 hp and sure do like it for the blast cabinet I'm sure you will be happy with a 10hp.

Thanks, Eddie. I've been looking at a whole bunch of chemistries from a number of manufacturers but nothing has really screamed "try me!, try me!" yet. I have seen a few horror videos on YouTube from people who've tried to use conventional caustic aluminum brighteners on die-cast aluminum with ugly, blackened results. They probably either used too high a concentration, left it on the surface too long or just didn't rinse it off thoroughly.

I do have some non-ionic, colloidal/micelle-forming, almost pH-neutral surfactant material (SC-1000 from Gemtek) that I may try in the Sharpertek machine on some old Honda casings that I have laying around here. I'll let you know how I get on.

Edit: I used to dream about 7.5 hp!! 2015 has been a reasonably good year for us, so 'Uncle Sam' is going to pay for 'my company' to install the big 10 hp in the 'company storage facility', aka the 'company' garage ( - which just happens to be attached to my personal garage/shop space. )

For nasty carbs I use straight, undiluted Pine-Sol. Soak overnight then rinse clean with mineral spirits, etc.

This is the cleaner I was telling you about. I tried it today and it seems to work pretty good but I can't say beter then the carb cleaner. I just got a new ingersoll compressor that's 7.5 hp and sure do like it for the blast cabinet I'm sure you will be happy with a 10hp.

Just a side note on this cleaner, Eddie.

In Sharpertek's user manual, their oxide remover #1831 is listed as 'slightly attacking' on aluminum surfaces. I'm sure that if you restrict the time any aluminum parts are in your tank to a bare minimum and rinse in clean water as soon as you remove them then you should be OK. What temperature are you running your tank?

I ran it at 55c and 90mins. They were a set of 29s a friend gave me that were in sad shape but might have some hope. I went back and looked em over good and I have to take back what I said about 1831 doing the same job as the 1220. I forgot I had already tried cleaning them with the 1220 carb cleaner. And they sill had a dark color to them but putting them in the 1831 cleaner for about 20mins at a time I have to say the 1831 cleaner did a nice job. I will take a really good look at them to see if it attacked the aluminum.
On another set of 29's I did in the 1220 cleaner I ran the temp around 50c and at least ninety mins.
If the last 29's would have cleaned up like the first set I would have not tried the 1831 cleaner.
here's the first set I did with the 1220 cleaner.