A Newbies Adventures in Maintenanceland!

if your replacing the rings take one of them and break it in half and use it to scrap the carbon from the ring lands.

Thx. I was looking in my 550 manual for another perspective on doing this kind of stuff and I found that although the pics really suck it was better at explaining everything, and it mentioned using a broken ring for cleaning. Once I have the block clean I am going to either hone it myself or give it to my tech to do. Then I am going to make a valve spring compressor and take the head apart...hells yeah!

These should give you some type of an idea when the time comes:

Cylinder Deglazing
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...d=2&id=111619#258293

Ring End Gap
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...d=2&id=240886#241241

Old rings may have sharp edges.

Be careful when breaking one so as to avoid a nasty cut.

Could wear mechanics gloves when using old broken ring as a land-groove cleaning tool.

Good Luck!


Ain't got time to bleed! :pinch:

CoreyClough wrote:

These should give you some type of an idea when the time comes:

Cylinder Deglazing
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...d=2&id=111619#258293

Ring End Gap
kzrider.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&...d=2&id=240886#241241

I just had my coffee and went through your old threads...thanks a lot! Those threads will be revisited many times in the next few weeks/months.

As far as the top 2 rings being 120 degrees apart, I thought the manual said 180 apart, and then the 2 non-expanders on the oil ring are 30 degrees right?

I spent last night cleaning the pistons...wire wheel and sharp putty knife...the wire wheel ground down all the carbon tumors, and then I shaved off the rest with the putty knife. I made sure to be carefull and am going to finish the job likely next week with some 1200 grit wet-sand paper and some WD-40...get it nice and shiney!

I also went to Princess Auto (I think that's our equivalent to Harbour Freight) and grabbed a valve remover...It actually looks really sturdy, and worked really well, and only cost 49 bucks...money well spent! I removed all the valves, and sure enough the #1 intake and exhaust seals were crunchy...(this is the nasty oily cylinder). I am kind of worried about putting the seals back in! those little rings on the seals were a biznatch to remove! Anyways, I got to wondering how I am supposed to wire wheel the combustion chamber clean and avoid scratching up the valve seats...I will post pics, but a couple of my valves had carbon buildup on the BACK of the valve...ie. the valve must have been staying open...good thing I got to cleaning this out now!

The valves and seats should be ground by a shop, and the guides replaced, or knurled. The head, then, would be complete.

if your worried about chewing up the seat with a wire brush then put your valves back in loosely and wire brush the combustion chamber.line the rings up according to what the manual say's they will move around anyway but they don't want the openings to line on inital start up.putting the valve seals on is the easy part just put a bit of assembly lube on the inside of them and they will pop right into place with your finger.but wait until after the valve job is done and every thing is ready to go back together. by the way i always use torco assembly lube myself.

Don't forget... NEW OEM VALVE SEALS!!!!

Like a dumbass, I went cheap and went atermarket seals... Within 1500 miles, started to smoke a tad when hard twist of the throttle...

Not a lot mind you but enough for my bud on his VFR to know I was about to leave him waiting in my dust for his 6Krpm burst to be reached to keep up.... Still pisses him off how a 30 year old bike can do that to his new Interceptor! lol!

In speaking with my mentors, seems the Kawi OEM seals was the answer for aftermarket seals are cheaper but you pay for what you get... Due to other desires (my own) my head is on it's way back with new Kibble-White exhaust valves and OEM seals...

Now when I twist her, he won't know and it will just be way too late... Bye-Bye! :evil:

OMR

I was planning on getting the Z1E gasket set that comes with valve stem seals, are they OEM? or should I ask them for some Kawasaki originals? I noticed they also have some suzuki ones that apparently are a perfect fit, but have a metal ring around them so they last longer...or something like that. Thanks guys

9am53 wrote:

I was planning on getting the Z1E gasket set that comes with valve stem seals, are they OEM? or should I ask them for some Kawasaki originals? I noticed they also have some suzuki ones that apparently are a perfect fit, but have a metal ring around them so they last longer...or something like that. Thanks guys

I was wondering the same thing.

too late, I placed my order and the regular rubber ones are i the mail...we will see how she works out.

9am53 wrote:

too late, I placed my order and the regular rubber ones are i the mail...we will see how she works out.

Regular rubber ones being the Kawasaki OEMs or the ones in the gasket set?