Exhaust Gaskets for '83 KZ1100 LTD

Hey guys. I'm in the middle of a restore project on an '83 KZ1100 LTD. I took the pipes off to wrap them to keep from burning the shit out of my legs, and upon attempting reinstallation, realized there were no gaskets installed where the pipes fit against the exhaust manifold. I'm looking on eBay to find some cheap gaskets and cannot seem to find any specifically for the LTD model. They only have them for the A, D, J and M models. Can anyone explain the difference between mine and these other models, and can you tell me if any of the gaskets for these other bikes will fit on mine? Thanks for your help.

They should fit your bike. Why are you wrapping the pipes again? Pics?
Steve

The pipes were scraped from when a past owner dropped it. You can see the damage in the picture where I haven't wrapped yet. I'm taking some liberties in restoring it and customizing it to my style.

That's an aftermarket exhaust system. You might want to get different exhaust port gaskets from stock, as the copper crush gaskets may not seal properly. Z1Enterprises.com carries fiber gaskets that are thicker than stock & I think they are reusable 1 or 2 times.

To answer your question:

Your model = KZ1100-L1 LTD
A model = KZ1100-A1/A2/A3 Shaft
D model = KZ1100-D1/D2 Spectre
J model = KZ1000J1/J2/J3 Standard
M model = KZ1000M1/M2 CSR

Many of those gasket sets are interchangeable between all those models.

kz_fl wrote: The pipes were scraped from when a past owner dropped it. You can see the damage in the picture where I haven't wrapped yet. I'm taking some liberties in restoring it and customizing it to my style.

Its hard to tell from the picture, but It looks like you started wrapping from the top down
If you did, you did it wrong & you're creating more problems for your pipe
Pete

pete greek1 wrote:

kz_fl wrote: The pipes were scraped from when a past owner dropped it. You can see the damage in the picture where I haven't wrapped yet. I'm taking some liberties in restoring it and customizing it to my style.

Its hard to tell from the picture, but It looks like you started wrapping from the top down
If you did, you did it wrong & you're creating more problems for your pipe
Pete

Was going to mention it looks like they're wrapped backwards.

They're wrapped bottom to top. This is my first time ever wrapping pipes so I'm glad I happened to do it correctly. Didn't think it would make a difference. What issues would it cause if wrapped the other way?

Same as shingles on your roof!! Bottom up so water runs over the lap joints and onto the next lower

Well damn. That makes sense!

missionkz wrote: Same as shingles on your roof!! Bottom up so water runs over the lap joints and onto the next lower

+ 1,
Pete

Before you put the header pipes back on make sure you have removed the old gaskets from the head. Take a small screwdriver or preferably a pick and make sure that the old crushed copper gaskets have been removed. They tend to get stuck up in there. Sometimes you will find two complete sets in the head if the PO didn't know to pick the old ones out he may have installed new gaskets on top of the old ones. I've seen this before. Also when installing the new gaskets smear some type of grease on them to help keep them in place while installing the pipes. I usually just use some Vaseline which will easily burn off and melt away once you start the engine.