Roaring noise and strippled plug holes...

Alright so for awhile I had a hard time getting my 79 KZ 650 to idle right, it would hit high RPMs and then settle back down, but was irratic and loud.. I shot it with WD-40 and it idles perfect, it seemed to be an air leak around the pipes going from the far left carbereutor(I hate spelling that word...). Anyway, I kept it lubed and it ran nice but was louder than I ever remember, kinda like a big dirtbike noise.. I could work with that, but then for some reason I decided to pull out the plugs and clean and gap them. I always have a hard time getting the #1 cylinders plug in straight.. But this time really did it. I stripped just the first 3 threads pretty bad. So I can get a helicoil for 4 bucks, but the tap for it is 30 somethin' bucks. I'm broke but am way too antsy to give in yet.. Any ideas about the noise and the plug...?
Thanks

-Ed

it would hit high RPMs and then settle back down, but was irratic and loud.. I shot it with WD-40 and it idles perfect, it seemed to be an air leak around the pipes going from the far left carbereutor

What pipes are you speaking of? The intake manifolds? What did you spray with WD-40?
Can you post a picture or diagram from buykawasaki.com?

About the noise, have you had the exhaust pipes off the bike? Maybe one pipe isn't sealed right at the head, or an exhaust gasket at the junctions is blown.

Look at Timeserts instead of Helicoil. Search the forum about it, some guys think they are better then a Helicoil. Might be cheaper, I don't know.

the do make a thread chaser, but I am not sure the plugs will stay in missing three threads, you need to pony up and fix it right or you will spend twice the money

Sorry, posted in a hurry. The rubber pipes going from carb to the engine, so intake manifolds.. I something like the timesert and tap at carquest, I'm pretty nervous about doing that so any advice would be much much appreciated. As for the noise, to my knowledge the exhaust has never been removed. My grandfather bought it brand new in 1979 and really didn't have much done to it. Thanks for the help,
-Ed

If you only damaged 3 threads, you should be able to run a thread chaser in the hole and clean up the threads. (Make sure you get the chaser in straight!) If you only damaged 3 threads, after cleaning up the remaining threads, your plug will probably stay in fine. When you chase the threads, or if you have to tap the hole for an insert, I'd fill the groves on the tap or chaser with some heavy grease, and remove, clean and regrease the tap every 2 or 3 threads that you cut. This seems to help hold any metal shavings or carbon particles on the tap instead of having them just drop into the cylinder. Go slow and work carefully and you shouldn't have any problems fixing the threads. When you're finished, look down into the cylinder for any shavings that did fall off the tap. They can be removed from the cylinder with a long skinny screwdriver that has a dab of heavy grease on it's tip.

I stripped one of the inners on my J. Had it helicoiled for little cost. No problems since but it involved removing the head (which ultimately led to a mega costly complete top end rebuild!!! reshimming Valves new pistons grinding valve stems etc)

However if its only the top 3 threads then you may be able to restore it as suggested with a tap. However these tools are quite expensive for a one off job so maybe get a shop to do it or lend hire you the tap.

I have used old spark plugs to clean up spark plug threads. This involves breaking out the centre electrode and cutting slots down the threaded portion with a hacksaw. The problem will be starting it as unlike the proper tap it will not be tapered, so real care will be required not to make the cross threading worse.

Alright I bought a thread chaser for it, I'll try that today. I've always had a hard time lining this plug up right for some reason, so I'm a little nervous about it. If I make it worse I can just use the timesert and tap, and right?
What else could cause the bike to be louder? It just sounds deeper, I also had put some seafoam through it beforehand, could that cause it?
Thanks,
Ed

If you haven't already, you might try popping the tank up a little. I don't think you'll need to pull it off but you might gain some extra room to work by raising it a little. The chaser should have quite a taper on the end just for this sort of thing. Try to keep it straight and square to the hole, go slow and careful, and it should come out fine.

John

Ill do that.. Thanks. Also: I left the plug out of it after stripping the hole, I had a tarp over it but went out of town for a day and came home and it had blown off. I'm pretty sure there was a light rain that day is there anything I can do to prevent it from rusting in the cylinder or to clean it up? Thanks,
Ed

Yeah, leaving a cylinder exposed to the elements isn't good. But yours was only for a day, so you should be able to dump a little oil in it and crank it through a few times, and it'll be alright.
I recently fixed a couple of stripped plugs with Timeserts, but I was lucky that had a friend with the kit already. He let me borrow it, and I went ahead and ordered six more Timeserts from fleabay.
Orielly's auto parts has a plug hole repair kit that looked like it would work pretty good, and it wasn't as expensive as a Timesert kit. The one at Orielly's had a couple inserts, a tap, and a swaging tool that swelled the inserts pyramid shaped serrations into the head after you tap the hole and thread the insert in.
I'd recommend using some red Loktite on the insert.
Just don't do what the previous owner did to my bike and JBWeld the plugs in, or the next owner of your bike will make a Voodoo doll of you and stab it with pins and put cigarette butts out in its eyes.

It's a small hole so you shouldn't have got much water in it, if any at all. Look in hole and see if there's any water standing in it. If there is, blow it out with compressed air, or use something to suck it out. (The top off and old spray bottle works, just run the tube down into the water and pump it out.) Then give the cylinder 2 or three healthy squirts of motor oil or even a big squirt of WD-40 or other penetrating oil, aimed at the cylinder wall. (So the oil will run down the wall and around the top piston ring.) Then manually turn the engine over 2 revolutions. This should run the piston up and down twice which will coat the cylinder wall with oil and stop any rusting. Other than a little oil smoke at start up, that should take care of it.

John

How about Marvin Mystery oil? I heard it was best for that kind of situation..