KZ1000 O-ring between cylinder liner and jug

Does anyone know what the o-ring between the cylinder liner and aluminum jug do on a KZ1000? What would happen if one of the o-rings is missing?

Are you writing about the one that goes on the bottomside of each cylinder liner? If so, I suspect it has to do with the oil splash that might result from the connecting rods, piston bottoms, etc. I have always replaced them when I pull a set of jugs, but I am aware of others who haven't bothered and they didn't report any oil leaks at the base of the cylinders.

I wondered about that O ring too. That surface between the cylinder and crankcase has the base gasket there, so you would think it would not leak oil if the large O ring was missing.

I thought that large O ring might assist in sealing the cylinder compression by not letting it push back on the base gasket. As the pistons move up and down, they do exert some pressure into the crankcase which is releived by the crankcase vent.

They are missing on all blocks that have had oversize sleeves installed, with no apparent problem

Jay

I have rebulit a couple of KZ's and have replaced them also when using stock jugs. My friend asked me what them were for and I could not find a reason also. Thanks for the responses.