Time To Pull The Head, What Else Am I Missing?

Well I finally got the head off and here's what I found when I pulled the exhaust off, serious oil seepage.

The following is what I found when I pulled the head.

Whoa...oops!

You can see cylinder 1 is oiled up. What I thought was a gasket leak seeping to the outside of the engine seems to have been coming from the #1 exhaust port as shown in the first picture.

I'm assuming the exhaust valve is letting the oil buy, but any ideas on how it's getting in the combustion chamber in the first place? (Intake valves?) This would explain why I was seeing some smoke from the exhaust.

I'm assuming a valve job is in order. Any ideas?

Thanks

MentalMike

Carbon build ups, ah is what it is...

Exhaust port oiled... ouch....

But what really caught my eye is 1 & 3 exhaust port valves...

OMR

MentalMike wrote:

I'm assuming the exhaust valve is letting the oil buy, but any ideas on how it's getting in the combustion chamber in the first place?

valve guide seals which fail regularly on KZ's. I just put in the third set (factory then replaced twice) of valve seals on my KZ750 at 75k miles right now. My seal sets fail at age (about 10 - 12 years, not mileage distance. If yours are original, they are certainly all bad. The rubber hardens from heating and cooling.

Your pistons look way better than mine did at the last tear down.

Yea, I'm sure the seals are original. Although the engine has only 6k, I think I'm the first one to ever open her up.

With that being said, I've never done a valve job by myself. I have my old shop manual, but it's not exactly a picture tutorial. Is there a writeup that someone can share that will make the valve job go a little easier? I'm sure I can get the tools and parts I'll need at Z1.

Thanks fellas.

MentalMike wrote:

Yea, I'm sure the seals are original. Although the engine has only 6k, I think I'm the first one to ever open her up.

With that being said, I've never done a valve job by myself. I have my old shop manual, but it's not exactly a picture tutorial. Is there a writeup that someone can share that will make the valve job go a little easier? I'm sure I can get the tools and parts I'll need at Z1.

Thanks fellas.

Not sure I would try to do a valve job myself, the valve compressor tool is pricey and you only need it once in a while.

You will definitely need a factory manual to show how to set up the cam timing to avoid screwing that up. I got a CD-ROM factory manual for my 750 on ebay for $6.

If the bike has only 6,000 miles I wouldn't even be thinking about a valve job. I would just clean everything carefully (use solvents, nothing abrasive) and put on new valve guide seals. Ripping it apart, and especially if you're not experienced, is likely to create problems where none currently exist. 6k miles really is nothing on these engines. There are plenty of guys, including me, that have put more miles than that on them in one summer. Save the valve job until 60k. Ed