oil cooler mounting? and temp guage? for a 650

Hi everyone, I have been doing some reasearch in the archives, and I have a couple questions. I just won an ebay auction for an oil cooler for an 85-87 zx600 that I'll be putting on my 810 project. In the parts diagrams on kawasaki.com, the cooler is mounted with the fittings on the bottom, however Jeff Saunders wrote this "Another small issue with coolers is how they are mounted - if the fittings are on the underside of the cooler, then all the oil flows back to the engine when the bike's switched off. On startup (and particularly bad after the bike has been sitting a while) this means the oil pump has to fill the hoses and the cooler before any oil reaches the top-end of the engine - several seconds for sure." My question is: Is the cooler on the zx mounted "upside down" because its mounted lower? (Im assuming most coolers put on KZs are mounted around the horn area up high) or, is it designed that its ment to be run "upside down" in a way that doesnt let oil drain back to the engine?
pic from kawasaki.com

My other questions are about oil temp guages/sensors. From what I have read in the archives, the guage is mounted up by the handle bars (thats great, I can make a custom bracket), but the sensor that actually reads the temp is screwed into the oil galley/passage under the points cover. This is a problem since this is where you connect the cooler lines on the 650/750 bikes(unless you use a gpz oil pan with their stock fittings) Is there another place that I can put the sensor? or are there other types? like say an inline temp sensor/guage that I could put in the cooler lines?
Thanks a lot, I know its a lot of questions, and I search the archives as much as I can, but I need/want to know everything about this stuff before I dive in:)
Scott

the pic from ebay

All the Kawi oil coolers I'm familar with have the hoses exiting/entering from the bottom.

I'm not certain if the ZX600 is the same as the earlier GPz models, but I'm pretty sure you're also going to need to obtain an oil pan since the oil cooler lines attach to the front of the oil pan.
One from a GPz 750 works perfectly since they use the same mounting gasket & o-rings as the 650's.
I'm going to be installing the cooler and oil pan from an '82 GPz750 I parted out last year.

I also believe that the relief valve (circled in that pic below) in the GPz oil pans would only open up and allow the oil to flow back into the engine at a certain pressure or temp, therefore eliminating the worry of a "dry start".

Tomorrow I'll check with an old Kawi service manager friend of mine to make sure this info is accurate.

There are fittings available from klasmo (or make your own) that makes an oil cooler a bolt on, theres an article in the filebase in non model specific, second page, named kz650 oil cooler that describes how to do it. This would be simpler than getting a new pan, but I might have to if I cant get a temp guage to work

kzrider.com/component/option,com_docman/...doc_details/gid,122/

I know about that filebase article. Very informative stuff!

The reasons I suggested using the the GPz oil pan is because of the relief valve assemble, and also because it gives the entire setup a much tidier almost original equipment appearance on a KZ.
Doing it like this, the oil lines will route between the #2 & #3 exhaust head pipes towards the cylinders, and then straight down to the oil pan.

RetroRiceRocketRider wrote:

The reasons I suggested using the the GPz oil pan is because of the relief valve assemble, and also because it gives the entire setup a much tidier almost original equipment appearance on a KZ.

Yes, it would be a much cleaner setup, but I doubt I could find one (anyone have one?)
How does the relief valve assemble work?

What does everyone out there use for an oil temp guage/sensor?
Scott

Update:, well sort of, Im going to stick with the stock oil pan and use fittings like what are provided by klasmo (Im going to make them).
My concern for an oil temp sensor has been taken care of, I was reading in the gpz modification faq, and realized that the sensor doesnt have to be mounted under the points cover. it can be mounted on either side of the motor:). meaning that the "klasmo" fittings wont cause a problem. now I just need to find the right stuff to do it with. I have read that some people (members) use a VDO setup(thats also what was in the gpz faq)
Where do I get this? I have looked online without success for the VDO stuff. can anyone point me in the right direction please? thanks
Scott

from the faq:
I added an oil temperature gauge (VDO) about a month ago and it works great but the MOD was a bit tricky. I got a sensor to mount on the engine and there are 2 plugs on each side of the motor (lower front corners) that can be removed and a car sensor can be added. The problem is that the plug is 18mm and the largest sensor is 14mm X 1.25 thread (it might be 1.50 but I threaded it with a 1.25 tap and its working fine. The sensor is about $12 and the gauge around $29

Post edited by: 77KZ650, at: 2006/04/11 03:20