O-ringed Valve Cover for KZ1000??

mark1122 wrote:

Great idea luc.

Yea, that sounds like a plan. I had a thick rubber gasket that I used over and over for nearly 20 years. The gasket finally got hard a broke a few years ago and I searched high and low for a rubber replacement - can't find one anywhere. The gaskets today are very cheap and thin (except the vesrah) and always stick and tear when removed.

My engine rebuild is fairly new so I've been taking the cover off alot to check the new valves and new cams and new buckets, etc... I checked them at 200 miles and then again at 500 miles and will probably check again at about 1000. Then I'll go back to checking about every 1000-1500. Big cams can wear out things pretty quickly and I like to keep an eye on them.

I had given up on the rubber gasket thing and wanted to find a way to get an o-ring set up like the big boys use. Keep the ideas coming - very good information. Thanks!

I hear you, rubber is the way to go ( must be some reasons why new bikes use it)
beside tearing up gasket, the other issue on my Z1 was that regardless of gasket brand, Kawasaki, etc, the oil would always seep through it, I mean through the material.
If you look at the Viton specs ,it's good for 400* and for use in harsh and corrosive environement.
I noticed that you listed a 99 ZRX as your past bike. I have a 2000.Great bike, lot of fun and I love the style of it

the link works now .
it says $86 for a 12" X 24".
pricey but u would only have to buy it onces.
Thanks.

luc wrote:

I hear you, rubber is the way to go ( must be some reasons why new bikes use it)
beside tearing up gasket, the other issue on my Z1 was that regardless of gasket brand, Kawasaki, etc, the oil would always seep through it, I mean through the material.
If you look at the Viton specs ,it's good for 400* and for use in harsh and corrosive environement.
I noticed that you listed a 99 ZRX as your past bike. I have a 2000.Great bike, lot of fun and I love the style of it

I think if you have a stock bike and only check the valves every few years or whatever it's not that big of a deal, but when you are in and out of there a lot, it really becomes a big pain in the @ss!

Yea, I loved my 99 ZRX. Hit some tough financial times a couple of years ago and it had to go Awesome bikes and going pretty cheap right now too. I always believed and still do that they will be like our KZ's are now - one that people really love and continue to rebuild and restore, etc... Some of those stock parts might be worth a ton of money someday - like the Z1 and KZ parts are now.

Is yours green or black?

I'm pretty sure I read some years ago that to insure the gaskets don't stick to the valve covers, to spray them with the cooking sprays like PAM or simiar stuff. The gaskets then became re-useable.

I believe the gaskets were treated on both sides, allowed to dry, and then installed.

12"X24" of the "regular" 1/32 Viton( plenty good enough, you don't need the MIL specs) cost $37.33
Their part # is 86075K51
My ZRX is green

I actually use anti-seize on the valve cover gasket. Then i can re-use the gasket (sometimes even home-made)time after time with no scraping of any kind. To do that, though, i have to really scrape and polish the surfaces the first time.

I don't know if it would work on the 900/1000/1100, though. The 550's have a cover bolt that goes through the end caps. This really helps it seal there, but I still occasionally use a tiny dab of rtv on the end caps if it seeps there, but that's rare.

Wow, I never thought of anti-seize - sounds like it's working pretty well. You mentioned the bolt through the cam end plugs - I sure wish that mother kaw had done that earlier. That's a notorious spot for leaks on all the early 900 and 1000's. They finally put the bolt through the plug on the J model 1000's in 1981.

Another good idea - lots of good info in this thread.

79MKII wrote:

Wow, I never thought of anti-seize - sounds like it's working pretty well. You mentioned the bolt through the cam end plugs - I sure wish that mother kaw had done that earlier. That's a notorious spot for leaks on all the early 900 and 1000's. They finally put the bolt through the plug on the J model 1000's in 1981.

Another good idea - lots of good info in this thread.

I learned that trick working on old Datsuns, except I was using it on intake and exhaust manifold gaskets. That's because my buddies and I were always swapping exhausts and intakes. Never had a vacuum leak either.

On the KZ, I use a tiny tiny bit on the carbs flanges too. It makes taking the carbs on and off way easier especially with the airbox. But I'm not sure that stuff is good on rubber, especially 30 year old rubber.

This is an issue i have never had a problem with. i buy the OEM gasket make sure both surfaces are good clean and dry. put just a skim of sealer on cam plugs install valve cover gasket then the valve cover and T/Q all bolts to 80in lbs. when i go to to remove valve cover i make sure engine is cool and slightly loosen all valve cover bolts and give valve cover a sharp rap with soft mallet them remove bolts and lift cover off. i have had some covers off my customers bikes 5-7 times before i needed to install a new gasket.

Patton wrote:

Have always installed valve cover gasket dry onto perfectly clean mating surfaces and had no leak issue, ever. And torque in a cross pattern from inside toward outside.

No adhesive or sealant should be needed. And might be remembering wrong, but don't recall anything in the FSM about installing other than dry.

True, but they will seep sometimes over the rubber plugs because gasket material can't make a 90 degree right turn. Notice the gasket pushes farther down into the rubber than the aluminum surface which puts a sqyare edge at the point where the al ends and the rubber begins. I put a tiny bit of permatex ultra black across the rubbers and leave everything else dry.

This is interesting:

I measured some of the gasket pieces I have around and found the newest ones to be only around .020" thick. The vesrah brand gaskets are around .035" thick. I measured a piece of my favorite old rubber-type gasket and it's a whopping .0625 thick. No wonder my cams touched the valve cover when I put everything back together (I used the .020" gasket). I had to clearance even more for my cams even though they were the same size as before - all because the new gaskets are so thin.

I went to the McMaster site to check out the rubber material as luc has suggested. The part number listed in this thread is for the 1/32" material (around .031"). I also found some 1/16" material for around $65 and it is .0625 thick - the same as my oldest and most favorite gasket ever! :laugh: I'm now wondering if my old gasket was home-made when I bought my bike. Seems like it was standard 1/16" material. I think I'll order some of that stuff! If I get another 20 years out of that it's a steal.