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Hi all,

Looking for a new cylinder block for a Z1000A2 I stumbled upon the block and head off a Z1000 shaft drive. They look like they are interchangeable, but the part numbers on buykawasaki.com are different. What do you think?

that's probably because of the year....
the shaft bikes came out in '79, the year they added the "smog" stuff to the head.
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Also a 78 KZ1000A would have the bare aluminum block, the shaft would be black. Other than the color and the emissions ports on USA models, I think they are the same.

The part numbers are different because the blocks are different. The early 78 blocks use an oring around the base where later ones do not. If you buy a block, check its base and if it has a channel about 1mm wide around the liner, it needs to have one of these orings. These orings come in most gasket sets for the earlier 1000s. The later blocks didn't use them. If you don't have orings, use some form-a-gasket stuff around the base and let it set up before installing the block. The blocks are pretty much interchangeable other than that "feature".