Engine cooling

I have a 77 kz1000 and it hasn't over heated yet,but the motor gets hot as hell. I would like to be able to take it on long trips and I want to try and keep the engine as cool as possible.Is there anything I can put on the bike to help it cool down?

yes, an oil cooler

Honestly I don't think You'll have an overheating problem on your 1000 on long trips unless you're either going very fast (90mph+) or in a very very hot area. With that in mind, sitting around idling for a very long time is probably even worse (kill the motor.) I drive my 650 very very hard (rarely getting the RPM's down past 6K, and pushing it to 11K) all day in 80 degree weather and have never had a problem either.

That said, an oil cooler isn't a bad idea, and thats pretty much all you can do as far as I've ever heard. There are plenty of folks that will testify to the fact that a 1000 with an oil cooler should be good to go 120mph in 100 degree weather without overheating problems.

Peter

Oil cooler has been mentioned. Get one with a thermostat to cut the oil cooler out if you ride in cooler weather as the oil cooler can also keep the oil from heating quickly enough in cold weather and your engine oil won't flow as it should.

The next thing you can do if you are riding at high speeds for long distances if go one heat range colder spark plug. For instance, if you usually use NGK B8ES plugs per factory recommendation, you can switch to BGK B9ES plugs for extended, high speed riding.

Spark plugs have 3 functions:
1. spark
2. clean combustion chamber (burn off crud)
3. move heat out of combustion chamber (cool engine)

Since functions 2 and 3 more or less are at odds, the plug heat range is a balance. for regular riding, you need cleaning vs heat removal than you do for high speed extended riding when engine temps are higher and you need more heat removal vs cleaning as the cleaning tends to take care of itself when the engine is hotter.