1977 kz 650 b1 head cylinder gasket

Hi everyone, I am about to open the head on my kz 650 and I would like to have some advice from people who has done it before. I have an oil leak on the left side. The previous owner told me that this occured after he had change the rings, is it possible ? He told me that maybe just tightening the bolt could solve the problem but he gave me a complete set of gasket with the bike and since the motor is out of the bike right now I will take no chanche and change it right away. I have a haynes and a clymer manual but does anybody have suggestions of what to look for that could not be in those manuals ?

Also, I wanna make sure that the head is not warped, does anybody have a tip on how to achieve this without touching at the base of the cylinder ?

Thanks !

When you take the head off the base gasket will likely be disturbed and will probably need to be replaced as well. Just the way it goes with this engine design as the cylinders are squeezed between the head and the cases.

you can lay a straightedge or framing square across surface of head at diferant angles to check if its flat.
I prefer base gasket at same time also,but I just have that kind of luck! :woohoo:

Alright, thanks, I wanted to wait the end of the season before changing the base gasket and do a big clean up at the same time but if it moves I'll change it.

Is there any product I can submerge those motor parts in to clean them ?

Depending on how bad things are you could start with a trip to the car wash with bigger parts like cylinder and head after removing cams/buckets and shims from head.
Then you can take everything back home and blow everything out really good with air to get the water off of everything,then spray the parts down with brake clean to get rest of crud off of them

I've had the head off a KZ650 a dozen times and never replace the base gasket and never had a problem with leaks. Make sure you get the oval shape rubber orings that go on each side between the head and cylinder, these are what leak all the time, not the gasket itself.

There you go,but in his defense Ron only rides bikes with original paint.
That's good living in action right there folks! :laugh: