TOPIC:

Jeff;
I have never seen that, but now I will be checking heads that come thru the shop. When we machining the diameter that contacts the head, we hold it to .001". Then we locate on that groove and mill the flat. The dimension we do is .002" total.

I believe this is the tightest tolerances of any p[lugs out there.

Speaking of color. If you don't like the blue, what color would most p0of you prefer?

The blue is ok as it matches the earls/goodridge hose fittings if you want that look but i go for black or just plain alloy silver on my builds now as i think it looks less bling and more class.
If i cant find plain silver i just strip the anno off the blue ones with caustic and polish them.

GO BILLET

Original Fast-By-Gas aluminum end caps had to file down. New ones I just installed from Z1, not an issue, no top cap filing required.

Used engine 3-Bond #1104 case sealer, installed caps, snugged (bolt) down valve cover and let sealer dry w/cover in place for sealed tight fit.... All good, no leakies!....

Jeff.Saunders wrote: The billet aluminum cam-end plugs can work well. However, they can be a problem on a few heads - most noticeably the earlier Z1 heads. Ideally the line boring for the cams would be a perfect intersection of the head and cam caps - but what you find is variations up and down on the machining - to the tune of over 20 thou on some heads. This means the cam-end plugs can sit high or low on these heads. If they sit high, the only thing you can do is remove a little metal from the upper surface of the billet aluminum. If they sit low, you have to put a thin bead of gasket goo to help seal them.

When I first bought my 1973 turbocharged z1, the bike came with RC Engineering billet cam-end plugs - and they sat high and leaked oil from that area. At first I thought they were just poorly made, but when they were installed in a kz1000 head, they fit perfectly. I checked 10+ heads in my garage, and was very surprised on the depth difference from head to head.

That explains why my self made end plugs leak on the left side and are leak free on the right. I only measured one spot on the motor when I turned the plugs. Two are sitting high. I used black RTV to seal the plugs to the head using OMR's method.