Kz1000 turbo engine questions

I'm thinking about buying a Kz1000 turbo bike, it's a Kz1000 D model from 1978, the Z1R model, it has a turbo though. I looked up the frame number online and I find no evidence Kawasaki ever made a Z1R turbo from the factory. All I can find is this:

1978 Kz1000- frame number was from KZT00D-000001 to KZT00D-17xxx

1979 Kz1000- can't find any info on this, not even my Zedder parts cross reference parts software has a 1979 Kz1000-D


1980 Kz1000- frame number started at KZT00D-178xxx


And that's all I can find on frame numbers. The title of the bike just says 1978 for the model year and nothing like "Kz1000-D Turbo".

So then I found pictures of Z1R turbos, some are light blue, some are black with stripes.


I'm gonna buy this turbo bike, but what the heck is the deal with the frame number?
He swears that a limited number of Z1R bikes were sold with turbos from the dealer and I can use the frame number to verify that.

I can find photos online of a Z1R with a turbo but not frame numbers. The frame number on his is

Frame: KZT00D-0068xx

The engine number is almost *exactly* matches the frame number, off by only 1 digit on the far right end of the number!
I have *never* seen any Kz1000 with a frame and engine number that close.

Where can I find out if this is what he claims, a special limited product Z1R with a turbo?
Or is he pulling my leg someone just put a turbo in there?

Is it black with red and orange stripes?

Some helpful info --

www.odd-bike.com/2012/12/kawasaki-z1r-tc-psycho-turbo-z.html

raresportbikesforsale.com/first-of-the-t...978-kawasaki-z1r-tc/

thekneeslider.com/kawasaki-z1r-tc-turbo-motorcycle/

www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-japan...13jfzbea.aspx?page=3

Good Fortune!

No it's not -- does that mean something? I saw blue turbo Z1Rs in pictures online (see below) and I saw black Z1Rs with turbos online (see below) -- his bike is a blue one. I will try to take a picture of his bike this weekend next time I'm over there. He wants $5000 for it. It might be worth it if I can do what he told me to do, use his frame number and verify it's a 'limited edition' Z1R.

HERE'S SOME I FOUND ONLINE TODAY:

BLUE TURBO




BLACK TURBO

Thanks Patton, reading those links makes it sound freaking like a beast to ride.

Thing is, I have a '98 600cc Suzuki Bandit, came stock with an air/oiled-cooled, sleeved-down GSXR 750 motor, puts out 80hp same as my original '77 Kz1000, 80hp. This 600 Bandit is my daily driver, handles like amazing.

One of the articles said the turbo Z1R puts out 130 freaking horsepower, jiminy.

I have an S3-400 Kaw triple only has 40hp and it makes me grin all dang day with the quickness how it accelerates and pulls up the front wheel. 130hp mein gott.

I bet that Z1R turbo would be a bit hard to ride. I had a turbo car and it had that 'turbo lag' mentioned in those articles. Unless you're on the freeway with a radar detector. :evil:

Z1R TCs were ATP kits installed at the dealer. NOT Mr Turbo. Still cool.
If a Mr Turbo you probably got the FF40 turbo, 30 psi potential.
SOME ATP kits had the BB25 turbo, 15psi.
Check the tag, if still there, on the comp housing.
What carb?

gearheadmm wrote: Z1R TCs were ATP kits installed at the dealer. NOT Mr Turbo. Still cool.
If a Mr Turbo you probably got the FF40 turbo, 30 psi potential.
SOME ATP kits had the BB25 turbo, 15psi.
Check the tag, if still there, on the comp housing.
What carb?

If you take a look at this turbo, the one I'm strongly thinking about buying looks nearly identical to this turbo, see the black cover on the exhaust pipe, it's black with silver lines on it? Looks like this:




HOWEVER -- the one I'm looking at has a 2nd "black-with-silver-stripes" pipe coming out of the front and left side of the engine -- the one in the picture above does not.

The one I'm looking at has two sections of black-with-silver-stripes exhaust -- at the front on the exhaust side of the engine, it comes out of the exhaust and runs along the left side of the cylinder back into the turbo, then at the rear of the turbo, the down-pipe exhaust exit also has that 'black-with-silver-stripes' deal.

Carb, I have no idea. I thought the turbo WAS the carb.

Does an ATP or a "Mr Turbo" have those black-with-silver-stripes exhaust pipes?

those were heat shields that bolt on the pipes your talking about.. and the one in the pic is just missing the front heat shield.. atp was the one that had those heat shields... i actually had a z1-r tc back in the early 80's.... sounds like you have a good oppurtunity!!! good luck

PM Street Fighter LTD for info... Take a look at his sweet Turbo build, absolutely gorgeous!

if,
you could take the serial number and go online and verify it the current owner should have done it.

there has been talk of some mysterious book that had all the serial numbers of the turbo bikes.

one guy says he has it one guy says he has seen it.

all smoke and mirrors in my book.

there was never anything on the title to designate the turbo's because they were dealer installed.

so if you want a turbo z1r and it is nice,$5000.00 is about right.

if you want the holy grail of turbo z1r's with verification you are going to be hard pressed to prove it.

1979 z1r 11's were not imported into the united states.

1978 and 1980 was the only model years of z1r's we got.

hth,

leon

531blackbanshee wrote: if,
you could take the serial number and go online and verify it the current owner should have done it.

there has been talk of some mysterious book that had all the serial numbers of the turbo bikes.

one guy says he has it one guy says he has seen it.

all smoke and mirrors in my book.

there was never anything on the title to designate the turbo's because they were dealer installed.

so if you want a turbo z1r and it is nice,$5000.00 is about right.

if you want the holy grail of turbo z1r's with verification you are going to be hard pressed to prove it.

1979 z1r 11's were not imported into the united states.

1978 and 1980 was the only model years of z1r's we got.

hth,

leon

Thanks 531 -- I was wondering about that gap in Zedder's parts cross reference! I thought he must have skipped a year. I'd like to find that resource that has the ID numbers for the limited run of the turbo Z1Rs, I cannot find anything (yet) online.

Thanks vernon -- heat shields, they look like they're part of the pipe itself, they did a good job integrating those onto the pipe. Okay it sounds like then it is an ATP turbo I'm looking at and gearheadmm said that the ATP turbo is the one installed for the Z1R Turbo bikes so to me it sounds like there is a chance this is one of those limited edition Z1Rs.

However if the dealer installed these turbos on the Z1R engines back then, anyone could do that I reckon if they got hold of an ATP turbo.

If this is an 'official' Z1R turbo bike -- is it worth more than $5000?

Because I've seen regular Z1Rs go for much more than $5000 in this condition, the one I'm looking at is in 'good' or maybe 'very good' condition, definitely not a show bike though.
What would you expect to pay for an 'official' Z1R turbo from that era?

Also, can someone comment on how the heck this bike came out the factory with an engine number and a frame number that differed by a count of 1, i.e. this bike's frame is 006015 and the engine is 006016?

I have seen a lot of Kz1000s but NEVER seen one with frame and engine numbers off by a count of 1.


I cannot find anything online about an 'official' Z1R turbo's frame numbers range -- sure seems peculiar that I'm having such a time trying to verify this frame/engine numbers make this one of the 'official' Z1R turbo's.

Besides the fact that based on what I've seen regular Z1R's sell for, $5000 seems way cheap for a limited run bike, part of Patton's links claim only a few hundred were sold.

BUY IT!!!

Turbo kit is worth around $1500 and only getting harder to find.
What's a nice Z-1R worth?
Dealer installed kit came with ATP kit, paint scheme w/TC logo on side cover, and a possibly a boost gauge.
Verifying if it's real my be hard because they were ONLY installed at the dealer with full factory Kaw warranty.
Carb is mounted on turbo inlet. Heat shields are cast aluminum, bolt on.