gpz cam swap

Right. I wish I had more bikes. I'll trade you a couple kids for one of yours!!

Ok, so I got my cams and all indicators point to 81gpz. I do have a j model motor w the roller chain. My cam gears have two bolt holes as do the new cams. Ape performance said they will work w my gears if my gears have the right amount of bolt holes. Anyone wanna back them up? And anyone know the Ho rating for the 82 kz1000? And I know ill have to re-adjust my valves but they should be relatively close considering the base circle on cams are the same...right?

Backed up, 102 h.p., right.

Forget the cams from the '83/84 because every single horsepower they gained up top was offset by an identical loss at lower RPM's. Kawasaki was certain that with the extra 10 hp the '83 would go deep into the 10 second bracket, but when it was actually drag tested it, the new GPz didn't turn times as good as what the '82 had done the year before, plus the roll-on power was lacking.

Now if you were putting those cams together with a bigger bore, lots of compression, and lower gearing you could make a monster.

I've had 110 webs which are slightly more aggressive in the same size 1075 compression motor that didn't make near as much low end grunt as my low compression turbo motor with 83/84 gpz cams does not on boost. At 18# boost! The head on the 83/84 gpz was has a big port and valve setup with little velocity which I think is what really killed the bottom end grunt.

Les

I put the cams in today and checked all my clearances. I'll have to get a couple shims tomorrow which is no problem but I have a cam cap bolt that is stripped. I remember it being a little sketchy last time but it has officially given up now. I've seen a few posts on this and can try a 1/4 bolt but if it don't catch I do have a 7mm tap. The helicoil is cut at 7mm so what's wrong w a 7mm bolt?

I would recommend you have a time-sert installed. Better than Heli-coil and way better than trying to use a 1/4" bolt. See their "product demonstration" at link under the pic of the insert. Ed

www.timesert.com/

I read the time sert sits proud of the surface and wouldn't work well with the cam caps. Just what I read tho

I don't think they sit proud when properly installed. Here's a video that shows them being put in. Notice at time 3:08 the counter-bore bit is used to provide a recess for the top of the time-sert. Below is a pic of the finished installation. Ed

Thanks. They look like a great product

The 83-85 GPz11 cams are the only OEM cams worth bolting into a KZ or J motor. They work just fine with shim on top as well. I suggest 108 lobe centers. APE has the sprockets for the conversion. Yes, you loose the mechanical tach drive. If that's important to you then get something elese.

They are NOT drop in. Tappet bores need a little bit of material removed and it's always wise to grind the raised + marks out of the valve cover.

Someone posted that the 83 GPz didn't post quarter mile tiimes as good as the 82 Well that's news to me because the 83 GPz11 was the FIRST bone stock production bike to post sub 11 second quarter miles.

Stock 83 GPz11 had no real bottom end grunt with stock DFI setup and Stock Exhaust. A Murray 4-1 pipe helped that situation. I know because we installed lots and lots of them and every single customer came back telling us the same thing.....improved

Ideally you added the Pogue adjustable pressure regulator. Also drilled out the TPS cover plugs and adjusted the TPS for highest, smooth idle. Then reset main idle knob to achieve 1100 RPM.

Wish I had the 83s but oh well! Put the 81s in and took care of my leaky valve cover gasket. Seems to run a little better but it may be just in my head. It's pretty cold here so I didn't ride long. Did notice it seemed a little sluggish at first when I throttled hard then ran like a bat out of hell. Think I might be in for another carb adjustment? Maybe need to pick needle up a bit more?