gpz cam swap

jonarmstrong wrote: 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?

Those would be more cam than stock KZ so they'll help some. When you find the later cams you'll be happier. You can clearance the tappet bores yourself. Not a bi g deal. You do have to pull the head off and apart though to do it properly and safely.

The first sub 10 sec bike, by a magazine test rider was the 1983 GS1100E - I've still got the magazines from 1983.

The '83 GPz1100 was beaten by both the CB1100F in their quarter mile testing, as well as by the GS1100E because of low end and midrange punch made launching very difficult. It took a professional rider to get it into the high tens.

Now once you got them to the track it was all over - the GPz walked away from the Suzuki because of it's superior HP, and more ground clearance. You could climb on a stock '83/'84 GPz1100, enter it in a box-stock race, and have high hopes of winning the race if YOU were up to it.

CYCLE CANADA in 1982, ran the top three bikes for ultimate top speed, and the GS1100E did 137mph, and the GPz1100 and CB1100F shrieked side-by-side at 143, and then in 1984 both the GPz750 Turbo and GPz1100 cracked 150.

When I had my '82 engine rebuilt last fall I punched it up to 1136cc, and bumped the compression from 8.9:1 to 10.25:1, and I actually have a set of '84 cams I could have used, but when I pulled out the old magazines and looked through them it I decided the '82 cams were about as far as I wanted to go. When I pulled off the DFI, it was nice seeing big ports, that were factory ported and polished. The only other change I did was put in the '84 Computer because it has a rev limiter, limp mode, and diagnostics. It already had a period-correct Kerker KR series pipe.

I may go back to the stock computer though, because my bike is the Canadian Version, with no emission equipment on it, and I suspect the fuel MAP is different, and neither Kawasaki Canada or Kawasaki USA can confirm or deny it. The basic part n umbers on the computer are the same, but the production codes below the part number are different.

I also have the complete DFI rack from the '84, that if I get bored I may send off and have smooth-bored, but I'm not that bored yet.

I'm still breaking in my '82 GPz1100, so I haven't tried to see how far into redline it'll pull, but we'll see this summer. I pulled up to redline just one time when it was warmed up, and it was very willing, but in the CYCLE CANADA test they ended up with their GPz weeping a little oil after prolonged over-revving, and that would break my heart after spending over $3k on a motor.

As a side note - the first time I decided to stretch her legs out, I slipped it in 4th gear, held it wide open, and at 7000 rpms the clutch started slipping - the 32 year-old plates and springs were not up to the power anymore. So I put in new springs, and new friction plates. That bike is luck I love it

Cycle Magazine..Early 83 had the dyno numbers of 104.4 HP and Pee Wee Gleason put the bike into the high 10's. I think it was 10.89 IIRC. Everyone used Pee Wee back in those days

My buddy went straight out and swapped his 78 Z1R for the new GP11. Having a baby on the way I decided to pump up my 79 LTD. Wiseco 1075 Kit with 2x cams [$400 then] 86 CU./Ft. head /stock valves with the 29's and Kerker I already had. He brought his GPz around and we did rolling start quarter miles to compare the bikes. I killed the GPz 3 for three but he claimed he was gaining on me up on top. Could be...wasn't looking back to verify though :laugh:

Our shop race bike was an 82 GPz11 with Murray pipe and Pogue Bored TB's. The head was done by lazer porting. The Hughes Brothers raced it at Pocono and other tracks. It was a pretty fast bike. A couple years later I had the opportunity to flow test the head.....A whopping 79 cubic feet of air at 10" / .500 lift. Not impressive at all. However the Pogue TB's flowed 143 Cu/FT.....that was sweet....

So I'd pretty much be wasting my time boring the TB's then, without having the head massaged - who knows - it may happen one day !

I accumulated a lot of extra DFI parts, an extra set of throttle bodies, extra injectors, extra temp sensors, etc., 3 computers, and they are put away in vacuum-sealed food bags because I would hate to need a vital part 10 years from now and not be able to find it.

Awesome info. Gonna take my bike to the strip and see what it will run. Seems pretty fast but don't have numbers to verify it. But anyway, noone has addressed my question. Is it logical to think I need a carb adjustment? Runs balls out on top but is slower at beginning of accel. Maybe pick up the needles?

I suggest doing plug chops to verify proper carb jetting.

GPzEric wrote: So I'd pretty much be wasting my time boring the TB's then, without having the head massaged - who knows - it may happen one day !

I accumulated a lot of extra DFI parts, an extra set of throttle bodies, extra injectors, extra temp sensors, etc., 3 computers, and they are put away in vacuum-sealed food bags because I would hate to need a vital part 10 years from now and not be able to find it.

The Pogue TB's really worked good. It's worth doing them because whatever you add after will really shine. If you did them and added the 83 cams you'd notice it. Even on a stock motor the Pogue TB's seemed to help.

Also you want good injectors. At least get yours cleaned and checked for balance.

Yup - you'll need to do a little work on the carbs - and I didn't notice in your post before what you did with the ignition, but you should pick up a little power with a few more degrees of timing advance too.

Hate to ask but would that be a clockwise or counter clockwise change on the ignition. I'm pretty good at making engines run. Not so good at dialing them in

jonarmstrong wrote: Hate to ask but would that be a clockwise or counter clockwise change on the ignition. I'm pretty good at making engines run. Not so good at dialing them in

CCW when looking at the ignition plate. They also made +4 ignition rotors.