550 Torque specs

Hey everyone. I just got the parts in to change my valve cover gasket and cam end caps. I don't trust any of the torque specs in my clymer manual. Does anyone know the torque settings for the valve cover on an 81 Kz550 ltd?

Start in the middle and work your way out in both directions.
I just use a short 3/8 drive ratchet and snug them up really good.

Here's the specs from the KZ400/500/550 Kawasaki Service Manual (see image of cover below specs). Ed

You are wise to check on this. Valve cover bolts and cam-cap bolts are very easy to strip out. The main problem is sealant and or oil in the holes. When the hole has sealer or oil in the hole, it is easy to create a hydrostatic-lock condition in the bolt hole. Because sealer or oil is not hard, you don't feel much resistance, but oil does not compress, and silicone sealant does not compress much, so the bolt cannot go further into the hole. Thus the threads just strip right out clean, with little effort. I think the torque specs assume there is no oil on the threads. so the spec may be higher than what you want to use.

Make sure to dig out every crumb of sealant, and use a rolled up sliver of paper towel or rag to wick out all of the oil you can.

Many of the valve cover bolts are actually through-hole, so most of them are not really going to be a problem, but some are blind holes. Those you should worry about. I use a tiny bit of antiseize on the valve cover bolts. I clean the surfaces of the gasket to a smooth polish with no remnants of sealer, then use a tiny bit of antiseize on the engine side of the gasket surface. It comes off like new after that. The cam-end plugs may need a tiny bit of sealer, but I try them without sealer first. Because I use antiseize on the bolts, you must use a slightly lower torque setting. I probably go about 10% under spec. (The spec is designed to stretch the bolt a certain amount, since the threads are lubed, it will take less torque to stretch the bolt the same amount.)

On the cam caps, go to the lightest end of the spec they give for the torque. Don't let the holes fill with oil, but you can probably use a single tiny drop of oil on the bolt threads. One thing that often strips bolts is if the cam cap goes down unevenly. To prevent this, always count turns. Get a 10mm nut driver for the entire cam installation process. This will prevent you from using too much torque on the bolts when something is bound up. Do not use a ratchet or torque wrench until all of the caps are seated fully, and you have confirmed the cams can rotate easily and nothing is bound up. Using a wrench is where people make the mistake. You can easily use too much force to try to overcome a bound up cap. The machined surfaces are so precise, it will bind anything that is not going in correctly. It only takes a few fingers on a nut driver to fully seat the cam caps. If you are using much more torque than that, something is bound. Start over. I install the cams as level as possible and use all of the caps, to incrementally push the cam into place. It's a very gradual process, and here is where you count turns on the caps. If anything gets skewed, it will bind and if you force it, that's when you get breakage. Give yourself a lot of time, and don't hesitate to start over if anything starts to bind.

Remove the tach gear, just like the manual says. This seems like an easy shortcut by skipping this step, but it often ends in disaster as the gear does not like to self-mesh, and you get so caught up in other things, you forget to keep checking the tach gear alignment.

And of course, be sure you know the difference between inch-pounds and foot-pounds.