83 kz1100 50kmi top-end service

I've been putting off this service for a few years, but I couldn't ignore the oil pushing from the front of the head/valve gasket for another summer, especially as I prepare to head west and try living in sunny Portland, Oregon. Iowa winters and shitty roads have taken their toll on the rest my bike but it still runs. New coils and plugs last year put some pep back into the step but I managed to save some money up before moving, and I'd rather ride the bike than ship it. I figure instead of ship it, spend that same amount on repairs and enjoy the 2,000 miles trip.

I'm capable of working on these bikes but I live in a downtown apartment with no real facilities to spread everything out properly and do it right, so I reluctantly took it to our local powersports dealership. I made several visits feeling them out, some places can't or wont work on a 32 year old bike that looks as rough as mine. I knew full well what I was doing, but hoped I could get away with just a top end gasket change. Hahaha. Hope. ,


I'm not really sure what the mileage is but the odo indicates 45k and I rode it for the better part of a year without a working speedo, about a set and a half of shinko rears (ymmv). It ran well enough that I wasn't concerned with a critical failure but you never know...sure enough, once they cracked open the top, it was clearly time for a cleaning. The photos should tell the tale, lots of buildup on the top of the pistons. Light glazing in the cylinder itself, plenty of factory cross-hatching still visible, no apparent damage to any of the cylinder bores, so we decided to change the rings and clean just about everything from the base gasket up, changing the o rings and gaskets and whatever. Rob over at Z1 has been very helpful - the dealer quoted me nearly $600 on parts, Z1 got that down to about $180. Now if I could knock the labor down from ~$700 I'd be stoked, but I shouldn't complain since they're going to give me back a practically new top end (all-in, just less than $1,000 for parts and labor, I'd already purchased the top-end gasket kit).

I had planned to be moving as I type this but since the parts took a week to ship I'll be heading west sometime mid-may from Iowa. Once I get to Portland I hope to find someone to rebuild the bottom end, the tranny really needs some attention. We'll see what happens, eh?

Soooo I finally got my bike back yesterday after nearly a month in the shop waiting for parts. Apparently the pulsing coil gaskets are on backorder just about everywhere.

I rode it maybe 20 miles after having the top-end gaskets, piston rings, crush washers, spark plugs, all of that replaced and the valves/head cleaned, as well as the top of the cylinder and pistons - lots of carbon buildup, seen in the pics above. I changed the oil this morning, new Mobil 4-T syn, new hi-flo filter, basic stuff there, added my 3.7q to the indicated line an not a micron above.

And then I went for a ride. About 30 miles after getting the bike back, I notice I'm smoking at acceleration, something that assuredly was not a problem before I had this work done. Sitting at a light and the oil smoke blows in front of me...I'm like, ok, break-in for the rings....meh. The dealer service writer told me not to worry too much about break-in, I asked him like 4 times in person and over the phone, and went to ask the tech who did the work -same answer. "Don't worry about break-in, should be fine".

At this point I'm heading out of town on a loop, just to get some miles on the new rings - not really pushing very hard but hitting 85-90 on some back road stretches. That's when I notice I'm laying down a nice blue fog, not just under initial throttle-on. By the time I get back to the dealer, about 75 miles after I picked the bike up, it's pretty obviously burning oil at idle and under any throttle, out of both pipes. I dropped the bike off less than an hour ago... and the service writer starts hemming about it being an old bike.

I stopped him right there and pointed out they were supposed to have cleaned and replaced any worn parts on the top end. I had gone over the parts thoroughly, talked to the service writer and tech asking them to look out for ANY potential issue once we had it opened up, and they said it looked to be in pretty good shape overall.IT DID NOT SMOKE AT ALL BEFORE I DROPPED IT OFF - it just leaked a lot from the valve/head gasket area.

Now I'm looking at a back-and-forth with the dealership who performed this service- the only authorized Kawasaki dealer in town. AND I'm supposed to be moving 2,000 miles to Portland in the next two weeks. I'm about to lose it. All I can think of is the new valve guides that came in the gasket set didn't seat properly, or the rings are borked. I can't think of any other way for that much oil to be getting into the cylinder.

Any advice on how to proceed here is needed. I'm just...trying not to freak out. I don't have the $$ or time to do this again, and dealerships...fk. yeah. Imma go get a drink. Edit to remove unintentional cursing. I'm not too happy.

OK... that really sucks and I think you already know whats wrong.
But to go over it again....did they really take the cylinder block off and do a std ring replacement?
With a well worn cylinder set, a common ring job with the old pistons uses "first" or the smallest "over bore" ring set and get the rings gaped accordingly.
Yes No?
Did they actually replace or grind the valves? Yes No.
If Yes did they really replace the valve guide seals? Yes No.
Yup.
If the engine did not use oil before this and they did yank the cylinder block off, replacing rings with a fresh set of std or first over dia rings and "glaze break" hone.... you either have some mis-installed or broken set(s) of oil control rings, a blown head gasket or the valve guide seals are totally shot (and or) replaced but installed wrong and popped off... etc.
I would be screaming bloody murder and make sure you get EVERYBODYS attention at this shop. Especially any nearby customers.
Moving it two weeks? Might be time to mention the lawyer.
By the way, this is my opinion, I would not be using Synth oil in this engine.... especially during a break in,

Reminds me of my first $1200 "trust the expert" experience...and got my bike back with all the new parts installed, in and atop the out-of-round cylinders.
The next guy "who is an expert" pointed out what happens to piston rings when they can't conform to an oval cylinder shape...not good.
Now I do what I can myself, with the help of great folks on this forum.

Yep. Labor was ~$580, billed for head gasket replace( $350) and cleaning/deglazing/base gasket replace ($220). I supplied them with the full top-end gasket kit from Z1, which includes 'Valve Stem Seal 92049-016 ('. Once the cracked the head bolts the base separated so that's where the rings came in.

The factory cross-hatching was still very visible - there were no obvious gouges or visible wear. The main issue was the carbon buildup on the piston and valve dome area, which is the 'cleaning' part of the bill. I made sure - repeatedly - to have them look at everything else and replace anything that might be needed since it was open and I had the $$ to make sure this was done right. I examined the cylinders myself after they had it apart - at first I was hopeful I could get away with just the top head gasket change (alas...hope...). The parts recommended were direct ring replacements purchased from Z1ent. after a thorough review with Robb. Since this was a factory-authorized Kawasaki dealer I can only assume that the replacement was done properly (obviously I'm doubting that now).
Nothing was noted about the valves. Carbon buildup was...a lot but, again, I can only assume that the tech would have suggested replacement or repair if the valves needed attention. I had checked valve lash a few years back - probably needs attention but they were in spec probably....I dunno, 15k miles ago. Two rear Shinko tires later, YMMV. So no replacing the valves, they were cleaned according to the billing and my convo w/them.

Sorry, when I said 'valve guide' before I meant 'valve stem seals' as included w/the gasket kit. So yes, those were replaced.

I pushed a lot of oil through that head gasket for a good 10k miles, it did not smoke before though, at least not noticeably. The leak was the reason for the service. Mostly cosmetic, really.

And again, I repeatedly asked the service manager/writer about break-in suggestions, and he asked the tech, the answer was akin to 'meh, shouldn't be a concern'. Obviously everyone has a different take on that topic (omg the forum threads...) but I guess I probably got pretty high into the revs once or twice on the interstate so that...*sigh.

As for the mobil 4T syn, it meets/exceeds the listed standards for wet clutch air-cooled stuff and I've been using it for the ~4 years I've had the bike without any problems. Everybody has their own opinion there, too. The ONLY thing I can think of is that I over-filled it, causing excessive oil somewhere in the system, but I've never done that before, and it NEVER SMOKED. Not a wisp. The fact that it seemed to get worse as I hit about 70 miles after picking the bike up (when I dropped it off) really get's my blood boiling. This is exactly what I was afraid of, spending as much on repairs as I did to buy the bike, and getting screwed. And yeah, the move. I'm so stressed I couldn't keep lunch down.

So I mentioned in the first post how I live a) in an apartment without b) a garage of any sort. And minimal tools since mine got stolen a few years back in Albuquerque. I'd have replaced everything myself if it weren't for those two factors, and I had the time.

Although for something like this, taking it to a dealer service tech seems like it'd be the best bet, if you can afford it, since they work on these things all day every day compared to my...'when I get the money and resources to do it'. As far as I could tell visibly the cylinders were all in good shape, cross-hatching was even and clear on every bore. Again, I would assume a Kawasaki dealer tech would check the round before proceeding with the rest of the work. I tried very hard to make it explicitly clear that yeah, I'm on a bit of a budget but since we're in there REPLACE EVERYTHING THAT NEEDS IT so I'm not broken down at the side of the interstate in the middle of fkn nowhere, Wyoming after spending almost $1k on a 'cosmetic' repair. Now I'm wishing I'd dealt with the oil leak and waited until I got to Portland to do this work. *sigh

Ditch that synthetic oil until the rings seat. The cylinders may already be glazed, preventing the rings from seating. Don't blame the mechanics for your screw-up.

Excuse me? Like I stated, I've been using Moboil 4-T for the entire time I've owned the bike and never once had the blue devil escaping out the back. I also went over these details several times with the tech and service writer and not a word was said about my choice in oil.

Telling me this is my fault after I've spent a thousand fucking dollars at a FACTORY KAWASAKI DEALERSHIP for what should be basic work is 1)RUDE and 2)UNINFORMATIVE. Since you obviously base your opinion on something, maybe you'd care to share? What else would you recommend? ROTELLA? BTW, here's a little snapshot - you'll not 'meets or exceeds....JASO MA, which is the standard Kawi adheres to :

And yeah I'm about to dump $40 worth of oil and a new filter after there's already a problem...lol.

Most modern "technicians" know nothing about breaking in a new set of rings. Most if not all new engines today do not require a bedding process for ring seating due to the high levels of machining process in today's engine factories. That is why most vehicles today are shipped from the factory with synthetic oils. So when you asked about breaking in the engine the tech never deals with that issue so it didn't even occur to him to tell you not to use synthetic oils.
These engine were designed and built over 30 years ago when the manufacturing and machining process were different and the engines required a break in period.
I know you are out $$$ and are pretty pissed off but for the future here is some advice on ring seating.
Over the last 35 years I have overhauled well over 200 motorcycle engines and during that time I have noticed that modern oils are getting to good at reducing friction to the point that even dino oil sometimes will fail to allow rings to seat.
NEVER use synthetic oil to seat rings it will not happen. People will disagree with me and I am only telling you my own experience with the stuff. I had to re-ring my GPZ1100 engine three times to get the rings to seat. First time I used synthetic oil just to see if it would actually allow the rings to seat. Did not work, the engine had a lot of blowby and burned oil. Second re-ring I again used synthetic oil thinking maybe it was my break in procedure that messed it up. Nope again the rings did not seat. Third time I used break in oil and that did it rings seated I have great compression, no blowby and no oil burning. It's ok to use the synthetic oil after about 1000 miles but not before. I used the same break in procedure on each one.
If you used synthetic oil for ring seating and you are now getting a lot of oil burning I would say the rings failed to seat. It will not fix itself the cylinders need to be honed again. It is a relatively easy fix. Take the head and cylinders off, hone the cylinders and put it back together.

The rings will not seat and the cylinders will glaze if you run synthetic oil in it during the brake in. Put a good mineral based oil like Rotella in it untill the rings seat. The oil burning got worse after YOU changed it to the synthetic, go figure.

80B4 wrote: The rings will not seat and the cylinders will glaze if you run synthetic oil in it during the brake in. Put a good mineral based oil like Rotella in it untill the rings seat. The oil burning got worse after YOU changed it to the synthetic, go figure.

Don't kick the guy while he's down, stop being so nasty, it's a learning process.

80B4 wrote: Ditch that synthetic oil until the rings seat. The cylinders may already be glazed, preventing the rings from seating. Don't blame the mechanics for your screw-up.

What??? How can you assert that the owner screwed up???

There's no reason to believe synthetic oil would cause that engine to smoke. If it did, damn near every brand new modern performance car would smoke when it left the dealer's parking lot.

I've been using Mobil-1 Racing 4T synthetic oil in my KZ650 for 8 years and it works great. I've used full synthetic oil my CTS since it was brand new and in my Seville for the past 215,000 miles and I assure you there has never been any smoke. Non-synthetic might have helped a quicker break-in, but synthetic wouldn't turn the engine into a smog device.

The fact is that the mechanic who worked on the bike did something wrong, and I'm sure that will be proven when the engine is disassembled. Ed