Head/valve cover bolts

Hey all just picked up a 84 750ltd got a slight leak in the top gasket. Buddy I purchased it from put a new gasket in but he used stainless steel bolts with no washers. I tried to torque the bolts down to see if it would stop but no avail plus heads of bolts started to dig in so I stopped before I did more damage. So before I buy a new gasket and tear this down would stainless bolts be strong enough if I got washers.should I get 10.9 plated ones or should i just source factory bolts. I realize there is a pattern to bolt these down. Also is 12 foot pounds proper torque.

Inch pounds. I do it by feel. That way I can feel if a bolt has a tight spot, back it off and do it again a few times if needed. Washers will work as long as they fit. Z1E says you may have to grind some of theirs if they are too long.. SS Allens are fine. I have them on all my covers. Ome tool fits all.
Steve

Stainless steel washers will work as long as you can find the proper size.

The Kawasaki factory service manual lists the proper torque at 69 in-lbs.

The factory Kawasaki gaskets are superior to pretty much any aftermarket gasket so don't skimp if you value oil tightness. Some grease on the gasket before install will help keep it from sticking so you can reuse it again and again after doing your valve adjustment maintenance.

Ok thanks,I'll pick up some Allen heads. Metric washers have a smaller OD than sae and should work. My tourque wrench is in foot pounds so 6 should be plenty.

Better to under than over torque. Those threads will strip easily. With a good gasket you could do hand tight with a short socket handle and it should seal
Allen heads are good.

NO NO NO! Do not use a foot pound torque wrench! Go by feel in the palm of your hand! snug them up slowly. I have never in 40 years used an inch pound torque wrench on these engines!
Cylinder head, of course. And make sure the bolts you get are not too long. Say you buy a cheap crap gasket from china that is 1/2 the thickness of OEM. Then you put a different bolt in with a few extra thousands of an inch. I have seen many heads with the broken bottoms on 1/2 the cover bolt holes. So use proper length, even a little shorter will work. Or just get a set of OEM's with the correct gasket

DO NOT use a FOOT pound torque wrench on those small fasteners. I understand that it would seem like you can simply convert inch pounds to foot pounds, but that is not the problem. The problem is the fact that torque wrenches are not accurate below 20% of their highest setting, which almost assuredly means your torque wrench will not be accurate for the small setting needed for those fasteners. Unlike most others on this site, I always use a torque wrench for all fasteners, but I use a small one calibrated in INCH pounds for the small fasteners on the KZ.

Take a look at the link below. CDI is the Snap-On torque wrench group, and they make really high quality tools. Notice in the block of info directly below the pink block the first bullet item states; "All mechanical torque wrenches are calibrated from 20% to 100% of full scale, therefore, they should never be used below or above those limits." Ed

www.cditorque.com/education.html#Safety

Ok I'll torque by hand

I always start on the 2 inside ones first then move out to the next set till reaching the outside..... and lightly at first with at least 3 or 4 steps till the final tightening.... I like the idea of by hand too with a 3 inch long 10mm wrench.....

So I got the cover on ,no leaks ,stainless hex bolts with flat and lock for good measure. I started the bike and it was still smoking. figured I had better clean the oil/grease off the engine to see if there is another leak.i used brake cleaner got the grime off and see no visible leaks. The smoke is comming from the manifold?Where the exhaust attaches to the motor. i guess my question now is if your seeing smoke there is this the sign of a bigger problem? I just let the bike warm up ,I was afraid to let it run too long incase it was a bigger problem. Should I let it try to burn off seeing the leak was just above the manifold. Heck I don't even know if it's called a manifold on a bike lol. Thanks in

advance.

My finger is pointing to where it was leaking.

Residual oil? Did you adjust the valves while the cover was off?