Time to stop the oil leaking

Ok, got the 1981 Kz 400 LTD A carbs sorted out and am now getting a reliable idle and proper acceleration. Now after driving for a few minutes at low speeds I am getting smoke off the engine. I checked to see where it was coming from and what did I find? The previous owner had done ALL the engine gaskets with just RTF!

The engine puts oil out thru the old RTF and it drools down the outside of the engine and smokes. It only does this when its warm, does not seem to weep oil when it has been sitting cold for a day or so. So, bought the complete Athena engine gasket set to replace the old RTF. This being said I am confident about 40% of the work I need to do I can do without a problem, but when I get to the point where I have to remove the cam to pull the head and then pull the cylinders off then I get a little worried.

So my question is, can anyone give me any little hints or list of special tools that I will need? I have the Cylmer and factory service manuals but I would hate to tear this down to turn it into a flower pot.

Well, Athena gaskets suck big time. Good luck with that. The base gasket in particular is evil. OEM Kawasaki gaskets are vastly superior but they don't sell a kit so you gotta piece together what you need.

Be sure to replace the valve stem seals and consider honing the bores and installing fresh rings. It's just a minimal cost adder and will assure you have good compression when done.

You can find a lot of usefull information including an engine rebuild article here kz400.com/

Nessism wrote: Well, Athena gaskets suck big time. Good luck with that. The base gasket in particular is evil. OEM Kawasaki gaskets are vastly superior but they don't sell a kit so you gotta piece together what you need.

Be sure to replace the valve stem seals and consider honing the bores and installing fresh rings. It's just a minimal cost adder and will assure you have good compression when done.

The bike has great compression around 155 per side so would i need original sized rings or oversized?

Hyde_me wrote:

Nessism wrote: Well, Athena gaskets suck big time. Good luck with that. The base gasket in particular is evil. OEM Kawasaki gaskets are vastly superior but they don't sell a kit so you gotta piece together what you need.

Be sure to replace the valve stem seals and consider honing the bores and installing fresh rings. It's just a minimal cost adder and will assure you have good compression when done.

The bike has great compression around 155 per side so would i need original sized rings or oversized?

Hum, that's good compression. Maybe you don't need rings after all. :S As for which rings, you pick the rings to match the pistons/bores. Stock I would assume but you need to measure the cylinder. Never run oversize rings on stock pistons.