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LA Sleeve makes cylinders.

Interesting read on the reintroduction of factory cylinder heads by KHI. I had to use an app to scan the Japanese print and it looks like 1000 heads are going to be made for sale initially only in Japan. You have a choice between silver and black, but silver is already sold out. Further production of silver heads is anticipated in their words. I realize $2K is a lot of money, but considering what you get in return it could turn out to be a bargain in the end. If there is one piece to this motorcycle that is difficult to locate it is a like new cylinder head. My brother found a seller at a motorcycle swap meet that claimed to have one in a box and it had a $2,500.00 price tag on it. I passed on it but who knows now....

Rick H.

Yesterday just for the heck of it I did some research on this Kawasaki reintroduced head. I emailed Kawasaki and requested some information from them about overseas availability of these and this was the reply I received:

"Thank you for contacting us.

As you mentioned, initial production lot will be 1,000. Plans may arise for further production depending on requested further order quantity.

Currently, sales as Z1's cylinder heads in overseas markets under consideration.
We will make announcement on our official website or SNS when products sales in overseas is decided.

Again, thank you for contacting Kawasaki Heavy Industries, we take your request as valuable opinion.

Wish you have a great day!

Best Regards,

Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd

For further inquiry please contact below:
www.heritage-parts.khi.co.jp/en/ "

As stated $2100.00 is a lot of money to spend on an old bike, but at some point used cylinder heads are going to be rather difficult to obtain. Really nice used heads are already hard to locate and are most often a crap shoot when you order one. I think based on the response from KHI they put their toe in the water and want to see what type of interest is out there regarding remanufacture of parts for these bikes, especially engine parts. In essence, would it be a profitable venture for them. As such, even if you now say you wouldn't spend the $2K on a new head, I think it would be to our benefit to let KHI know you would be interested in purchasing such an item in the future. It only takes a couple of minutes to write them and give some positive feedback in this area. Opportunities like this rarely come along for factory made parts. Imagine for a moment how nice it would be to have the ability of ordering a new cylinder head or block for a restoration project. Quite possibly the price may come down on these items if KHI made a bigger run of them too.

Rick H.

Heads do come up on ebay from time to time. I bought one a couple of years ago ('78) for my KZ1000. Currently there are two for sale but both have issues. In most cases a buyer would need to put some money into it for new valves, springs, etc, so the final price would be in the $1,000 range. My thinking is the good used ones will rise in price to match the price of the new ones, now that the price of a new one is known.

I saw the info you mentioned Rick but I haven't seen good photos of the new heads. Earlier discussions warned that they may not be exactly like the originals. In that case they would be no good for a restoration.

I understand the concern regarding looks of the head for a restoration project, but I have run into that wall restoring a few OLD cars and firearms where OEM parts just could not be found. At that point we had to go another route that led to non-OEM items. If they looked a bit off from the original so-be-it otherwise the project would be shelved indefinitely trying to locate OEM parts. Given the fact these cylinder heads are in fact a factory part I think any deviation from the look of it will be overlooked by a judge or potential buyer. If not well they can move along.....

Years ago guys used to think the pool of old G.I. parts for M1 Garand rifles was endless and you could build a date coded rifle quite easily. Today that is not the case and worse yet many of the parts for these rifles are forgeries of questionable quality. So while you may "think" you have a "correct" rifle when you are finished building it, you may not have one and worse yet it may not be safe to shoot. The pool of parts is not endless as many find out.
Rick H.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configurationFair points Rick, but this isn't a rifle and it isn't a car.

Used heads are available, although sometimes you may need to wait a bit before finding a good one. The same issue exists with many Z1 parts, including cylinders and forks. Cylinders are even tougher to find for the early Z1's because they are different than later Z1's.

There were about 130,000 to 150,000 heads made for 900's. (I'm not 100% certain but I think the '77 and'78 KZ1000 heads are the same other than exhaust studs.) Yes, at some point the used market will dry up, which is why many enthusiasts pick up parts even when they don't need them.

Here's one for sale, but it needs a bit of work on the tach drive. Otherwise it looks OK



As I mentioned earlier, I'm interested in seeing one of the new heads up close. I would have no issue buying one if it was identical to the originals, I needed one and there were no alternatives.

No eBay APP ID and/or Cert ID defined in Kunena configuration

hardrockminer wrote: Fair points Rick, but this isn't a rifle and it isn't a car.

Used heads are available, although sometimes you may need to wait a bit before finding a good one. The same issue exists with many Z1 parts, including cylinders and forks. Cylinders are even tougher to find for the early Z1's because they are different than later Z1's.

There were about 130,000 to 150,000 heads made for 900's. (I'm not 100% certain but I think the '77 and'78 KZ1000 heads are the same other than exhaust studs.) Yes, at some point the used market will dry up, which is why many enthusiasts pick up parts even when they don't need them.

Here's one for sale, but it needs a bit of work on the tach drive. Otherwise it looks OK



As I mentioned earlier, I'm interested in seeing one of the new heads up close. I would have no issue buying one if it was identical to the originals, I needed one and there were no alternatives.

I hear ya Hardrockminer and understand what you are saying. I just don't buy into the "it must look identical" to an original head made 40+ years ago. Production methods change and perhaps Kawasaki in the desire to remanufacture heads for the early bikes found some shortcomings in their original design plans. All I know is I would gladly buy one even if I didn't need it just to have a brand new head available that I didn't have to Mickey Mouse with to make it work. I have only overhauled one of these bikes and my biggest stumbling block was the head because it had a crack by an exhaust stud boss. APE said not to worry about it "just be careful when you tighten up the exhaust clamp. Hmmmmm. Another place wouldn't touch it after APE shaved the head so I am stuck using it for good or bad. At the time this was going on I never could locate a head that I felt safe buying off the Internet for fear it would have bigger problems. So are used heads available for these bikes? Most assuredly they are, but when you buy used stuff off the Internet it's almost always on a no return basis and I don't like those odds, especially with all the mods people do to heads. You want to make it faster? No problem, port polish, take a little off here and a little off there and away you go. From a personnel standpoint I think Kawasaki took a huge step in the right direction making these heads available, unfortunately it was limited to Japan only. I hope they decide it was a good decision and will also decide to export these things to the USA in the future. Please don't take this wrong Hardrockminer, I am not arguing with you just making a personal point.
Rick H.

" Are two heads are better than one "
After reading all of this it reminded me that I still have my original cylinder head for my 77 kz-1000A. It is sitting somewhere in my storage unit (that I still stupidly pay for). I took it off when I put a bigger motor in, back in about 1987. At that point the bike had less than 6000 miles. As I recall it was lightly ported with stock valves to go with the original but bored-out, 1105cc block . It was packed away for storage when I left Alaska in 1992 and hasn't been unwrapped since. So I do not know its condition ? I will dig it out and post pics as soon as I can. I still have the 77, but I don't need an extra head, do I ??

YEs, ebay quality is highly variable. A lot of stuff is worn out. A lot isn't actually Z1 stuff. And there are more than a few sleazy sellers that you need to sort out. I've done fairly well with the stuff I've purchased...except for a so called NOS master brake cylinder cap from MachIV Motors that was actually a plastic replica. I returned it and notified ebay and got my money back, but I had to fight for it. My advice would be to look carefully at the photos, ask the seller questions, check out their ratings and if you are unsure...pass. After a while you get to know who's a good seller and who's a scammer.

Yes, I think it's a good step forward as well. I asked myself why Kawasaki bothered to manufacture new heads in the first place? After all, 1,000 heads at $2,100 per head, totalling $2.1 milliion isn't going to boost KHI sales all that much.

I think what happened is they saw that the original bikes became extremely popular again with vintage enthusiasts who were rebuilding with non OEM stuff. KHI looked at sales for companies like Doremi and others, who were selling repro parts for KHI bikes, some made by the original suppliers that KHI used back in the day, and making good money doing so. If I'm right I think we'll see a lot more OEM parts being remanufactured. Heads may be just the beginning.