Kz550 engine differences

Greetings!

I'm wanting to buy a gpz550 from '83. It's a 'pre unitrack' model with a single rear shock and rear disc brake (5 spoke wheels). Right now it won't run but it's selling with a donor bike. It's a z500f from austrai as i know. Also with single rear shock, 5spoke wheels but rear drum brake.

So.. the 550s engine code is kz550dg00109 and the code on the 500 is kz500ae01581.

I know the displacement difference. But can I use the cylinder head, cams, valves, transmisson, clutch, electronics, carbs and so on.. actually anything exept the engine block and rear wheel.

I've searched a lot.. but couldn't find any correct info.

Thank you for your help!

My understanding is most engine parts are interchangeable between the 400/500/550 kz's (including the kz, gpz and zr lines). Best way to check would be to compare part numbers, but I'm not finding anything for 500. I can tell you every part except the pistons is the same for zr400 and zr550; I'd be surprised if that wasn't the case for the 500 vs. 550.

I'm thinking the same.

The 500 is a 'z500f' with zr500A frame number. So basically it's a z550f with smaller bore.
The strangest for me is the 550. It's got also an A frame number (zr550A) but the kz550DG engine code is for Germany. This code is known also as DE.
But usually DE engines are in H2 frames. If I'm correct the cams/timing for the DE engine is not the same like the 550AE.
Or I'm wrong.. I hope so!

As far as I know, all gpz engines were KZ550DE....

Does the KZ550DG engine have an oil cooler ?
I assume it has lower compression than an actual gpz motor.

The gpz engines had higher compression and an oil cooler. I think the Zr550A and B had lower compression. I'm not sure about oil cooler on the B.

Maybe someone already swapped the motor on the gpz some time ago. Or maybe Europe got different engines... That seems unlikely since the gpz was the top of the 550 line.

I think its the pistons that are different to make the higher compression. Magazines reported the gpz had different porting, but that hasn't been confirmed and I tend to doubt it.

I only saw pictures from the two bikes. Tomorrow will have time to see them.

On the pictures I can't see any oilcooler. So maybe the code DG is not the same like the DE. And on paper it's apout 55 or so horsepower.

Personally I hate these country specific types.. never know what's in there.. the 550 is for germany and the z500f is for austria.

As I see the pics both have got TK26s. So I hope I can use the carbs, head, crankshaft, electronics, maybe cams (if I need to).

If my search is correct both of the two engines are from '83. So I hope the 550 isn't the same as the DE gpz engine.

I'm pretty sure all of those parts will interchange, the only question is what performance difference will happen.

We don't have the Zr500A and Zr550A (both known by marketing names z500f and z550f, which is even more confusing) in the U.S. so I don't have an actual Kawasaki website link to get actual part numbers for comparison.

But, this page has some info about swapping parts between the U.S. models (we only had 550 models, no 500).
Scroll down past the cam info.
s3.amazonaws.com/gpzweb/CamsKZZXZR550500...KZZXZR550500400.html

That's the same link in my signature for the valve train warning. You should read the warning if you will be swapping valve train parts. (If you haven't read it already.)

Here is a page describing oil pan differences in case it's possible they swapped an oil pan to include or delete the oil cooler.
s3.amazonaws.com/gpzweb/OilPans/Kz550oilPans.html

Since the bikes in question both use different TK26 variants the intake parts should be fully swappable.
This page has TK26 info... the 82 and 83 H model (Gpz) used the early type which required pilot plugs. Tk26's used on other models did not. So that is a major internal difference, but there are a few other ones.
s3.amazonaws.com/gpzweb/TK26mainPage/TK26mainPage.html