Changing cylinder heads

I just hours ago bought a very cheap 1977 z650. Upon closer inspection at home I realized that it had been fitted with a z750e engine. Unfortunately the head seems to have been cracked and attempted fixed. But it seems to leak quite a bit of oil. So much that I probably needs to replace it. I have found a few on ebay, so that should be possible. But in terms of relpacing it I have a few questions:

1. Can I change the head without taking the engine out of the chassis?
2. Which parts/gaskets would I need for doing this, and any recommendations on where to buy them?
3. Anything else I would either need to or could replace while doing this?

I am, as you can read, quite new to the z/kz-world, so any help would be much appreciated. I am also in Denmark, Europe if that changes anything with regards to recommendations on sourcing parts.

First at all we need some more info, like bike/engine pics of your cracked head, (engine # if possible)..
To quick answer your questions:

#1: YES.
#2: if KZ/Z 750 engine so you need 750 parts. see cmsnl.com
#3: valve clearance, compression check before you pull the head.

before you do anything else get the Service Manuals for your K(Z) 650bike and K(Z) 750 engine.

kzrider.com/modules/ServiceManuals/KZ750E1&H1.pdf
kzrider.com/modules/ServiceManuals/Kawas...Service%20Manual.pdf

If you want the colored 750 Manual : www.750turbo.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=13320 (full Manual for the 750 bike/engine)



.............and yes , welcome to the KZRider asylum.

Thanks a lot for your reply! I will try to take some pictures today. First I will give it a good wash so I can see how bad it actually is. But it is clearly visible that someone has welded and grinded the head.

Oh perfect with the manuals! I had already found the one for the z650, but since my engine clearly isn't one of those I was going to look for it. So you just saved me a lot of time.

Nice to hear that I can keep the engine in the chassis. That encourages me with regards to riding it in the near future, even if I have to change the cylinder head. And very good point on the compression!

Can the head-bolts be re-used? Then it could sound like that all I need is a headgasket, top cover gasket and inlet/exhaust gaskets as well as some shims to adjust the valves.