High cost of valve seals job ?

Only local shop that will touch this 79 KZ650sr is a mom and pop store , No Big name manufacturer will touch it as they say its too old for them to work on (I hear we don't know what a carb is so can't work on that) , Anyway the bike has 3,147 orig miles and obviously smokes at start up so I just wanted to replace the seals (all fluids have been changed twice in a 100 mile shakedown run) but they (mom and pop) won't touch it without doing a complete head job....to the tune of ballpark they said maybe more maybe less...$600.00 and need to leave it 3-4 weeks ????

Location ?

If it only smokes on start up there is no need to replace the valve seals. Do you know much is the oil consumption?

At that low mileage and age of the bike the valve seals will have hardened so most likely the cause of the start up smoking.
Pulling the head will mean new valve seals, head gasket, camcover gasket and exhaust gaskets most likely at the least so around $150 minimum for parts.
It will benefit from a clean up of the valve seats and possibly re-shim so $600 isn't way off with a shops labour. .
You know what they say.... If you pay peanuts you usually get Monkeys.

First of all, welcome to the forum. Search the site, you will find very useful topics.

I will be doing the same job on my 750, meaning a full top end rebuild. Like zed1015 said, at that age, all the seals have hardened. A full gasket kit, carb rebuild kit with new rings and engine oil seals kit cost me $295CAN. Just make sure you buy OEM replacement, not the cheap aftermarket. I don't know your skill level, but it is doable. The toughest part is the honing of the cylinders. If you don't have the tool or don't want to buy it, go to a machine shop. Honing in the next inline, but again, doable. Check the links for videos of what is involved. It is on a Honda, but pretty much the same.




JL

Oh yeah, I forgot! Get a factory service manual. That's a must and not the Clymer one they say. Someone will post one soon.

JL

I'm located in Johnson City , Tn

I just don' see the valve seat cleaning and re-shim needed at 3,100 orig. miles is why I'm shocked at $600.00 for just valve seals , Only smokes at startup and only rode it a short time before taking it off the road so no idea as to oil consumption.

Pic

$600 for labor with parts extra sound closer to what I'd expect. And parts would be several hundred in of themselves.

Any time the head is removed the cylinder should come off too for the base gasket change. The base gaskets tend to stick really bad so cleaning that alone could take a good hour.

Parts needed include base, head, and valve cover gasket. Various rubber seals needed. Kawasaki doesn't sell gasket kits so someone has to sit down at a computer and dig through all the parts fishe pages and find the right numbers and then place the order. Gasket kits vary from passable to pure junk so safe money is on OEM gaskets/seals which are not cheap. Also, dollars to donuts the intake boots on the head will crack and leak when you wrestle the carbs off.

Honestly, this situation is a perfect example of why working on your own bike is almost a necessity when it comes to 40 year old bikes. At least that way you don't have to suck up the labor bill. Parts alone will put you upside down on a lot of bikes.

Nessism wrote: "Honestly, this situation is a perfect example of why working on your own bike is almost a necessity when it comes to 40 year old bikes. At least that way you don't have to suck up the labor bill."

Exactly! Ed

The valve seals can be changed without removing the head, but the engine may need to be removed from the frame to give you enough room to get at the seals with the required tools.

There are plenty of reasons why taking the head off might be a good idea but if it was me, with such a low mileage bike, and in the absence of anything to indicate any other problems, I wouldn't bother removing the head at this point.