Cam don't seem to be getting enough oil

wrote:

Is there silicon squishing out around the head gasket?
Steve
 

No.  He used what looked like an OEM fiber gasket and glued the entire bottom side to the head with something that doesn't appear to be silicone.  It was hard as hell to get off.

This is weird...  test oil pressure at the port on the rear of the right cylinder... needle never even moved off the gage.... but the oil pressure light goes out when I crank it and when it runs.

wrote:

This is weird...  test oil pressure at the port on the rear of the right cylinder... needle never even moved off the gage.... but the oil pressure light goes out when I crank it and when it runs.

What is the range your gage reads ???

Mine is a zero to fifteen pound gage 
A higher reading gage can fool you as these motors rely on flow versus high pressure

My gage when stone cold will read up to 15 as the throttle  is  blipped to rev motor 
 Once warm  it sits near 1 psi until throttle given then reads 3 psi and my gage is connected to the right side port

 

Well, ends up it was a compression tester.  The guy at Auto Zone heard "pressure" and "tester" in the same sentence and put two and two together and got five.  So, the range on it was pretty high compared to a regular oil pressure gauge... like 300.  I already returned it but from what you're saying, it make sense that the gauge wouldn't move then.  I'm dropping the pan right now to take a look around in there.

Ugh...  still trying to sort this all out.  I've narrowed it down to two likely scenarios...  The oil passages have an obstruction or the PO changed the head and put the gasket in upside down.  Damn, I hate to pull the head to check the gasket but I'm wondering how the oil passages could get blocked in the first place.  Let's say someone used RTV on his gaskets and ended up with some floating around in the oil.  Wouldn't that all get trapped by the screen?  How could chunks of RTV find their way into the oil passages?  Is this actually a common thing?  Also, if the PO did put the head gasket in upside down, would that totally block all the passages and would any oil at all be getting up to the cam compartments?  Because I do have a good amount of oil in the exhaust side, with the exception of #3 cylinder compartment, which has about half of what's in the other chambers. 

Even if the PO installed the head gaskets up side down, it would not block oil flow to the top end. I think the term is the head gaskets are symmetrical.

Any use of that blue or red RTV silicone on base or head gaskets is a sure sign of a rank amatuer alley mechanic in my book. In my whole life I have only seen two Kz900/1000 motors where the excessive use of RTV blocked oil flow to the top end. You cannot believe how much RTV you have to put on the base and/or head gasket to stop the flow of oil to the head. The first thing that goes if there is no oil flow to the head is the cam bearings. They are a plain bearing and the minute they lose oil flow, they gaul!!!! Pull the cam caps and see if the cam bearings are waxed. Then you know there is no type of oil flow to head.

O.E.M. head gaskets. Left one is up side down. Right one is the correct way they are installed on the motor.

 

If there was an oil shortage your cams would be toast , blued, blackened and scored within a few miles of riding which they obviously aren't.
When stood, oil drains down past the buckets and back to the sump via drillings linking the bucket bores and the camchain tunnel.
It usually only pools and sits mainly around cylinders 1 and 2's buckets when left parked on the side stand as the oil can't run uphill to drain.
Normal oil pressure is around 3psi and down to almost zero when hot.
It's the oil volume that counts on these engines not the pressure.

Well this is all good to hear.  My post to Steve was in error... He asked if there appeared to be RTV oozing out around the head gasket,  my answer was relating to valve cover gasket.  He did glue that down but now I'm thinking it wasn't RTV but something else. 

So Zed and Dr. Gamma, are you both thinking I've got a normal situation here?  The thing that still bothers me is after taking the plugs out and spinning the motor with the starter for a good 20 to 30 seconds, the exhaust bucket compartments filled with oil but the intake side was still pretty dry.  I could see some oil as the buckets went up and down, enough to coat the cam lobes, but it didn't really pool in any of the chambers.  Shouldn't it have after that much cranking?

The oil goes to the mains and tranny first at the same time it's pumped up the galleys at the back of the barrels then across the head. The exhaust cams get it last. If you have oil there there is enough for the intake cams and valve train. 
Steve

 

Better pics
kzrider.com/forum/2-engine/591805-kz900-engine-drawings#612591

kzrider.com/forum/2-engine/459413-kz1000...g-way-too-hot#459441

 

Still trying to figure out what's going on with the oil feed for the intake cam...  just dawned on me, thinking back to the problems I was having dealing with the timing chain slack and installing the timing chain idler and tensioner, I wonder if that could be related to not getting enough oil to the intake cam.  What if the PO changed the head and used the same bearings, or put the bearings in the wrong slots when he reinstalled the cam?  Being that these cam holders are line bored, would a mix up in the bearings cause the cam to fit too tight, causing me to have to use a big screwdriver to rotate the intake cam counterclockwise to take up some of the slack between the cams?  Could that also somehow be the problem with the oil feed?  (Assuming I actually have a problem with the oil feed... still not even sure about that).