TOPIC:

I'm finally getting around to changing out the head gasket on the 82 kz1100. It has the Wiseco 1135 (74mm) kit  10.25:1 piston kit and OE 82 GPZ 1100 cams with about 20000 miles since install.
I'm thinking about maybe going with the MLS head gasket instead of the 1 piece Wiesco or Cometic brand fiber replacement one. 
Has anybody had any experience with the MLS head gasket?  I know it's a bit thicker, and that will lower the compression a bit, but that's ok. Also, with either gasket set up, would I still have to run the 4 corner oil o-rings that you have to use for the OE type  split gasket? Both the 1 piece and the MLS gasket corner holes are smaller and appear that I may not need them . 
When I removed the old 1 piece, I found that i did use the 4 corner o-rings, and they weren't in great shape. 
Any thoughts or advice is appreciated.  I only want to do this once. Thank you. 

MLS gaskets work best with clean and "pretty" surfaces on both the cylinder and head.  If your parts are original, haven't been surfaced recently, you might be better off with a standard fiber type gasket.  

BTW, the "pretty" reference is something taken from Big Jay at APE.  

I run both MLS and Fibre head gaskets from Cometic and they are the same thickness when compressed .
The head and block surface must be very clean and unpitted for the MLS otherwise use the one piece fibre type.
I only run the MLS on the turbo engines as it's able to withstand the boost pressure without having to piano wire the block and use copper..
The rest get fibre ones.

 

Ok that's what I figured. The MLS gasket needs "Special"  head and deck prep to make sure it's flat and seals properly under compression. 
The fiber 1 piece I pulled out looked good, no burn thru or blow out. 
My "Big Question " is:  Do I still need to run the 4 corner stud o-rings with the fiber 1 piece gasket? 
I ask because I did the last time, and when I inspected it, the o-rings we're not in good shape. It looked like they were smushed into the drain holes and kinda messed up. 
So, will the 1 piece fiber gasket seal the corners without using the o-rings?Thank you.
 

I am not aware of a 1-PC fiber head gasket for the KZ1100 engine.
Please post an image link or photo of the head gasket referred to.

havakaw wrote:

Ok that's what I figured. The MLS gasket needs "Special"  head and deck prep to make sure it's flat and seals properly under compression. 
The fiber 1 piece I pulled out looked good, no burn thru or blow out. 
My "Big Question " is:  Do I still need to run the 4 corner stud o-rings with the fiber 1 piece gasket? 
I ask because I did the last time, and when I inspected it, the o-rings we're not in good shape. It looked like they were smushed into the drain holes and kinda messed up. 
So, will the 1 piece fiber gasket seal the corners without using the o-rings?Thank you.

 

I believe these are the oli "feeds" to the head not "drain holes" as I understand drainage happens down the timing chain tunnel

A pic would help. The early style came with copper seals where the late style had larger cutouts for the O rings. 
Steve

Best i can pics. With both gaskets, the corners are more covered and closed off than I believe the or 2 piece set would be necessitating the use of the o-rings. 

I used the fiber gaskets and filled the groove with RTV and they worked well. The metal gasket I have now I used a O ring around the cam chain with a smear of RTV and some around the oil passages. I have APE studs and even then I had to retorque 4 times!  I have a fiber one for next time. 
If it were me on that unit I'd use O rings all around. 
Steve

Without hesitation I would use a 1-pc fiber head gasket with large oil passage stud and cam chain tunnel holes for the o-rings to pass through as originally intended.

IMO, the o-rings (OEM BTW) need to be sandwiched between metal head and cylinder block surfaces, independent of the gasket.

A Cometic 2-pc gasket set was used with the MTC 1135 kit I originally installed in 2019, and replaced with the reworked head in 2022. NOS Kawasaki o-rings were installed both times with no sealer.


 

Like Daveo says, if the gasket has large enough holes for the o rings to pass through then use them.If the holes are smaller than the O.D of the o rings then don't.The o rings are flattened too much with the wrong gasket and push in towards the studs, especially with thicker Ape studs.It'll cut off oil supply.Ask me how I know!

I suspect using the wrong gasket will make it weep oil.