GPz1100 Valve Cover Removal

I was surprised to find that this doesn’t seem to have been asked before, and there’s no mention of it in the FSM:

When removing the valve cover on a 1984 GPz1100, do folks find that the oil cooler lines need to be disconnected first in order to be able to raise the cover high enough to slide out?  If there was just another 1/4” of clearance it wouldn’t be an issue. 

To avoid the mess of dirty oil everywhere is it possible to release the cooler mounting bolts, would that give you the require wriggle room ?

I don't *think* that would work because it would require twisting the oil lines in a way that I don't think they would like (based on their relatively large diameter).  I've never disconnected an oil line from a GPz cooler - would there naturally be a lot of oil in it?  I believe that (like the KZ engines) there's a check valve on the pressure side just downstream of the oil pump, but I'd think most of the oil in the cooler would drain down the return line overnight.  So, some mess for sure, but I'd rather deal with that (and replacing a couple of o-rings) than a cracked unobtanium oil hose.

Update:

Unbolting the oil cooler didn’t really do the trick. Although the hoses were more flexible than I expected there still wasn’t enough room to snake the oil cooler out between the cylinder head cover and the frame. 

I disconnected the oil cooler lines at the cooler inlet and outlet (just O-rings for seals, and still available from Kawasaki). As expected there was a small amount of oil still in the lines that had to be dealt with, but afterwards it was easy to move the lines so that they were no longer in the way. All that left was the usual dance required to slide the valve cover out (I found it easiest to exit to the right side of the bike).

Happily nothing was severely wrong inside the top end once I got access. One inlet valve clearance is <.0015” according to Mr. Blue Point feeler gauge set but that’s not shocking. 

Anybody in the US have a non-smog valve cover they’d like to part with?

Looking for a non-smog cam cover?
Feel free to send me a Private Message.

😊

 

PM sent, thanks!