Terrible motor swap idea kz440

That's probably a good observation. I mean just look at the wiring harness 
That's just some of it so you can imagine what the rest is like ... I don't know what the loose wires are even for. Whoever took this bike apart must have been really sick of it. There's more to come...

Yes, something clearly happened here.. this is the voltage regulator 

That’s not uncommon, the terminals corrode over time and lose tension then start arcing With the wiring it is common for people who don’t know what they are doing to just pile into a loom looking for a magic answer to their problems 

I didn't know that it was common for the regulator to heat up like that, I guess I'll be cleaning the terminals for my other bikes then... I'll get this wiring mess all sorted through once I can get a good look at the wiring diagram.

Wookie58 wrote:

I suspect someone just threw it together to move it on down the road
 

Ironically by assembling it such a way that it can't move on down the road

Could someone help me ID this fairing?  1984-1986 gpz550 did not come with this fairing. I was wondering if someone fitted a gpz750 or gpz600 fairing of the sorts onto this... i dont know what the moose racing equipment sticker is but I looked it up and nothing popped up.

I followed nessisms advice and removed cylinders and pistons and well, I think the pistons are junk... I'll need your opinions on that though. To give you guys reason why I think that, I went to take pistons off and the wrist pins were STUCK. I had to hammer them out with a socket and ratchet gently to get them to budge. The manual said they should pull out freely.   there is also scoring on the pistons and cylinder walls that correspond with each other. 3 of the 4 pistons have that scoring.   Finally the oil rings are completely stuck and can't remove them. I ended up breaking a couple and the ones that I couldn't get out are pressed in completely. Im not experienced with engines though so I'm asking for what you guys think. I'm thinking new pistons.

When the skirts "pick up" like that it's normally down to overheating or a lack of oil (possibly both) I guess you would be looking at a rebore and new pistons. Tight wrist pins isn't that unusual, warming the pistons with a hairdryer can help and then carefully polishing the pins with 1500 grit wet and dry with WD40 should resolve (however not really relevant in this case with the scoring)

wrote:

When the skirts "pick up" like that it's normally down to overheating or a lack of oil (possibly both) 

The KZ/GPZ550's/750's/KZ650's and ZX600's all used the same oil pump up till 1994. There is a known hot low oil pressure issue with those bikes when the oil pump gets worn. The only other way you would have low oil pressure is if the crank bearings are worn.

There is a procedure in all FSM's that cover a test to check for this.

Since i need new pistons, why not go 615cc? Right? Im on a tight budget so wiseco is not an option right now. I see these cruzin images pistons that seem to be well regarded on a budget but I'm wondering since this is a 1985 gpz550, it has 10:1 stock compression ratio. The heads and pistons are different for this bike compared to all other kz/gpz550s so I dont know how other pistons will affect this. Will 615cc pistons from cruzin images for the 1981-1983 gpz550 work well?

The cruzin image oversized pistons maintain the factory compression ratio as long as you order the right year for your motor

Can anyone verify that the compression ratio between 1982-1983 (H1-2) and 1984-1986 (A1-3) are the same? If so, that would be sweet!