‘76 KZ900 LTD. Need some advice.

Hello forum! How cool it was to discover this in my searches for upgrading my 900.

I bought this bike in 1977 from a hippie in San Diego. My first street bike and more than once my best friend. Motor wise it’s bone stock. 12 years ago when changing the oil/filter a chunk of the cam chain guide fell out the bottom. I haven’t ran it since and now I’m at a point to where I’m ready to get it back on the road.

Tomorrow I pull the motor and will take off the head. There’s 26k on this bike of mostly normal riding. I’m totally on the fence of whether or not to put a bunch of dough into building this motor up, i.e, piston kit, cams, ignition, etc. So many things to consider. I will be checking everything as I pull it apart but assuming all is well, cylinder’s, cam specs, chain, etc., is it worth building this motor up? Yes of course it depends on what I want out of it but really the ideal would be just a slightly spiced up weekend cruiser. Fortunately we here in Arizona can still get ethanol free fuel and I run all my carb bikes/cars on 91 ethanol free. 

Knowing many here have a lot more experience than I do in 900 motors I’m hoping for some advice on some do’s and dont’s. I have a bunch of misc. stuff coming from Partzilla. They seem to be pretty good if you want oem parts AND they actually will answer the phones! But, for engine performance items, what’s the consensus here on where to go?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Chris

Welcome to the forum.  I will let more knowledgeable people chime in on motor advice -  but it would be cool to see some pics of your 76 KZ 900 LTD.  
 

Chris 
 Welcome to KZRider
Cam guide debris is not the end of the world.
So in answer to your question  , Check everything  ( That's the cheap part )
Other than stock  parts as needed  to boost performance  I would  install a  slight overbore of piston size and raise the compression  ratio as well.
I'm sure you as a Arizona rider will be carefull with airflow to not over heat the engine  > Avoid  sitting in traffic .
While living there I solved this by riding away fron Phoenix into the mountains  
Welcome to KZR
Dave

As the owner of the same bike I would love to see some pics. I also bought mine in 1977, with only 2500 of this model sold in the US they're can't be many left.

Welcome to KZR!

Thanks all. This is when I first bought it.

Nice picture 
 Next time  click the insert all tab to complete the install and the pictures will be full size 
 Here is My LTD
 

motomisfit, thanks for the pic, do you have a recent pic of it?

Dave, your bike is beautiful!!!!!

Welcome to our nut house. If your bike is as shown in you profile, it appears it no longer stock. If your plan it to just do Motor work then it’s your call. You mentioned you’d like a spiced up weekend cruiser. Then as mentioned by Street Fighter, bump up the bore size and compression, here is a good set. www.z-power.co.uk/piston-kit-1030cc-z1-z1000 Wow $150.00 more than I paid 8 months ago. Still cheaper then wiseco, or the other name brands. Get the head cleaned up as necessary. Buy a set of 28mm carbs with accelerator pumps off a 79-80 LTD 1000, can be had for about $200.00-250.00, if you shop them hard. A DynaTek ignition and coils. New Liska cam chain parts and assemble. If your running aftermarket 4 to 1 and have removed the stock airbox the you need Air Corrector Jets to compensate for the pod filters, and maybe two sizes bigger on the main Jets. 

$180-$200 bore
$400 pistons
$350-$400 carbs includes core and rebuild
$300-$500 head rebuild
$300-$400 cam chain parts (this hurts for what you get)
$350-$400 Dyantek with coils
$150 gasket set
$250-$350 vapor blast to make it pretty
$2,145.00 to $2,800.00 will get you a nice solid spicy weekend cruiser. 

This is about 37 yrs ago but it hasn’t changed

Photos didn’t post. Hopefully the mods can fix them.

And this morning before I pulled the motor

Hey, I was a teenager ok?   Little did most of us know back then that keeping our cars/bikes in as close to original condition was actually a good thing. But I made it mine and wouldn’t trade it for anything. It was named after my all time favorite cereal, Crazy Cow.

As to the upgrades, I’m thinking I want to keep it pretty simple. I’m reading that I can go up to a 1015cc piston without boring or changing sleeves?True? I’m not seeing going to different cams(unless I have to) or carbs. Electronic ignition and coils most likely yes. I spent a huge amount of time several yrs ago dialing in the jets/needle positions so I think I’m pretty close there. I’m actually thinking of going back to the stock airbox. The K&Ns look cool but it seemed to ‘spit back’ less with the factory airbox. In theory it makes sense because air for all carbs is coming from one, central airspace. Thoughts?