Valve Cover Gasket Source?

Got mine from EBAY:

" KR-Valve-cover-gasket-KAWASAKI-KAWASAKI-KZ-Z-ZG-ZN-1300"

It may seem counter intuitive but I've had good success removing ancient gaskets with a (very sharp) wood chisel. I follow up with sand blasting if the cover is off the engine. If the problem is on the engine side I use a mildly abrasive flap wheel of the type which uses flaps made of a scrub pad type of material. They do a good job of removing the gasket material while leaving the aluminum unmolested. As mentioned in the previous comment, take care to cover any engine internals as you obviously don't want anything abrasive to live in your engine. Good luck. Tim.

I've tried the wood chisel as well.The problem I had with it is it's unforgiving. I said 'exacto' but I know there are many types and shapes of it. What worked best for me was a long blade used for a cutter knife. They are sold in a package of 10 at any dollar store. They are flexible, and in circular motions easy to work through the gasket. Thin, flexible and not heavy, they want cause damage like a chisel would if catching a surface. Applying some pressure they arch and offer some room for error and smoothness. With chisel I ended up digging into the surface. With chisel I had to apply much more pressure while trying to remove the gasket in straight line digging into it - because of the edge profile. With the blade it was more like shaving it off in circular motion - it's thin and it just cut through. I found chisel be good to remove hardened liquid gasket overflown around the edges. But you have to use it with real care, anticipating hitting the surface when the gasket gets loose.

I ended up using a small carbide gasket scraper and it worked very well. Still took a lot of time and patience to do a really clean job though. The only spot where I had to use gasket remover - which will remove the engine paint - was around the water pipe as it was difficult to get in there to scrape with anythings. I use very small amount of gasket remover dabbed on with a Q-Tip.

Replacement gasket was installed with a liberal coating of grease on each side (shouldn't have to scrape next time), and I didn't use any sealant on the rubber cam shaft plugs (and have not had any leaks).