TOPIC:

Now that looks like a REALLY nice coastal run mate...........I am envious of you !

I like Portugal.............and have been many times, but am not a real seafood fan !

Anyway, anywhere is better now than the toilet of Europe where I live mate, its fast becoming a filty dirty pox ridden immigrant trash bin.

Enjoy the trip and hope the bike does you both proud.

Pete F
UK

1. I'll back up on my first statement about all OEM head gaskets being 30 years old. In retrospect, it seems silly that Kawasaki would cease part productions immediately after discontinuing the motorcycle itself. Maybe I've been unlucky, but both head gaskets I saw seemed to have a bit of age to them. Speaking of which...

2. Both of my head gaskets were still in the original packaging. On the first one, the sealant actually peeled off the gasket and stuck to the packaging. On my second, the sealant looked very spotty, with air bubbles and gaps in the line. Having spent WAY too much money at this point, and after hearing other confirmed cases of these passages leaking, I erred on the side of caution and gave those passages a bit of help sealing up.

3. That being said, your gasket actually looks really good. The only thing that concerns me is the lack of sealant for the coolant passages on the opposite side- I'm fairly certain mine had the sealant on both sides.

Again, to each his own. To me personally, changing the head gasket was a long, involved process that contained a lot of stuff that a klutz like me could easily screw up, and a lot of expensive, hard-to-find parts. I don't feel like tearing it all apart again because I end up with a minor coolant leak.

(Since I changed mine, I have nearly 1000 miles on the gasket. No leaks from anything that I can see, be it coolant or compression in any cylinder. As always, YMMV.)

3. That being said, your gasket actually looks really good. The only thing that concerns me is the lack of sealant for the coolant passages on the opposite side- I'm fairly certain mine had the sealant on both sides.


My K gasket does have the sealant on both sides, the other pic is the aftermarket one. I'm often sceptical about not using cheap repro parts but in this case being able to compare the 2 I wouldn't fit it on my bike. I have just fitted the cheap carb repair kits but if they fail at all pulling the carbs is easy and expected unlike the head..fingers crossed it all works out.

The factory gasket shown earlier in this thread looks to be in excellent shape. I would not have a problem using that, it is quite common to see the sealant applied to those gaskets delaminating and falling off.

For those that have problems finding an OEM gasket Comitec will cut one for you. If you call them and talk to their custom gasket dept. they have the pattern for a 1300 and will cut a gasket for $79. They can also use larger diameter fire rings for those of us with big bore pistons. This is an excellent quality gasket made form a very good quality base material of the proper thickness.



www.cometic.com/custom-gaskets.aspx

Got the cylinder head off (I work slowly) all looks as it should be, no visible faults even to the gasket. The teeth on the camchain cog are worn down and one has snapped off so obviously will be replaced..do I need to check the bottom wheel/bearing whatever it is? I'm mindfull of trying not to get too involved and spending more and more money as I really want to ride this summer. Another job I would sooner avoid is relacing valve stem seals with the cheap ones in the gasket kit and lapping the valves in , the bike ran smoothly and didnt burn oil or smoke, the camchain is within wear limit and made no noise and will have ZZR1100 tensioner fitted.

If I were you I would only use Genuine K Valve Stem oil seals.
The pattern ones in many kits get soft when hot and fail........especially the green ones.

They cost more of course, but you only want to do it once ??

Pete F
UK