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Hey all! The registration had a bit of an issue with the captcha thingy, so I would have registered a few weeks ago. Anyway, I see it is all resolved, and so I signed up.

I picked up a KZ1300 earlier in the year, which needs a bit of work. It is in good shape, but has a coolant leak from the cylinder head - the result of an aftermarket gasket. I hope to solve that and get it running over winter.

It's a bit of a funny looking bike, what with having a red velvet seat -

But in any case, I'm looking forward to riding it. I've already picked up some tips from the forum here. Not sure I will post a lot (already too active on a couple of other forums), but I will try and post a couple of pics of progress.

Red Velvet seat?!? gotta see that.

Welcome to the forum. You'll find plenty of helpful folks here.

Bill

Thanks Bill,

I just dug around, and found a couple of pictures.

Here is the bike from when it was last running. I'll be getting rid of the vetter stuff eventually, but in all likelihood the fairing will stay on for a bit. I'm not fond of the scrolly Kawasaki logo, but right now the important thing is to get the cylinder head coolant leak sorted and get it running. Just got a set of carb rebuild kits, so hopefully I can get stuck in soon.

This is how it looks today - observe red velvet seat.

Hi Prop,

Is the leak coming from the center at the front side? If so it might be a leaking water pump not a head gasket. There's a vent hole there to relieve the pressure should the ceramic seal fail.

Good luck

Bill

Hi & welcome from little England.

Where is your leak from the cylinder head ?

Its always worth re-torquing the head bolts to see if it nips it up. ???

Pete F

Hi Fellas, thanks for the input.

It is leaking on the left hand side - front corner I think. If I put the bike on the side stand it takes a leak on my garage floor. On the center stand it's OK (meaning enough coolant has leaked out that the level is below the leak when on the center stand)

I haven't looked closely at it yet. The story is that the previous owner bent a valve doing a valve shim adjustment, after not getting the timing right. (valve was bent when turning motor over by hand). So the previous owner replaced the valve, but when he put the head back on, used an aftermarket gasket set, and upon filling the system with coolant found the leak. He bought a new OEM head gasket (which I have), but then lost interest in the project.

This is where I come in.

I bought the bike in March this year, with the intention of using it as a winter project, and that time is now here!

I'll check the torque on the head bolts and see what happens there, but if the head has to come off, so be it.