ok, so i've got this oil leaking from a couple of gaskets on my 75kz400, which gets on hot parts of the engine/exhaust and makes my bike a smoke generator. i got a gasket set on ebay a few years back, so i'm thinking about trying to solve my problem. the issue i have is how far to take this whole process. the clutch cover gasket will be simple. the main leaks seem to be coming from a bolt under the spark plugs... the cylinder head gasket i think. if i get the cylinder head off, i figure i can replace that gasket and the oil passage o-rings and such, but then what? do i keep taking the engine apart to replace gaskets, piston rings, etc further down so i don't have to take it apart again later, or do i leave well enough alone and put it back together replacing only the stuff i think i need to? thanks, -- john
Oil leaking near the cylinder head gasket is probably not due to a faulty gasket. More likely, the o-rings that seal the oil passages between the cylinder block and the head have hardened or deteriorated. In any case, when reassembling the head to the cylinder, you should use a new head gasket. If you don't pull the cylinder off the cases, and it doesn't come loose on its own, I'd leave well enough alone.
I agree. I'm not as familiar with Kawasakis, but I had a '76 Honda CB750F that did just exactly this. I ordered an upper end gasket set from my local dealer, then decided to also have them do the work. The results were excellent! Yes, life's too short to reuse gaskets. ;-) Yes, but you should pull the cylinders while you have the engine that much apart so as to properly inspect them, especially if the base gasket is included in the set.
You don't have to remove the cylinders to inspect the bores. You may wish to get a look at the pistons and rings, but unless you have reason to suspect there is a problem with the rings (excessive oil burning or low compression) or think that there is another O-ring problem at the base of the cylinders, I will stick with my recommendation. When I replaced some valves in the CM400T, I agonized over whether to remove the cylinders. I finally decided to go ahead, even though compression was OK-ish, and the bores looked perfect, but I gave it up when I had pounded and pried the crap out of it and it hadn't budged loose. I suppose I could have worked on it for another day or so and eventually busted it loose. It does burn a little oil, which after replacing the valve seals, I am sure is down to the oil rings, but not enough to notice any smoke. I'm still not sure why the cylinder block was so firmly wedded to the engine cases.
A question of clarification: do you mean the cylinnder head gasket (head gasket, separates the cylinder tops from the barrels), or the valve cover gasket (cam-cover gasket, covers the valve-gear and is removed when checking valve clearances)? Typically the valve-cover gasket has molded into it, or goes over, a set of half-circle rubber plugs (that fill holes left when boring the bearing surfaces for the cams-I'm assuming this is an OHC engine). It's not a big deal to replace the valve-cover gasket. It's not unusual for such a gasket to leak some oil. It is a big deal if your head gasket is leaking oil, and it's much more work to replace that one. HTH. -- Later. 'indiana' is a noun. Leave only the noun and .edu after the @ to reply Pismo: 2000-2004 RIP 15" AlBook: 2004-The PowerBook is dead! Long live the PowerBook!
