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1981 Kawasaki KZ750 Resurrection

10.25:1

Boy, when you jump into things you go full bore don't you. :D

Do you have any other upgrades planned for the engine to match the exhaust and pistons you just bought?
 
Should be able to find a good machine shop in SoCal to bore it for you.
 
Used to know a gentleman out here by the name of Larry who worked at the local Napa Store. They did engine work and he was at the time one of the most anal people when it came to his work. I think that is what kind of person he is looking to find. I would be too if it were me.
 
rustybronco said:
10.25:1

Boy, when you jump into things you go full bore don't you. :D

Do you have any other upgrades planned for the engine to match the exhaust and pistons you just bought?
Click to expand...


I truly didn't want to go this route Dale, in fact I'm second guessing the purchase today. Don't care about more power (although it never hurts), and hate the idea of rejetting. These 750's are known for engine efficiency, with early road tests reporting 50 mpg. That's more attractive to me than power. The piston clearance business and the wear pattern on the cylinder is bugging me though. Engine only has 11k miles but it looks like much more. At any rate, sold some stuff and had some extra paypal funny money. Hopefully this purchase will motivate me to get back into the garage and work on the engine. Need to get busy before I forget how it goes together. When rebuilding my GS1000 engine everything went together smoothly and intuitively. This Kawasaki is different. It uses a primary drive chain and was a biotch to take apart. Requires a specific assembly order, which I've forgotten already. Putting this thing together is not going to be fun...but I'll figure it out. Just hope I don't leave out a shim or similar along the way.
 
That second guessing gets to be old after a while. I deal with constantly. Bump up the mains and shim the needles to account for the ethanol in the fuel, try it on 89 octane and see what happens. Worse comes to worse, go with 91 octane.

Oh and I've got a pile of parts on my workbench that have been their a while. I'm going to have to do some heavy consulting of the parts diagram when it comes time to re-assemble mine.

What's the thickness of the head gasket in the kit compared to the stock gasket? If it's thinner than stock you might be able to loose a little CR by reverting to the stock one.
 
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Received the piston kit yesterday and it's pure motorcycle geek porn. So purdy! Label on the box says piston to wall clearance of .002". So that means only .001" on all sides right? Half the thickness of a human hair! Nice and tight.
 
Got back in the garage yesterday working on prepping the engine for paint. Been putting it off because scraping gaskets and blasting parts is one of my least favorite activities these days. Base and valve cover gasket are petrified and even Permatex Gasket Remover barely softened it. At any rate, finishing up with valve cover and top case half today. Will post some photos later for y'all to see.:D
 
Bought a $75 parts engine today. I've forgotten how my engine goes together so now I have something to compare against. ;)

P1020124 by nessism, on Flickr

P1020123 by nessism, on Flickr
 
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If this engine has near perfect internals, is the plan to sell them off and use your old cylinders? That sure would be nice to recoup some of the money you spent towards the big bore kit.
 
rustybronco said:
If this engine has near perfect internals, is the plan to sell them off and use your old cylinders? That sure would be nice to recoup some of the money you spent towards the big bore kit.
Click to expand...

If the cylinder measures nice and tight I'll run it sell the big bore kit!:D Never wanted to buy it in the first place. This engine has unknown mileage though, and based on the oil covering the bottom, it has more use than my original engine so not holding my breath.
 
Nice work on the seat pan Ed. Is that single stage that has been cleared over, or is it base/clear? To me it looks like it's been hit with clear.

You have that hardware plating down to a science!
 
rustybronco said:
Nice work on the seat pan Ed. Is that single stage that has been cleared over, or is it base/clear? To me it looks like it's been hit with clear.

You have that hardware plating down to a science!
Click to expand...

Thanks Dale. The seat pan was blasted, epoxy primed, and then shot with the same Dupont single stage urethane as the frame. Love that stuff.:D
 
I doubt seriously that the seat pan looked that good when the bike was new! WTG!
 
Spent the evening measuring and remeasuring the new/old cylinder and pistons, as well as the original cylinder and pistons again. I'm half way batty now and still scratching my head. The cylinder seems to measure .002" oversize to the stock bore size even when measured in the area where the rings don't sweep. The numbers suggest .004" piston to wall clearance, but using the old feeler gauge between the piston and cylinder wall trick suggests just slightly more than .003". This seems right since I can measure about .0008" of wear with the bore gauge and the stock piston clearance is about 2.5 thousands. At any rate, I suspect the pistons and bores are just fine and I don't need this big bore kit after all.
 
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Nessism said:
At any rate, I suspect the pistons and bores are just fine and I don't need this big bore kit afterall.
Click to expand...
Other than the odd cylinder wall wear pattern of the original cylinders.

How does the new (old) set look? Much better than the originals, about the same, or worse?
 
rustybronco said:
Other than the odd cylinder wall wear pattern of the original cylinders.

How does the new (old) set look? Much better than the originals, about the same, or worse?
Click to expand...

New/old cylinder doesn't show that funny pattern but they have a smig more wear. Pistons look slightly better than the originals.
 
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