20 questions well nearly, Piston rings need changing!

[dreadmanbastard]

Hail countrymen,

I have found oil in number 2 cylinder. (':dead') leaking down the pipe and on the spark plug. compression test without and then with spoon full of oil comfirms piston ringsa probly f****d.

so before undertaking this job i have many question which i hope you nice people will be able to answer for me.

first is this, can someone with basic knowlegde and methodiocal approch do this without major f**k up?
second, is it possible to take off the head without removeing all the valves as per the manual? im scared of possible mistakes.
do i need "special tools" (a mechanic), my pdf manual shows special tools but clymer seems to not.
i take it i can get the piston rings direct for wisco?
i had the engine bored to 1070, is that gonna effect the head gasket, ie non standard for the z1000?
if i do one piston, do i do all four?
and if no to above whats your estimate of hour time to get a mechanic to do it?

please help,

[Steve R]

Hi Matey,
1 yes you can do this you will need a decent torque wrench
2 You do not need to remove the valves at all.
3 You do not need any special tools
4 I would get rings gasket advice and support from Debbens.
5 You will need wisco supplied head gasket
6 I would probably do all 4

Its not hard, taking the head off you just have to be carefull to set the cam timing to the marks as shown in the clymer book , be real carefull to pad everything out with rags so nothing goes inside the engine!!

Hardest job will be getting the barrels up probably and put rags in when half way up in case the ring is broken, you do not want bits of ring going inside the engine.

[dreadmanbastard]

brilliant! thanks, thats everything i need all in one confindence inspiring package. ta very much indeed!

[hillbilly]

your valves will stay in the head when head is removed,i would do all four pistons while it was in bits,a day at a mechanics hands should be enough time if everything goes as planned,base gaskets head gaskets exhaust gaskets,all need renewing,might as well give it an oil filter and oil change.at a guess for cash to part with ,owt from £100/£200.

[tedsonthezed]

Hi Dreadman

I had to take the cylinder head off of my '73 earlier this year and I was shitting myself that I would screw something up.

My tips;
Read the manual(s) back to front for head and block removal. If I remember rightly, the Haynes one was a lot more informative than the proper Kawasaki workshop manual.

Have a club member you can turn to in times of lack of confidence - I found it massively helpful.

No need to pay a mechanic. Have somebody to help you when it comes to putting the block back on as the pistons and rings could be an absolute bugger on your own. The member who helped me has a piston ring compressor, but I wouldn't know how that applies with larger pistons. I seem to remember someone in a thread a few months back made some piston ring compressors with plastic tube.

Clean everything when it comes off and put it all somewhere safe and in an orderly fashion so that everything goes back exactly where it came from. This applies to the camshaft shells particularly. Clean all gasket faces and use new gaskets.

Check and double check the cam timing before bolting everything down finally. It's also a good opportunity to check the valve shims - I found that all my clearances were zero.

I agree with Steve R. Be fastidious about stopping anything going down into the cases. Fortunately the tightness of the block means you have time to ease it up and put rags underneath before the rings get released.

I did all the work myself, except for the help getting the block back on. If I did it, so can you. The last major work I did on an engine was back in 1976 when I took the head off my H**** 250. I didn't know what the hell I was doing. Miraculously the bike still worked, but I was bloody nervous about doing this much work on my beloved zed.

[dreadmanbastard]

hello, to update, ive got the head and cylinders off without afray.
Ive ordered my bits and they shall be here tommorrow.

Is there a knack to installing the piston rings?

is it worth using a very soft polishing dolly to buff the inside of the cylinders?

i get the feeling taking apart is the easy bit. but all is laid out as it came off in neat sections. so im not to nevous. im most worried about these darned rings. I dont want them to get bent out of shape when fitting them and the wiseco bottom ring is som wierd crisscross affair with two rings top and bottom of it.

anyways tommorrows the day. wish me luck!

[hillbilly]

i dont think polishing your barrels is a good idea,maybe honing them out would be better. a friend of mine once polished his piston with solvol it promptly seized when he ran engine,no lubrication

[dreadmanbastard]

finally got it done after yesterday afternoon and most of today. getting the cylinders back on was most difficult and there was much cursing and even the thought of defeat but we did it eventually. All else went surprisingly smoothly. mind you, i havent started it up yet.

soon, once ive polished it and cleaned up ill take some pictures and post em on the im new here section cause i never has done.

[Steve R]

Well done, good luck with starting it!

[tedsonthezed]

Well done dreadman. Looking forward to the pics.