Topic: Terry's NEW big Kawasaki build, the "Lockdown 1428" special.

[PeWe]

That GPZ1100 engine had fuel injection in its bike, right?

[grcamna2]

That GPZ1100 engine had fuel injection in its bike, right?

The GPZ1100's were a fuel injected bike.

[Terry in Australia]

Yep, you're both correct, except...........this one has carbs. Here in Oz it was very common to replace the EFI with carbs, so not too many EFI systems survived. The drag bike that I used to build the "Mad Max" bike which morphed into the "1428" build this year was the donor for this engine and had GSXR750 carbs fitted, and the engine I bought yesterday has a set of black CV carbs which look a lot like Suzuki GSX1100EFE (from memory?) carbs, but that's just a guess, they could be off something else.

That's good for me though, electronics are white mans magic to me, so I avoid complicated electronics like the plague. (Not the current plague, or maybe I do? Who knows?) I understand carbs a bit more, so not unhappy that it doesn't have the OEM EFI. I didn't get to pop the cam cover off yet, the weather is still crap, but tomorrow is supposed to be in the 70's and sunny, so I'll go mad with F2 tank sealing, and Kawasaki spanner twirling

[PeWe]

Easier to jet carbs when engine is modified unless Power Commander is installed which most likely need a dyno with A/F meter in your garage, right?

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, I do actually own an Air Flow meter Per, but no dyno, unless my butt dyno counts for anything?

[PeWe]

Yes, just plug it in!!!!;D

[Terry in Australia]

Well the weather changed back to winter during the week, but today, it was a lovely spring day, so I dragged myself from a drug and alcohol fuelled sleep into the daylight at 08.00, as I had much to do. But first, a hard working man needs a hearty meal, so I cooked myself some vittles:

F2 GPZ Saturday 10 Oct 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Once I got thru that and a big cup of joe, I wandered outside to greet the day. My main task today was prepping and lining my leaky F2 tank, but between times, I had a play with the GPZ1100 engine. Now like most "projects" this engine had been sitting in the PO's shed for many years, even though he put in the FB ad that he'd bought it to put in an offroad buggy, he confided in me that one drunken night he and his mates decided to build an outrageous minibike, so as they already had a Deckson mini bike frame, they went out and bought the biggest engine they could find, this one. Of course, as none of them were engineers, they discovered that it was all too hard, and gave up.

Rob the owner kept it for a few more years, and decided to unload it on FB. Luckily for me, I saw it first, and jumped on it, offering an extra fiddy bucks for Rob to drop it off. (with the current lockdown I face up to a $5000 fine if I'm caught where I'm not supposed to be, so $50 seemed like a good deal for me) Rob has a work permit to travel pretty much anywhere, so was more than happy to deliver it. Looking at it today, it's pretty obvious that it's been dropped hard on the ignition side.

F2 GPZ Saturday 10 Oct 2020 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The good thing about that is the casting is a bolt on, so I contacted a guy who's a newly befriended Kawasaki guru with a heap of parts, to see if he has one he'll sell me. He thinks he has but if not, I know another guy who swings both ways (a CB750 guru and a Kawasaki guru) who will probably have it, as this part was common from the Z1 right thru to the GPZ. Otherwise I'll have to get one from the US, and pay heaps for shipping. The engine doesn't look like it's been pulled down before, but the cam cover has definitely been off. Whoever took it off really, really, really liked silicon.

F2 GPZ Saturday 10 Oct 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

F2 GPZ Saturday 10 Oct 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr   

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, that some guys shouldn't be allowed to own tools. This much silicon would have killed a CB750 engine, but big Kawasaki's must be impervious to the sh1t, because once I cleaned all the crap out, the top end appeared to be fine.

F2 GPZ Saturday 10 Oct 2020 9e by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I oiled the cam lobes and cranked the engine over a few times with a 17mm socket, and all seems good. I think I might drop the sump pan off and see if there's more silicon down there, or in the oil pump, gearbox, crank, and anywhere else I can see. It didn't come with a starter motor and there's no kicker on a GPZ engine, but I think I can use a CB750 starter motor to crank it so I can do a compression check, just to get an idea of what's going on, therein. More tomorrow.    

[grcamna2]

Nice looking breakfast Terry,you like the bacon kind'a rare.Those cam lobes look decent.

[PeWe]

Holiday breakfast!!! mmmmm

[grcamna2]

Terry,Did you try test-fitting the Honda VTR1000R starter into your 1428 engine ?

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, I just had another breakfast like that one, it'll keep me going for the rest of the day. Nope, haven't had time to take a look at that starter yet Bill, and still on the fence about swapping another one in, there are a few gurus on the Kawasaki forums who don't think it'll be necessary if I use thicker battery cables and a "Ricks electric" or similar regulator/rectifier setup. I need a regulator anyway, so won't hurt to try that first.

Another guru who's running a 1428 in a Rickman has convinced me to install a Dyna 2000 ignition in the 1428 over a Dyna S, so I ordered one last night. I can use the Dyna S in the GPZ engine, so no biggie, and having installed a Dyna 2000 in a CB750 once before, I can attest that it is the best performing ignition you can put in an old bike nowadays. OK, better go out and see how my F2 tank is looking, back later.

[grcamna2]

Thanks guys, I just had another breakfast like that one, it'll keep me going for the rest of the day. Nope, haven't had time to take a look at that starter yet Bill, and still on the fence about swapping another one in, there are a few gurus on the Kawasaki forums who don't think it'll be necessary if I use thicker battery cables and a "Ricks electric" or similar regulator/rectifier setup. I need a regulator anyway, so won't hurt to try that first.

Another guru who's running a 1428 in a Rickman has convinced me to install a Dyna 2000 ignition in the 1428 over a Dyna S, so I ordered one last night. I can use the Dyna S in the GPZ engine, so no biggie, and having installed a Dyna 2000 in a CB750 once before, I can attest that it is the best performing ignition you can put in an old bike nowadays. OK, better go out and see how my F2 tank is looking, back later.

What battery will you be running AGM ?

[Terry in Australia]

I've got a Motobatt for it Bill, I have them in several of my bikes, and generally they out perform the old Yuasa's. Having said that I've had one or two fail prematurely, but generally I can expect 5 years or more out of a Motobatt, and the last two Yuasa's didn't last 2 years. I just ordered the solid state regulator rectifier, so the next job on the 1428 will be some bigger battery cables. No rush on re-installing the engine, I need to finish the F2 tank today, and degrease the K0 frame in prep for blasting.

[Terry in Australia]

OK, so I keep looking at the GPZ engine as an alternative to the 1428 for a couple of reasons, 1. I have little or no confidence in my own mechanical ability, and 2, this engine has been in a registered bike in Oz, so will be easier to get the DMV (Vicroads here in Melbourne) to give me a number plate. Plus it's a new toy, and I have to play with it.

I tilted the engine forward to "Upskirt" it, and of course, found more silicon sealant.

K0 F2 GPZ Sun 11 Oct 2020 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I love my little Dewalt cordless rattle gun, and zipped out the multitude of 6mm bolts that hold the sump pan in place. Of course I checked the oil sight glass and saw nothing, but "Murphy's Law" dictates that if something can turn to sh1t, it will, and so once I went to remove the oil filter, filthy black oil poured out. No biggie, lots of shop rags later, I had the pan off.

K0 F2 GPZ Sun 11 Oct 2020 7 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Now it's possible that the piece of sump pan gasket sitting in the oily goop fell off when I undid the bolts, or it may have been there for some time. Considering that there was an unhealthy amount of silicon sealant at the top end I was expecting to see more in the bottom, but no, apart from some greazy sludge, it was silicon free. A little bit of degreaser and some scrubbing, and it came up like new.

K0 F2 GPZ Sun 11 Oct 2020 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I started to scrape the remains of the old gasket off the bottom of the engine, but ran out of steam, so I'll finish that tomorrow, and install a new gasket. I also pulled the oil pump, it has a few little bits of petrified oil or clutch material in the mesh, but it operates nice and smoothly, so I'm calling it good.

K0 F2 GPZ Sun 11 Oct 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Anyway, it was good to see that there's no obvious damage, once I put the sump pan back on I'll install a new oil filter and fill it with fresh oil, and install (hopefully) a CB750 starter motor, hook up a battery and give it a cranking. I'll be interested to see what the compression figures look like. I'm tempted to throw it into the bike to give it a run while I wait for the new Dyna 2000 ignition to arrive from the US and think about some additional crankcase ventilation for the 1428 engine, as has been insisted to me by my local Kawasaki drag racer guru, not to mention converting it to external top end oiling. It's a minefield, but I'll get there.      

[grcamna2]

Good to see it wasn't a candidate for a boat-anchor,somewhat reasonably cared for.

[PeWe]

It was a period when silicon was sold as gasket replacement on tube.
No more gaskets, just cream the mating surfaces with high temp silicone. Magic!!

[RAFster122s]

Glad it turned out OK, hope it is viable as a runner.

[Terry in Australia]

Thanks guys, well I was excited about 3 large boxes of CB750K0 parts arriving today, so didn't get back to GPZ1100 gasket surface cleaning duties. No biggie, my new regulator/rectifier arrived today, so I now have a complete charging system. I then got busy with the CB750F2 tank repair, so didn't get back to the Kawasaki. No biggie, it's all happening.    

[PeWe]

You have X-mas on a daily basis?

[Terry in Australia]

Ha ha, yeah mate, there are more big boxes coming, so when my family asks me what I want for my birthday, Father’s Day or Christmas I’m usually stumped, because I have so much stuff arriving on a daily basis.

I do need another garage though, and considering that you live a lot closer to Santa than I do, do you think you could put in a good word for me?

[grcamna2]

Ha ha, yeah mate, there are more big boxes coming, so when my family asks me what I want for my birthday, Father’s Day or Christmas I’m usually stumped, because I have so much stuff arriving on a daily basis.

I do need another garage though, and considering that you live a lot closer to Santa than I do, do you think you could put in a good word for me?

Terry,you need another building 

[Terry in Australia]

Okey Dokey, so today was back to sh1t weather. It was bucketing down rain when I woke up at 8am and I ran out to the "sheltered workshop" to move an open tub of parts that sits right underneath a leak that happens when we have really heavy rain. No hope of taking the mighty CB750F2 for a ride, and anyway, with the current lockdown I can only ride 3 miles, which is hardly worth getting wet for.

The good news is that apparently I'll be able to ride 12 whole miles from home next week, so I'm planning a 100 miler where I ride from home 12 miles north, then turn around, ride home, keep going, ride 12 miles south, turn around, ride 12 miles east, turn around, ride 12 miles west, and so on and so forth until I've done 100 miles. Last ride my speedo cable was howling, so I sprayed as much WD40 down it as I could (because I couldn't undo the little screw on the speedo drive and don't have a spare if I destroy it) so hopefully it won't break and ruin my pathetic lockdown 100 miler.

But I digress. Tomorrow is the Bathurst 1000 V8 Supercar race, my favourite motorsport event for the last 43 years, so I'll be doing very little bike work. I don't have my K0 frame back from the blasters yet, so decided to continue with putting that cheap GPZ1100 engine I bought a couple of weeks ago back together to test in my KZ1000 frame until I'm happy that I have the 1428cc monster ready to go. Now if I had to list the motorcycle restoration chores I hate the most, scraping old gasket surfaces would be right up there. Seriously, it was like the old sump pan gasket was painted on, no wonder the silicon bandit just splooshed some of that crap in there when he did whatever he was doing, because removing the old gasket material while the engine was still in the frame would have been a nightmare. As it was, it took 2 hours with a paint scraper, exacto knife, and wet and dry sandpaper lubed with degreaser, to get that sh1t off.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The cometic gasket I used is a metal gasket with some kind of coating either side, but the good thing is there was no need to use any gasket goo, something I try to avoid whenever possible.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 2 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I cleaned the oil pump, removed the screen to blow all the little bits of clutch(?) material out of it, and primed it with nice fresh oil.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 1 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Once I had the pan buttoned up, I needed to install a new oil filter. Luckily a CB750 oil filter is the same size, so I just grabbed a new one outta my stash, and installed it.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 3 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

All good.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 4 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

The next problem was the fact that it didn't come with a starter motor. Interestingly enough, the Kawasaki boys tell me that Honda CB750 starter motors are slightly better than Kawasaki items (even though they come out of the same factory) so I "lifted" one from my K1 project engine to see if it'd fit.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 8 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Viola! (A stringed instrument) It went straight in, and even the Honda bolts were the right length!

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 9 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Even the Kawasaki cover bolted right on, oh happy day! (and yes, it'll need to be painted........)

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 9a by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Okay, so what's next? Well the alternator cover has seen better days, and it appears that the bike has travelled on it for some distance, maybe to save on tyre wear?

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 5 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Now I can't remember why, but I bought a late model alternator cover ages ago for cheap, because some bozo had been painting it here and there?

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 6 by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I've brushed a layer of the worlds most piss-weak paint stripper on it, and I'll check it out tomorrow to see if most of that crap is off it so I can hit it with some nice gloss black paint.

In the mean time, the ignition housing had a similar amount of damage.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 9b by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I like the fact that the housing just unbolts from the engine, if a CB750 had this much damage, it's be a major job to repair the casting, but on big Kawasaki's, you just take off 6 screws, a gasket, and swap it out.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 9c by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

Trouble is, I didn't have another spare one to just swap in, so I "borrowed" one off my Z1-B engine. (I've since bought a good used one on Ebay USA) Now if I'd intended to use the GPZ1100's electronic ignition, the Z1 housing wouldn't work as there are lots of different internal castings that aren't on the earlier housings, but as I'm going to install a Dyna S anyway, it's fine. It bolted straight on, and I only needed to find a shorter bolt to hold the ignition advancer in place.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 9e by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I removed the cam cover and checked that the timing marks were in the right position, and was happy that it lined up as hoped. I bolted the ignition cover in place, and called it a day.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 9f by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I'd been good, I only drank coffee as I needed to keep my remaining 3 brain cells together to get all that work done, so rewarded myself with a couple of bottles of home brewed Ginger Beer.

1428 GPZ1100 17 Oct 2020 9g by Terry Prendergast, on Flickr

I just saw this vid of a 1428cc engine'd monster with 177 RWHP, what a beast!

[PeWe]

Wonderful sunshine and blu sky here with wopping +10C!
Waiting for a burger half way on my 200km ride!

You are very busy, Terry. You are well worth a long nice ride on your for the day favourite bike.

[grcamna2]

The seat on that black custom Z1-R is a good fit,otherwise with a stock seat you'd fly right off the back of that one.

[RAFster122s]

https://www.cycleworld.com/story/blogs/ask-kevin/kawasaki-to-reproduce-cylinder-heads-for-70s-z1s/

What do these new heads sell for?