Topic: KZ750 dohc.... How bad is it to pull the head?

[Jay B]

I gave my son's best buddy his '81 KZ750 after he passed away, and I've been teaching him to wrench and ride. In fact, we've become pretty good friends just messing around with old bikes. The Kawasaki just developed an oil leak along the left side of the head. I've never been into one of these, anyone got some advice before we tear in?

[mack808]

I had a 1980 KZ750 4, and had to do the head gasket on it after about 16,000miles. If you have ever had the had off any dohc engine there is nothing really tricky. If need be let me know and i will copy and either email or FAX you the pertinent pages from the shop manual

[KB02]

I've never had the head off of my KZ550 (which is for sale by the way) but I have been down far enough to do valve adjustments (Sim and Bucket). Nothing too hard. One piece of advise, though: Make sure you have a good, clean mating surface from head to valve cover and that the gasket stays in place when you put the cover on.

[bryanj]

No more difficult than anu other BUT make sure you know what the cam timing marks are and that ALL gasket surfaces are "mirror clean"