Z1 action tonight

Papa bear stopped by to drop off some parts for the born free 6 bike and we were twiddling our thumbs when he suggested putting the motor in the Z bike .  Thanks Greg, it was cool to hang bother! 

Some of the shit in Ry's attic.

In my attic I have a relatively complete clean titled basket case 1975 Z1 Kawasaki.  It would be cool and pretty simple to make a clone of the bimota in the top picture.   I love the Rickman kawasaki but I think it would cost a little more to do one right.  Not to mention a bimota anything is pretty fuckin exotic and unusual to see.  I've been hording the bike for years thinking of making a muscle bike out of it like this killer one on the bottom but I'm not in a hurry to decide just yet.  All in all, this is not something I plan on getting to any time soon but its on the books unless someone comes along with a flathead, panhead or whatever project bike to trade.

Streamliner day dreams

Ive been thinking a lot about streamlining my Z1 Turbo bike when its ready and doing boneville or the Ohio mile with Brad. Or maybe just un-faired speed runs ( although behind a wind screen sounds much better ).  Drag strip is cool and everything but I've done that and when I started building this bike years ago I knew if it went to the strip it would never be for competition. Bonneville is on my bucket list and why not the Kaw project ?

Assembled

The pistons finally arrived for the Z1 motor and I found some time to finish assembling it.

It has been years but I finally have the motor complete enough to mount it into the chassis. Exciting stuff.

Z1 Rear Sump Oil Mod

The rear sump mod went smoother than I expected. The tube welded to the pump quite well and setting it up was a breeze.   I still want to make a oil filter adapter to put a screw on filter that I can buy at a auto parts store on it but doing that really wont offer any performance upgrades.

So Im about 99% done with the lower end. All I need now is some good quality nuts for the main.  For some reason the stud kit only came with 4 instead of the 12 that it needs.   

Weekend junk

There has been some discussions about this Ducati project in the top 2 pictures. 

I finished shimming the Z1 head , The sprockets will get swapped out when I put the head on the motor.

Francesco's new ride in full 1976 bling bling. Ridiculous but beautiful. He is planning on stripping off the added weight,  fixing a few minor things and riding it.  It has a good motor in it and sounds titties.   

Big Stupid Head

I absolutely hate shimming shim under bucket tappets.  I know that they are necessary for this but I have never actually met anyone that tossed a stock one or had seen one tossed.   I suppose they are a couple grams lighter than stock and with the aluminum retainers it all adds up.  I suppose its worth it for that reason alone.

Z1 Stuff

Karata Glide!  old school goodness.  I got my gaskets in the other day and I thought I would start bead blasting the case covers so when my stainless hardware kit shows up I can just bolt it all down .   I have a rear sump oil pan that Im going to use on this but I don't have the sump tube to go on the pump so I need to make that when I can flip this thing over .  In the mean time I'm still a bit sore from the infamous trampoline accident so I've been taking it easy.

The turbo I have for the Z1 project

The ZON left a mark at Greg and Gaby's on Saturday night .   Was a pretty good night until I destroyed myself on their trampoline.   Getting old and fat really sucks ass.

Turbo or NA

I was digging through my giant pile of Z1 parts and found 2 brand spanking new 80mm turbo pistons.  That would be sweet but sadly its only 2 and to be right I will need to buy all four.     I've been weighing cost of turbo vs NA and here is what I have on my pros and cons list:

Turbo stuff needed
Turbo pistons set  about $500
Fuel injection setup build myself  $1200
oil system for the turbo $300.00
hoses clamps fittings etc $200

I already have a huge brand new turbo for it and a nice header to front mount it  might even have room for a inter cooler or something.    I also have some rayjay turbo stuff but I think I will stick with the one I can buy parts for or replace without NOS parts.

NA stuff needed
Rings and Teflon buttons $250
Carbs, Lectrons $1000 or fuel injection same as above $1200
Cams  $350

The potential power with the turbo is huge, after crunching some numbers were talking 500hp at 2 bar.
and you will be able to start it with a button on the handlebars.

The NA has obvious advantages as well but after crunching the numbers from the turbo, I'm not so interested in the NA setup.   Not to mention this 1327 cc ,13.5:1 piston setup wont let me start it with the on board starter, and I don't want to kick that much ass to get it going. Plus it will be prone to overheat with the big block.  The best thing about this setup is it would be easier to build. All that said, I"m not in any hurry.   My wife asked me why I was even pondering it, she said " just turbo it " .    If  I had 2 more turbo pistons sitting around I would have put them in already and moved on to thinking of fuel injection donor parts.

Z1 build progress

I dug out the head for the Z1 project and it is as awesome as I remember, chambers reshaped , bronze guides ported , polished, decked, titanium exhaust valves, stainless intake. I still have to spring it and I have some aluminum retainers and titanium keepers with some shim under buckets for it in my pile of old go fast junk.  Ive spent more time digging through the shop for parts than anything.   On a different note, I was looking at my pistons and I'm thinking of going turbo rather than the 13.5:1, not street able pistons.   I was really not feeling the turbo after the trouble with the Honda and the fact that I have a turbo bike but this is a different story, I'm planning on injecting this motor so it makes life a bit easier when it comes time to boost it.  It would be a waste of a kick ass lower end if I didn't give it the business. Plus 8:1 pistons with the turbo would be street able to a point and gives me a little room to play on the bike or ride to the races.

R5 sighted at Oily Souls

When I was 15 I bought a 71 R5-B that looked exactly like the one above.   Man that bike was fast.  I miss it and would love another one some day. 

I finished boring the cases on the Z1 Kaw motor last night, all I need now to put the lower end together is the timing chain.  I have a fancy 124 link one on its way , I have a big pin crank, and 32 tooth cam sprockets so it takes a little longer chain than stock.  In the mean time, I could use some help pulling the rest of my engine parts off the shelf and organizing it all.  It has been many, many years since I tore this girl down and I hope I didn't misplace anything.  Somewhere in that mess is a Superbike Mike, titanium valved, ported and polished race head that has been finished and packed away for the last 15 years.

Awesome and Suck

 

 So Yesterday in the shop I finally received my base gasket for the Kaw project and setup the mill to bore the cases.  Only 3 more holes.
   After all that Mini-b and I ran up to Cafe Racer Ypsi and met long bike Matt and friends up there.
 That CB750 up top was pretty sweet, it was the guys first bike and first chop. Pretty ambitious dude.
After that it started to rain like a fucking bitch and in between 5 of us there was not a front fender in sight.  That sucked ass,  my wallet is still wet, I just washed the taint splitter and my helmet weighs a few more pounds than it did. However I think we all made it home alive and it was cool to get out for a minute.

Where the Kaw has been for a few years

1974 Kawasaki Z1 900, I have started on the motor a bit but I'm back on the turbo bike for now.

Kevin, Thanks for your input .   This one is copper O-ringed and gasketed.

The Honda was just meant to be a little street rocker and I was turbo charging it just to do it.  At most I was running 10 psi of boost with the current setup and the cycle X gasket seemed to be a modern alternative to the copper and O-ring .  It seems that these parts are hard to come by on the Honda's not so true for the old 903's.   Also, I have a o-ringed J model stock bore block for your turbo project if your interested.