Kawasaki KZ650 cafe-racer. Cylinder head.

Initially I thought to use original KZ650  cylinder head as it was in very nice condition: no broken cooling fins, clean intake channels and so on and so forth. The only thing I had to fix was one of exhaust studs that was torn out with a  small piece of cylinder head as well.

I even mostly finished with exhaust channels cleaning…

But  later I changed my mind and bought KZ750 cylinder (1980, suitable with roller cam chain and its tension system) as it has larger valves and wider channels.

We use intermediate warehouses (courier services) in different countries for buying goods that have no direct shipping to Ukraine. I found KZ750 cylinder head that looked promising on USA ebay, but the day I decided to buy it I didn’t get enough  sleep, thus  I managed to order it with delivery to Germany intermediate warehouse instead of one in USA or instead with shipping directly to Ukraine.  When cylinder head arrived to Germany it for sure didn’t pass Germany customs.   Representatives of courier service turned out to be not cooperative, so we together with Oksana successfully managed communication with German customs on distance of   thousand miles  without  custom brokerage involvement. It was a nervous bit to find  contacts of particular customs unit responsible for the mentioned warehouse and to write proper explanation email with payments proofs attached and so on.  The answer was not long in coming and to our amazement customs released parcel without further questions and no duty payments.

Here is this cylinder head. Clean intake, perfect camshaft seats and carbon deposits in combustion chamber that could be easily wiped out with rag soaked in carburetor cleaner  – nice catch, even counting that delivery cost was more than part itself.

 

It’s only flaw in my opinion is air injection channels of emission reducing system, however I plan to seal them and buy KZ750 valve cover of similar to KZ650 cover design but with additional round caps to cover those channels.

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4 Comments

  1. Luciano Pavon Mena

    Beatiful cylinder head! Congratulations! I´m from Argentina and I´m looking a complete cylinder head kz650C3 mod 1979 in good conditions, with the camshafts. do you know where I can found it? Thanks!

    Reply
    1. gazzz (Post author)

      Hi Luciano,

      I bought this very cylinder head from USA Ebay with direct delivery to Ukraine. You may try your luck there too, however with nowadays Coronavirus restrictions delivery might be an issue.

      Kind regards,
      Nazar

      Reply
      1. Luciano Pavon Mena

        is true! my mechanic is thinking to put a kz750 cylinder head on my bike (kz650c3) but we don`t know if it work. Maybe you can help me with the manual, I don`t have anyone. My mail is lucianopavon@gmail.com.

        thanks

        Kind regards,

        Luciano

        Reply
        1. gazzz (Post author)

          Hi Luciano,

          It works as long as you use correct type of KZ750 head (with mounts for upper cam chain tensioner).

          You could get all manuals you need from http://www.kzrider.com, however you have to register there.

          Kind regards,
          Nazar

          Reply

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