Leaking Valve Cover Gasket? How to Replace it on First Gen Kawasaki Z1000

[@kd350]

Thanks for the priceless post. 44,000 miles on my bought new '03 and I bought the valve cover gasket and also they recommended the seals around the plugs. Was around $120 in parts. Haven't done the job but I do have the leak. Will finally check the valves though there's no ticking (loose) and the bike starts and idles flawlessly below freezing (tight). Benefits of leaving it stock and being 46-67 years old riding it. Only thing that gets abused is the sides of the tires and the peg feelers. Oh, and it's been geared up (+1 counter shaft) a tooth since its youth with a first gen '04 ZX10 counter shaft sprocket(s). Still on the factory chain and rear!

[@alexdombi-weridetwo]

44k miles on the original chain and sprocket?! That's amazing. You'll do fine with the gasket swap. Good call on replacing the spark plug seals. It'll be an optimal time to replace the plugs as well, if you aren't already planning on that.

[@kd350]

@@alexdombi-weridetwo The bike's always had a weird demand. Change plugs every ten thou. Otherwise it breaks up past half throttle. No cleaning or swapping of plugs or coils cure it. It just wants new plugs and problem solved for a couple of years. Can always get home with symptom as up to half throttle power is adequate. Great vid.

[@alexdombi-weridetwo]

@@kd350 Dang! You're making me wish I had changed my plugs when I did this. It just crossed 10k miles.

[@SpaceCoastStreetRippers]

I was just pulling apart my ZRX to fix a leaking fuel sending unit, figured I'd change my plugs while I was under there. I found oil in the spark plug wells, turns out there's 4 individual spark plug gaskets. While the valve cover wasn't leaking, I figure I better replace it cause I just know it'll start leaking once I put it together. I'm just like you, I can't reassemble dirty parts. Nice work man.

[@alexdombi-weridetwo]

Is your zrx the 11 or 1200? They are such cool bikes!

[@SpaceCoastStreetRippers]

@@alexdombi-weridetwo 1200. Yeah Im a fan. This one's my 2nd ZRX and my 4th KAWASAKI which are also the best amendments! Im actually getting into mine right now. It's fairly clean, for sure a solid rider, I bought it with almost 26k on the clock. It runs well, shows well, but not so nice I'm afraid to ride it more than I probably should! Beautiful Z by the way. What a find! The Z1000 is second favorite KAWASAKI. I remember lurking around the dealerships when they were brand new in 03, the first "factory built" street fighter. Nothing else stood out the way they did, an upright, comfortable liter bike that was naked. Ahead if its time. 12 years later I finally bought a low mile 2012, the "kinda" 40th Anniversary of the original Z1 900 in Candy Burnt Orange. Wow. What a machine. The 2nd to last of the real bare bone liter bike, except with fuel injection. In my opinion will become collector level machines for their non-nanny device pureness. Thats why I love KAWASAKI, they been setting records and trends for 50 years. Team green has heritage!

[@valeriugosav1179]

thanks for the video,i got the same problem on my 750 '04 ,it s a common problem on this models

[@alexdombi-weridetwo]

Hope it helps! It's probably a very similar process for the 750 with some very minor differences in bolt locations and such. I'm not sure why the gasket seems to fail so regularly

[@beandeh]

Is this a sign to see this on my timeline? Yesterday i was cleaning my gen 1 and saw a littlebit of oil sweat around my camsensor...But seeing you do this, i would like to try myself! Nice job!

[@alexdombi-weridetwo]

Thanks! Be sure to locate the source of the oil leak. If it's just the cam sensor, it may just be the o-ring on the sensor itself. You got this!

[@lonelyryder7441]

I would recommend, if your bike has high miles, to also do a valve clearance adjustment while you have it torn apart. Otherwise, you will just have to do this again down the road.

[@alexdombi-weridetwo]

You're absolutely right. I mentioned that in the video for others. This bike has under 10k miles, so it's under the suggested interval for adjusting the valves.

[@lonelyryder7441]

@@alexdombi-weridetwo Good mileage for the year! Mine had 30k+ when I bought it, so I had to do the entire job.

[@alexdombi-weridetwo]

@lonelyryder7441 Absolutely! I had to snag it as soon as I saw it posted for sale. Finding a low mile one in perfect condition is getting very hard now.

[@rclmxshift]

The manufactures sure do not think about being able to work these things these days. They want you take it to the dealership so they can break the bank for a not too expensive part to be replaced. I'm curious to know how many hours in labor the dealership would charge for replacing the valve cover gasket.

[@alexdombi-weridetwo]

I'd be curious on that too- I'm thinking 1-2 hours plus supplies and fees for coolant disposal. I started working on my bikes as a way to keep costs down when I was a kid. Service manuals are far cheaper than service shops :)