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ok next week i will find out if my head gasket is on its way out bec i have some surspitions and if it is then i will neeed it replacing and i was woundering if any one could tell me how its done and how easy/hard its done... im a car machnic by trade and i can do lil things on bike with no fuse like oil filter and what not i just dont no were to start with the head gasket is there a chance i could mess up the carb timing by removing them???? can any one help me i dont want to pay a shop 2 do it and i also no they will just take the old one of and put a new one on and wont clean over the engine and get rid off all the gunk and stuff witch is y i wona do it my sleff any advise people...o yh its on a L ZXR400

what suspicions do you have?

Your bike has no fuse ??

"carb timing" ??????????????????

Easy enough job to do.................and easier with engine out...................IMHO

If you just want to replace the gasket and no other work then with engine on the bench it would take about an hour maybe 90 minutes.
I'd do a few other jobs at the same time.................... lap in valves for one

Carb timing? Get the engine out as it will be much easier to work on. As Cargo said use it to also do other jobs which might be harder to do with the engine in. Get lots of pics and use the for reference if you get stuck.

Oh and if your unsure of whether its gone or not, do a compression test, save yourself alot of bother. If your a mechanic I'm sure you'll know how to do that.

just got some creamy stuf in the old oil not v much but a lil and the bike ha dnot run in 8 months and coolent was very low.... getting some enw coolant today designed for a raceing engines then all il do is mark on the level and check if it goes down if it does then new head gasket if not then im happy:P

benje1990 wrote:just got some creamy stuf in the old oil not v much but a lil and the bike ha dnot run in 8 months and coolent was very low.... getting some enw coolant today designed for a raceing engines then all il do is mark on the level and check if it goes down if it does then new head gasket if not then im happy:P

So if you have a coolant leak... you could end up changing the head gasket for nothing

if the bike hasnt run for 8 mnths - its almost certainly condensation.

Do a compression test first!

and wtf is carb timing!!!!! I assume you mean cam timing......

Caz wrote:
and wtf is carb timing!!!!! I assume you mean cam timing......

this ^

yes you can mess up the cam timing, because you'll have to take the camshafts out to get the head off. but assuming you can read (the manual) and count to 30 you should have no problem putting them back in correctly. Change the camchain while you've got it apart as well

However as others have said, your head gasket has almost certainly not gone. Change the oil and filter and then take it for a long ride to get it properly hot. If you get more than ten minutes down the road without it boiling over it's not the head gasket, and once you've given it a good thrashing any condensation will be gone from the engine.