Replacing Head Gasket

[Dannyk]

Hi all. Bit of hands on advise please.

Head gasket gone, coolant dumping and bubbling.
After some hands on advice and tips off people who have replaced this before. Downloaded the manual, so good to go there.
Will be doing this in the frame, so advice pointing around that please. Also could do with some more depth on the timing procudure please, manual not so detailed there.
Any hints appreciated.
How long do you put aside for the job?
Do you silicone when replacing gasket for good measure?
Thanks in advance

[zimm]

first off, as this is the first time you will have done this, take the engine out of the frame, its FAR easier to work on the engine on a bench than in the frame, especially when it comes to timing up the cams as you can actually see what you are doing.

dont use silicon on the head-gasket, but do use a smear on both sides of the base gasket, on top of the spark plug wells and on the cam cover gasket.

make sure you read the H model manual, its got more detail than the L, timing the cams is a piece of piss just make sure it all lines up as per the piccy's turn the engine over by hand, then check it again .. repeat this until the paranoia has subsided.

gotta do mine tonight/tomorrow got to admit, im not looking forward to it.

[Dannyk]

first time on this bike mate, and not looking forward to it either.
So none on the head gasket?
Is it a through bolt stright to the base then? Base gasket will be disturbed?
Not causing many problems at all, but dont want to push and warp the head

Not got a bench at moment, hence planning on in the frame?
Does the flywheel have any involment with the timing?

Thanks

[zimm]

So none on the head gasket?

ive done it both with and without in the past, neither has blown again, so i see no reason to recommend using it

Is it a through bolt stright to the base then? Base gasket will be disturbed?

correct ! this is quite clear from the manual, also why i dont recommend you do it in the frame as sliding the cylinder block back over the 4 pistons is fiddly enough without the frame getting in the way. You can assemble without a base gasket as long as the mating surface is sealed with a smear of silicon, end result is slightly higher compression/tighter squish, but normally ok to do.

Not got a bench at moment, hence planning on in the frame?

i normally end up using the .. err floor

Does the flywheel have any involment with the timing?

its on the end of the crank .. so yup.

[Dannyk]

many thanks, will let know how it goes
Will take advice and drop the engine
any ideas on time from start to finish? A day, 2 days?

[zimm]

good luck !

its not that tricky tbh, just be methodical ..

as to how long .. that depends how fast you work and how well you know zxr's, taking it slow, laying everything out neatly and learning as you go, maybe a day and a half (day being, say, 9 - 5) ive done one in about 4 hours (ride in/ride out), but that was on a bike i knew incredibly well, and was about the 5th time i'd done a HG on a zxr. (and i had full pro workshop facilities at the time)