New member in slough/windsor area

[less_like_you]

Hello all you ZXR lovers out there! I have seen some very nice bikes on here!

I have recently brought myself a ZXR400 L3 K plate two weeks ago for £500 from a friend, Was originally the black and purple looking model, (Ebony and Eventide) Which at some stage had been sprayed (Rather Poorly) all black. 18,783 miles on her, Mots and history to back up. I do not know if it has had any engine mods or a dynojet kit or anything but she is pretty quick 142mph, I do not know wether it is a jap model with uk clocks or a uk model, CDI is bound to be UK spec, Uk 160mph clocks.. Has a K and N panel filter and a Remus innovation end can.

I am currently respraying her in Kawasaki Lime green, I brought the paint from halfords they do have a paint code for it, its G979 be firm if they say they don't sell motorbike paint because they most certainly did sell me the paint.

Polished up the rims nicely last night, they look gorgeous! Going to spray the centres Ford Focus St Orange

Slowly coming together..

Unfortunately noticed my engine is covered in oil yesterday, would have been like it since i picked it up i would have thought, slight oil leak from somewhere, which I will investigate further...

As far as I am aware the cam chain has never been changed nor has the tensioner or head gasket... So i am hoping to have my engine fully rebuilt anytime between now and february, I do not wish to carry out the work myself, But who knows, nearer the time, I may just go for it...

Once I have finished my spray job, I will get some pics uploaded.

Now not using halfords Holts paint, Going to be using Max Meyor Paint mixed up by my local motorist discount centre.

Hope to make some new friends, gain some knowledge, and hopefully find out this damn leak isn't serious lol

Stuart or Stu whichever you prefer.

[RedexRobB]

hello and welcome to the forum stuart.

find out where the leak is, if its the front of the engine thats covered its likely to be the holes just under the exhaust pipes. They let water oil etc through from the spark plug wells, oil coming out is an indication that the seals have gone around the plug well tops.

Keep us posted

Rob

[cameron]

Could be the gasket on the rocker covers leaking oil?
Just done the cam chain on mine, not too difficult tbh, there's a good guide on here on how to do it.

[less_like_you]

Hey RedexRobB Thank you for the warm welcome, And thank you Cameron for the advice...

Feeling kind of happy and upset and disapointed right now, So very mixed feelings, The good news is i sprayed up some more of my panels green, they look nice, The bad news is the front fairing picked up a stone chip just below the headlight, so in a rush (Like a fool) I tried scotching it down and spraying the area, then didn't like the finish, Rushed some more, sanded that down slightly, and tried to respray again and ruined what was a good paint job, I felt so stressed when i messed it up, So did the best i could and resprayed it.

The finish is slightly uneven now, where as before it was smooth, main thing is its mostly green now and i can always redo it when funds are better, I am much happier that it is green now and not black.

Now for the worst news!

I washed the bike and cleaned up the engine, Left it running for 20 minutes to see where the leak is coming from, its coming from the head, Slow leak... I check the oil regularly and top it up and its clean and doesn't look milky, checked the coolant and under the rad cap etc and its very much clean green coolant... :S

So now I am thinking of doing / having a full engine rebuild done... I feel I can do it myself but would much rather someone else with experience do it...

Any thoughts or advice are very much appreciated and very welcome

Thanks to all

Stu

[RedexRobB]

Can you get a picture of where the oil is coming from? Are you sure its not from where i suggested?

How is it running temperature wise?

[cargo]

Be very certain of exactly where your oil leak is coming from Rob is correct..................

[less_like_you]

Defintately coming from the head... Have cleaned the engine up very well and left it running, And observed closely after leaving it running for 10 minutes the oil was slowly building up and started running down from the headgasket joining area... 100% certain.

Temp wise its ok when being ridden, stays low, at slow speeds its around the middle, on sitting it will go up towards the red and the fan cuts in and brings it back down, Not losing any coolant... Seems to be a noticable lack of power higher up in 5th and 6th towards top end, has lost a bit of poke, so to speak... 2 days ago i had a problem getting her to rev over 4k rpm and it took alot of me holding her open at 4k and slowly easing on and off the throttle to get her to rev up to 6 then 8 and so on.. After 10 minutes she was running fine and i took her out and hasn't done it since, Just sounded a bit groggy occasionally...

Thank you for your message cargo, Nice to meet you by the way I have read a fair few of your posts and i can see you know your stuff

Ordered a head gasket, cam chain, oil filter and pulsing cover gasket from cradley's today, Hoping to take the engine out of the bike and strip it down sometime next week, Bit of a rattle from the engine around 4 - 5k rpm sounds like its the cam chain, Someone said to me today, the tensioner may need replacing, and or the cam chain guides... I won't know untill i get it apart...

Something i really wish to know is, Regarding replacing the cam chain, As i have ordered an endless link chain from cradleys, and I only want to rebuild from the head upwards, How would i go about fitting the chain, From what i understand, I can disconnect the old chain, Reconnect the new chain and feed it through, and reconnect the new chain once the old chain is free of the engine so to speak, But as far as i know so far there isn't a chain link available for this oem chain... But i am sure i have read somewhere that somebody has used this method.. With a chain from cradley's? I would really appreciate some input and advice on this if possible please.

I will try and keep questions to a minimum.

Thanks in advance.

And thanks for your interest.

Oh Also before i hit submit, I am thinking of removing the base gasket altogether to increase compression...

If i am going to go ahead and make any clear mistakes please advice me.

Stuart.

[less_like_you]

Rebuild went well, Replaced cam chain easily, Just slipped it down and over the cog at the bottom...

My engines inlet cam was already retarded by 1 tooth, which i planned on doing, so just put it back together as it was (Increases midrange)...

I cleaned and degreased what i could, put it all back together, to find, That my head needed skimming... So...

Took my head into my local engineering place, Look them up on google, HT Howards

Head is only in need of a light skim, which is good news.... But along came some bad news, Upon vacuum testing, it was found that I had two bent inlet valves... So have ordered 16 new valve stem seals and 2 new inlet valves, Totalling £100 from cradleys, Plus another new head gasket at £20 So £120 on parts for now, Head skim is £40 strip clean and rebuild of valves etc is £70 and vacuum testing is £20... So £150 on labour... £270 spent on the top end refresh so far, Have removed base gasket as well...

Should run like a dream, I am really excited and looking forward to having my head back and getting her back on the road hopefully will all be done by monday Gonna stick some fresh NGK Iridium CR9IEX plugs in, I resprayed The rocker cover in Gloss black, Looks nice Put her all back together and woop woop My 19000 Mile engine has had a full top end refresh

After that i will Fit some braided front brake lines and some EBC pads

Ahh shes costly but I love my bike! A bonus being she doesn't answer back, Although she does like to scream