www.zxrworld.co.uk

hi there i have to change the head gasket on my 1991 zxr400L
i have never done a head gasket before
Can i do the head gasket with the engine in???
and does anyone who HAS done one got a step by step video.... or have any pointers?
and it says on eBay the head gasket fits all models is this correct thank-you very much in advance

it can be done with the engine in the frame...however it is much easier with the engine out and on a bench.

whilst you are at it you might as well de-coke the piston crowns, clean up all the valves and re-lap them, clean out the intake and exhaust ports of carbon, check your chain tensioner and replace chain if necessary, check all of your rocker arms and cam lobes for wear and re-do all of your valve clearances...it will be like a new bike

its a fairly big job (if doing all the above, expect 2-3 days minimum), if you can drop the engine yourself there are guides on here about checking the valve clearances and removing the camchain, its fairly simple to remove the head after this to replace the gasket (11 bolts). im not sure about the gasket fitting all bikes, i just got it from cradley kawasaki and it fit just fine.

edit - dont be going buying a pattern part head gasket! the kawasaki original is £19, which is peanuts for such a critical part.

I did mine with my engine in, however as Banner said it is much easier with it out the bike as levering the top end out of the frame, whilst feeding the cam chain through is a fairly tricky job with one pair of hands! I ended up having a shoe lace tied to the cam chain in my mouth to stop it falling through!

I did write up a step by step for myself when I did the job, may be able to find it and scan it in for you!

Thanks to both of you… if you could find a copy I would be very very grateful it cat be to hard a job, if I muck it up there's always the zx6r convertion?

Sorry only just seen this, i'll have a look!