This shouldnt happen..

[f17th]

Well I took my bike to bits at the weekend as I was refitting my Exhaust properly.
Also after having some cooling issues I decided to flush the Rad through again, and put new coolant in.

When I was doing this I took the Airbox off to get the Rad out, And I noticed that the Trumpets that sit on the carbs have melted and deformed.

See pic.



I decided to Cut the deformed bits of Plastic back and refit them onto the carbs, I haven't ridden the bike since as I was extremely hungover while doing the job on Sunday, But the Bike starts and runs ok from what I could tell.

Apparently My bike has L model Carbs on my H1 as someone rebuilt the engine a few years ago with some uprated parts, I'm not sure whats been done to it, If anything.

Also while I was fitting the Exhaust I noticed that I have a bit of an Oil leak from the Head gasket and the gasket below it, Theres just a bit of Oil seeping from these gaskets so Im not sure its worth replaceing them, Considering I was quoted about £130 just for a Gasket KIT!!!

What are your opinions on the Carb trumpets and the leaking Oil ?

Cheers in advance!

[masterofinsanity]

where's the oil leaks??

[f17th]

Yeah sorry the camera came out after cleaning up the block with a Rag :S

I have put some circles round the bolts where some oil collects.
I dont think any Oil is coming out of these bolts, because they are cylinder coolant drain holes, And it shouldnt be in there and if it was the coolant would have had loads of creamy muck in. (= Headgasket blown)
The Oil then sits on the Sump bolts, But I know this is not leaking as I replaced this a couple of months ago.

and lines where the oil is coming from the gaskets.



Ill get a pic of the block after I have a ride on it at the weekend, and show how much oil is seeping.

[rene]

iirc them 2 screws are to drain the collent from the cylindas so i dout it actualy leaking from there (unless its collent not oil)

[masterofinsanity]

iirc them 2 screws are to drain the collent from the cylindas so i dout it actualy leaking from there (unless its collent not oil)

thats what the man said

[f17th]

Thats exactly what those two screws are.
Its not leaking from there, Its just the oil seems to collect on these two screws and drip down.


Do you know if theres anywhere else I could get a cheaper gasket kit from ?

How hard is it to do the head gasket and the one below it ? Could someone do it with not a lot of mechanical knowledge ? I dont use the bike for commuting so wouldnt be that much of a pain to take the engine out over the winter.

Any Idea on the Plastic trumpet things ? Do you know if this is going to cause a problem to my bike ?

How could I tell if it has L or H model Carbs fitted ?
If it does have L model carbs Can I fit L model trumpets onto those carbs with a H model Airbox ?

Sorry for all the questions.

[masterofinsanity]

who the hell quoted you £130 for a gasket kit?? phone cradley and ask them for a head gasket, the kit probably included all engine cover gaskets, exhaust gaskets, rocker cover gasket etc etc.

changing the head gasket is easy enuff its making sure the head is ok and not warped t'is the worrying thing and you are better off getting someone to check and skim if needed.

as for the trumpets i'd say you are getting a lot of backfiring through the carbs to melt them like that so bike is running too rich and/or you have fuelling/ignition problems or someone has melted them previously and stuck them on your bike???

[zimm]

the trumpets havent melted, they've been crammed on by someone with no sense.

the carbs then get hot and the rubber deforms permanently to the new shape ..

misshapen trumpets will cause flatspots .. pet hate of mine as once deformed they are near impossible to get back to spec ..

best way is to pop them out of the airbox, heat them up till they go soft again with a hair-drier and stick them back on the carbs (ommitting airbox) leave them till the cool and they'll go hard again, and be the right shape. then *carefully* reinsert them into the airbox, and re-assemble... its a sod of a job though .. normally end up trimming them down a little bit, but try to remove as little as possible.

[zimm]

as for the oil, its not head-gasket, its the drain holes from the sparkplug well's, nowt to worry about.

[zimm]

oh, if its got L carbs on an H1, it *may* have incorrect inlet stubs (between carb and head) check to see if the internal diameter of the stub matches that of the carb body, if it doesnt (and many dont quite match due to the rubber shrinking a tad anyway) you can safely grind the offending material off the inlet stub with a dremel to match it up to the carb.... take stub off head first though, or you'll get gak in the head

[f17th]

I'm gonna have to buy new trumpets now anyhow because I have probably trimmed far too much off them.
But from looking at the pic can you tell if they are H or L Carbs or are the differences very subtle?

My brother was saying that I could probably do away with an air box and just fit individual air filters / sock to the carbs, If so does anyone do these? as I looked on M&P website and they dont even list replacement panel filter.

[zimm]

differences between L and H carbs are very subtle (and internal)... its mainly different jets/needles although the ZX-4 (1988) had 1mm smaller carbs, and the H1 may have been the same, its possible the slide springs are a different strength too .. basically the differences are to tune them to match the airbox

I've got L4 carbs/inlet stubs on a ZX-4 (which is essentially an H1 but with a bigger airbox and the smaller carbs) and it took quite a bit of arsing about with needles/needle heights/jets to get it to pull well through the midrange and still be good up top, ended up with stock jets and ZX-4 needles (have steps in them rather than being a smooth taper) raised up a bit IIRC as the L needles were either ok in the midrange then weak at the top, or rich everywhere except full throttle above 10,000rpm.

leave the airbox on and stick a decent condition filter, either original kawasaki or pipercross, they perform the same (i have both on diff bikes) but pipercross is easier to clean out..

If you take the airbox off or remove the filter, the bike will need re-jetting or it wont pull at all.. dont be tempted to pull the snorkel intake thing off the top of the box either, it'll have the same (negative) effect, same with individual filters (have that issue on my 400/600)

[f17th]

Cheers for all the Info.

I'll run the bike at the weekend and see if there are any flat spots that have become noticble since cutting down the trumpets.
And then look into having it re-jetted if need be.

I remeber seeing some Pipercross filters for sale for the H, But now looking I cant find them anywhere.
Can anyone point me in the right direction.

[zxr_lover]

Cheers for all the Info.

I'll run the bike at the weekend and see if there are any flat spots that have become noticble since cutting down the trumpets.
And then look into having it re-jetted if need be.

I remeber seeing some Pipercross filters for sale for the H, But now looking I cant find them anywhere.
Can anyone point me in the right direction.

Yeah i'm the same mate, have been looking for an h1 air filter as i recently bought a zxr4 and when i took the airbox apart it had no air filter at all for some reason. Don't know what it'll do to it's performance when i re-fit it.

Anyhoo i got one ordered from: http://www.cradleykawasaki.co.uk/
Just phoned them and got one sent that day, mayby they can send you in the right direction for your pipercross or they may even have some in stock...

I should have had it by now if weren't for those lazy postal workers. :smt013