ZXR400H with cooling probs!

[vodkalex]

Help!!! new to the ZXR400 scene, love my bike, but havin probs with the cooling system! Keeps losing coolant out of the overflow, and im sure its burning off coolant as well. Took it to a mechanic, who flushed the system, put a new cap on the rad and took it up to operating temp (he says!) but took it home and within a day, coolant was bubbling in the overflow and bike was real hot. Someone in the past fitted a manual switch to the bike, which wasnt working, replaced the switch and fan comes on now. But am at a loss!

[zimm]

hi,

if the fan is cutting in ok, and it runs fine apart from pissing coolant all over the place after just a short run, its the head-gasket.

its not a MASSIVE job, but garages will try to charge a fortune in labour.

[vodkalex]

Cheers Zimm! shit, thought it might be that. Any ideas on what i might have to pay for a head gasket change?

[zimm]

no idea, i do them myself..

the gasket's are only about £20, then there's skimming the head if it needs it ... its about 1-2 days labour depending on how competent the mechanic is with zxr's. (so whatever 8-15 time's their hourly rate is i guess) It takes me a full day to do from start to finish... you could reduce the bill by pulling the engine out and just taking that along to the garage.. as a fair whack of the labour is taking the engine out and putting it back in. Give you a chance to clean everything up :)

You can do it without removing the engine, but most places dont seem to believe that. And it's not much quicker, just less lifting ..

where are you located ?

[vodkalex]

Thanks again mate,

Yeah was thinking about doin it myself too, was gonna take it into a garage for them to have a look and see if it is head gasket, and then try and tackle it. The leak just seems to be coming out from the thermostat housing, so could be something there as well.
Frustrating as i wanna get this bike goin. Great fun for a miles ride, haha

I'm London based BTW.

[zimm]

pdf'd manuals

http://www.zxrworld.co.uk/zxr400/hmodel.html

they are simple enough engine's to work on, just be methodical,

probably worth fitting a new camchain whilst you are in there, and dont believe the manuals when they say you have to split the cases to change the camchain, you dont. A lot of folk will tell you to grind away part of the lower case to gain the required clearance to get the chain off the crank sprocket, but you dont.. i've done half a dozen zxr's without either splitting the cases or grinding away at parts of the engine.

also, if you omit the base gasket (seal block to cases with a smear of silicon) you gain a touch of compression quite safely (piston/valve clearance still plenty).

i'd do it for you, but im in south wales .. LOL

[vodkalex]

Yeah, i reckon thats the best option, thanks so much for yer help Zimm, Pity your so far, as your help would be much appreciated, but will give a go. Was wondering where you get yer spares from?? i was thinking about here.
http://www.cmsnl.com/kawasaki-1990-h2-z ... partslist/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[zimm]

i get stuff from http://www.cradleykawasaki.co.uk/ they are pretty good at understanding what "yeh, the small, yeh, round, on the ? got it" means and normally have stuff in stock.

the zxrworld.co.uk forum is full of helpful hints/threads :)

[vodkalex]

NIce one Zimm. Will check em out. Putting the bike into a garage tomorrow to let them diagnose the problem then will fix it myself. Will let you know how its goin mate.

[vodkalex]

Yo Zimm! just got a call from the Garage sayin basically that the bikes in a bad way, downpipes are badly rusted and carbs are unbalanced, advised me to just run it until it dies and sell it for spares. Not really what i wanna do so am gonna try and do this over time. They didnt go down the coolant leak area which is around the thermostat area, which would have cost me loads of labour. What dya reckon mate?