Edwin's - 1975 Kawasaki Z1B Engine Build

A thing of beauty

There's nothing better than completing a fresh engine rebuild. When the wait for parts is over, the machining, assembly and wiring has been done and everything's been buttoned up tight. That's what we're looking at here. A freshly rebuilt 1975 Z1B motor that's ready to rumble. Let's walk you through the process.

While not the worst engine we've ever seen, we knew this diamond in the rough was going to require a little bit of polishing.

Maybe a lot of polishing...

Yikes!

What have we gotten ourselves into?

After breaking it the rest of the way down, a quick trip to the vapor honing cabinet got our parts back to pristine condition and we could move forward.

Heads are looking like new! We're going to be rebuilding them with stainless steel valves after resurfacing.

After being resurfaced and bored from 903cc to 1015cc we installed a Wiseco piston kit.

Here the heads are being reassembled using a new cam chain and guide, cam bearings top and bottom, chain dampeners and a new cam chain idler damper.

Here we're installing the rebuilt crank shaft using all new bearings and seals.

Here we're installing the Dyna S ignition before final assembly.

Now that final assembly is complete, we can check out this before and after shot.

Build sheet:

• Wiseco 1015cc piston kit
• Rebuilt crank shaft
• Complete valve job
• Bore and honed cylinders
• Valve guide service
• Resurfaced head and cylinders
• Vapor honing of externals
• New kick start