Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

I just bought a 2005 ZZR600 (California model, which I believe is the same as Non-US?), the guy who had it before me made it a naked bike (after beating it up first of course), so he took off all the front air boxes (up to the two tubes that go through the frame to the air filter), he also did not have an air filter in it. He had the head gasket blow on him (probably since it was running lean, and overheated), which I fixed that part, I also put in a K&N air filter. I havn't had an actual test run, just around the block at <5 mph, but it was not responding as I expected, it also hunts for idle. I know I need to sync the carbs (will do that tomorrow, hopefully), is there anything else he could have gotten to on the outside of the carbs that would screw up tuning (pilot jets maybe?). I couldn't see anything in the service manual, but I also saw screws on each carb that have a plastic almost "dog collar" looking part to them, are those the pilot jets screws, or what are they?
The real reason I am posing is to get some information. My other bike I had to rejet when I took off a piece of the intake, which made the hole to the filters twice as big (without changing the filters mind you), it is really touchy that way. Are these bikes this way too? With the above mentioned mods (No front air intake system only the air box attached to carbs, and K&N filter) do you have to rejet? Also, I am not in CA, and don't want the CA emissions stuff on the bike (just a pain to have all that crap routed everywhere and it looks bad, since I have nothing covering all the engine parts and such), so has anyone taken the emissions control stuff off? Do I need to rejet for that, or any other mods (except plugging vaccum lines and fuel evap lines, and generally plugging any hole that will be left from this removal)?
BTW, I have learned that this bike is the same thing as the late 90's ZX6R's (600cc with cam gears on the right hand side of the engine, not in the middle).
Also, what other kinds of mods (tame ones that is...) do people do to increase performance (I am still trying to get a hang of this sport bike thing, since my other bike is a Suzuki Marauder VZ800, which I have no issues doing extreme mods on it)

Thanks in advance,
Chris

1) hunting is a sign of something amiss in the carbies, i would suggest in order of likliness, needs a balance, needs the idle jets reset (they are on the bit of the carb closest to the rubber boots, standard setting on most bikes is 1.5 turns from closed) or least likely maybe an air leak, this is a possibility particularly if the revs creep up and up and he's had something go in the past.
2) The CA model is CA specific alone as far as im aware, and the non CA us model is the one that is distributed throughout Aus, which points to yours maybe being a personal/grey import from the US, the antipollution stuff can be taken off without much more than a reject. checks http://www.buykawasaki.com for bikepart info for info about the jets on the -ca model versus the non-ca model, they might be the same, but most likely they are different.

[edit] just realised you were in moscow, never mind what i said about grey imports, i have nfi how it works for you[/edit]

Thank you for the reply, since you are the only one so far... I have been doing a bit of tuning on it, first I balanced the carbs, and that helped a LITTLE, then I tried to adjust the pilot screws (that is a pain... if you have any suggestions on how to tune idle then please let me know). I have shimmed the needle and cleaned up 1/4-3/4 throttle a bit, might need to play with that some more, but I need to change out the main jets. BTW all mains are 155 for #1 & 4 and 157.5 for #2 & 3, no difference between CA and non-CA models. The only difference I have found in CA models was that the needle jet is different, so I am probably going to have to mess with those some more if I take off emissions stuff...
My biggest question now, is how big to go on the main jets, without anything from the tubes that go through the frame out and with a K&N air filter, I am sure how much is too much to too little, I guess I can experiment, just would prefer not to have to take the bike out on test runs and come back to tear it down again...
I have not checked the air leaks, but I think I am going to do that, just in case that is my issue with not being able to tune it for idle.
Thanks again, and if anyone else has any info please feel free to inject!

And yes, I am in the US, not Aus, sorry I didn't mention that before.

the idle jets work with the float levels in order to provide a good idle/off idle up to 1/4 throttle or so.

Theres a good tuning guide or two out there, me and some others have linked to it in the past when discussing tuning. It discusses working from mainjets@ WOT down through needle height then needle taper (if you have options of changing them etc, but that gets tricky) to float height and then idle mixture. Good luck.