I would expect 70000 miles on the street- as long as you have oil in the motor, I do not see how this bottom end would be any different than a gixxer motor. Especially since she is a heavy ass pig, your not getting any oil starvation from wheeling the bike- I have 3 of these things, and have never had a motor issue 'yet'.

 

96-01 models?

 

Really? Just ride it!

 

70k...damn that makes me feel better with my project (i got it with a lot of parts missing and mileage is unknown-assuming around 20-25 somthing)

what do you mean by: "many people do the ZX9 "P" vin motor"-are some of us better off if we have a p in the vin number?

 

I think he is refering to 94-7 zx9 motor, versus 98-02 zx9 motor, which seems to not fit-

 

96-01 models? If you questioning that I have 3 of these bikes, then the answer is yes- actually its 96-03- I have a 96 zx7rr- 01 zx7r, 02zx7r- and an older gsxr.

 

WOW!! can I come droool in your garage?????

You are the input I needed... Thanks....

 

the thing you need to remember is those modern 600's are nearly totalled falling over in the drive way- your 7 is the last of the bikes that can take a hit, and keep on going- everything else requires frame savers, and even those are not saving the yamaha r6- when that falls over and hits the frame saver, it collapses the water jacket between 2&3 cylinders- there is a limit to this light weight fascination that every one is chasing- almost every manufacturers wheels disintegrate when they hit the ground, the rim seperates from the spokes, I love how suzuki, drills these areas out, so they snap even easier- fuel injection is wonderful, even a badly injected bike, runs better than our carburated monsters-what you should strive for when your being attacked by the modern machinery, - usually the pilots cannot even remotely use the power they have access to- mean while you have the perfect amount of power vs chassis, and definitely have more controll/traction than they could ever hope for- your welcome to come drool any time your out west-

 

ALL very valid points!! I have watched time after time of low inpact crashes damn near total new 600 FI bikes... My Kawasaki Heavy Industries can for sure take a licking and keep on ticking!!

It's gonna be a LONG COLD winter up here in the mid west.. Hope I can call on your experiance from time to time!!

 

/\ /\ /\ /\...yea dave is great, especially on kawiforums-glad to see you finally transfer over

 

thank you for your kind words-twenty-always willing to help Kaw-

 

I got a 91 zx7r with 64XXX kms on it and seems to be running strong still. Cracking the motor open soon here to see how the inside looks. Always redlines and still wheelies haha.

 

not sure if it relates but I owned an 88 zx750r and it had 40k on the clock and still ran like day 1, would still bring the front up even as the pig it was.

Smoked my fathers 1500 vulcan, and turned him from a hater to wanting me to let him on the zx6r I bought haha.

 

I opened my 94 zx7 up with 48,000 miles....the only really "worn" area was the crank thurst surface on the upper engine case...I bored it out 2mm over, put new rod bearings in it and ran it. I was toward the bottom of kawi's available valve shims when I sold it will 55K.

I'd replaced a fuel pump, and wheel bearings once....and rotted out the yoshi muffler enough to replace it. Fork seals once. a few chains etc...

 

The question arose from a conversation that took place with a friend of mine who had a 96 he did the ZX9 conversion in... He got tired of rebuilding the 7 bottom end all the time... He found out the 96 and above bottom end was re engineered and it became a failure point... prior to 96 the 7 was bulletproof.... It was his opinion on the 96 till end 7's had lower end issues... this was why I asked the question... My new concern is I just replaced the timing chain adjuster... I just found it MAY be a ZX9 adjuster I installed???? The bike seems to run fine, but I foresee a possible need to replace timing chain and guides soon... I have 38K+ on it now... If I can make money right I may drop the engine down, split the cases and freshen the whole motor up?? I will look into a big bore kit also.... Anyone have spare money tree seeds??

 

Dave had a point earlier....in the interest of "reducing", the newer bikes are less than durable. Smaller bearings for less frictional drag...but they wear faster and can't handle as much load. Lighter wheels that bend easily, frames that crack tipping over in a driveway, rotors warp on the track if you are fast enough.....uugghhh.

The 97 I have now has 25K on it. It had a rod knock....but I think the guy was into wheelies....endo's and wheelies are bad for oil delivery.

My 98-02 zx6rs has been mixed...of the three, the first one acted like it was getting old with only 13K on it. My current one has had 3000 miles on the track and with 12,000 on the clock is still outrunning newer machines.

 

this is nice to know my 99 has about 18k on it so looks like i got alot of riding left to do

 

I'm surprised that masta_squidge hasn't inserted his opinion here yet.. I recall someone replacing the 96+ bottom ends with the 93-95 bottom ends and I also think they had to swap the head or the jugs as well due to the longer stroke of the L models. I'm open to correction if I'm wrong :crazyloco

On the note of newer 600's beating you - Look into different sprocket gearings, 520/525 chain conversion, jet kits, titanium valve springs, cams, ignition advancer, exhaust, a 783cc(??) bore kit or a bigger bore kit if you don't care about the true displacement of the 7. If you really are serious about beating those 600's, you could do some research on the engine displacement and fabricating a turbo for the 7 and determine what the best route is to get the best power-weight ratio.

 

I'm surprised that masta_squidge hasn't inserted his opinion here yet.. I recall someone replacing the 96+ bottom ends with the 93-95 bottom ends and I also think they had to swap the head or the jugs as well due to the longer stroke of the L models. I'm open to correction if I'm wrong :crazyloco

On the note of newer 600's beating you - Look into different sprocket gearings, 520/525 chain conversion, jet kits, titanium valve springs, cams, ignition advancer, exhaust, a 783cc(??) bore kit or a bigger bore kit if you don't care about the true displacement of the 7. If you really are serious about beating those 600's, you could do some research on the engine displacement and fabricating a turbo for the 7 and determine what the best route is to get the best power-weight ratio.

I don't think masta is into digging up 4 year old threads to voice his opinion.
Maybe now he will.:lol

 

Not sure who told you that the bottom end was so bad in the P models but from my experience, they are wrong. I have a 96 7R (110,000km/66,000mi) and a 96 7RR for the track only (approx.45,000km/27,000mi) and never had one issue with the motors beyond basic maintenance.:headscratch

 

<input>

I have 51k miles on my 7R. It runs rich as hell down low, I am pretty sure it has not had a valve adjustment - ever, and I changed the oil once this year, thats with putting 14k miles on it total.

And it still starts and runs.

Every.
Single.
Time.

In fact I just bought some gear to go for a ride New Years day with some people.

</input>

 

I don't go out of my way to find old threads. If I dredge it up on google I check the date first, if it's 15 pages back on here... I don't bother looking at it.

 

:crackup i was only looking at the information not the age of the information.. dont flame mehno:violent

 

I had about 60,000 km on my '96 before I sold it last fall. It was a really strong motor. I had the opportunity to have an impromptu "roll-on threw the gears race" with two newer 600s last summer and I had no problem slowly moving on them both. But my bike is 75 lbs lighter than a stock zx7r and I'm 160 lbs. It wheelied very easily on the throttle with stock gearing and had no trouble running the advanced group at any track day, so you really don't need to worry about these bikes, as long as they are set-up. That means dropping weight off them and replacing the rear shock, if you want to run track days or even race one. These bikes can be made competitive on a track with a little work.

I miss that bike more than any of the other countless bikes I've owned. It just seemed to have a personality, a look, and something about how it handled.

 

im sure a stupid person could blow any motor, also if looked after 7 motors will run to 80k without drama. change the oil. dont cain it when its cold and just enjoy the miles going by.

 

I believe it was Performance magazine that picked up an 04/05 zx10 that had a little over 40,000 miles on it with not a single oil change done to it. They threw it on the dyno and it made the same power as a stock bike. So it would be extremely difficult to damage these Japanese motors in stock trim.

 

51,000 miles and counting on my 03 (47,000 of them mine) and she dances on the back wheel every time we're out. (Stock gearing and original clutch) You can ride em hard without abusing them. I've done the valve check twice now and it needed no adjustment - probably will need a shim or two this next time. She really seems to love the Mobile 1. I'll do the clutch fairly soon just as a matter of maintenance - not because it's giving me problems. I'll ride this bike till one of us doesn't work anymore.