Warning ! Low oil pressure caused by defective O-ring !

This was first reported by Justin Lassy on Terry Hayden’s website (see “Links”):

“If anybody has ever had their oil pan off, they saw a bunch of metal plumbing… all these are oil feed lines. One portion is of concern… there is a feed line that comes off up near the oil filter then eventually splits off into four smaller tubes. (All of this tubing is removable, and is simply held in by the oil pan and O-ring). Almost every time I have had a V-Max motor apart, an orange O-ring has been partially blown out of this plumbing. This means poor oil pressure or at least less than it ought to be. One of the motors had a blown transmission, the other had a *massive* rod failure (had to replace a couple of rods, cases, etc… a $5.5k repair). PCW has found a special seal made by Kawasaki to help rectify this problem. I have the part on order and will report how it works as soon as I get a chance.”

The problem is due to two reasons – 1. The hole where the O-ring on the oil gallery pipe is seated is too shallow. 2. The rubber spacer that sits between the pipe and the oil pan is too soft.

The first problem can’t be a 100% solved but you can compress the tip of the tube slightly to make the o-ring seat deeper inside the hole. It’s a good idea to install a fresh o-ring while doing this, especially if the old one looks even slightly damaged. The second problem is fixed by manufacturing a harder material spacer that won’t compress and thereby ensure that the pipe stays in place. Make sure you get get the right measurements to make the spacer thick enough to keep the pipe snugly in place without putting too much pressure.

To date (01-06-25) this problem has been found on five out of five bikes in our club that checked. Different year models and origins (Canada, US and Europe)

If you don’t want to open up your oil pan to check you can mount an oil pressure gauge instead.