water pump.
for those who have this issue or similar issue, you have to remove the engine. Leave the coolant in it, pull the motor, put it on the bench with the crankshaft facing downwards, I like to use a couple 5x5 blocks to hold the motor up yet still be able to see the bottom. Wipe it off the best you can. Then grab your cooling sytsem pressure test kit and pressurize the radiator to about 15 psi. Your leak will show up; wherever it is. As said, usually water pump if it's leaking up by the muffler area. If you have to replace it, replace the whole thing. The new style pump has different seals and is built better overall. It is not obvious by looking at it but Kawasaki DID update it. When you have the old one out look at the gear, if the gear is damaged in any way, pull the pan and inspect the cam gear. It, too, is plastic and the other posters have already addressed that. Replace it with a metal one; also replace the crank spur gear. They have to be replaced as a set because the plastic cam spur gear and the metal spur gear are cut a little differently and they will whine LOUDLY if they are not replaced together (I found this out the hard way). Also you will get metal filings in the oil unless both are replaced at the same time. Replacing the spur gear means removing the crankshaft unless you have a puller that will do it while in the engine, and while you "can" remove the crank without removing the heads, it's a LOT easier (less frustrating) to just pull the heads and replace both head gaskets and intake gaskets too, since those, too, have been updated. Once the repairs are made, DO NOT refill it with that pink garbage coolant use green stuff only 50/50 mix.
