pete roper

Oh for f@cks sake!!! Look youse blokes, if a rear main seal goes it's like the bloody Exon Valdez, pints of oil everywhere in minutes!!!! I can't believe that even if your local dealer is a complete cretin that he doesn't know that Guzzi rear main seals very, very rarely blow unless the sump is grossly overfilled. In fact it is one of the few things that the *modern* motors do even less than the old ones!!!!! While it may disapoint some of of our more naieve posters the basic Guzzi donk is exactly the same in all real respects as the venerable V700 of 1967 and oil leaks cone from the same places! 1.) Almost always leaks from the bell housing can be traced back to the breather hose that comes off the pipe from the top of the bell housing. Guzzi, for expediency clamp this with a shitty clamp like the sort of thing that they use for ringing birds! they also use really crap hose that tends to perish quickly and crack. When the clamp loosens or the hose cracks or collapses the hose leaks, it then runs down through the hole the pipe pokes through, through the bell housing and dribbles out of the drain slot and people who should know better say, "Uh! You've got a blown rear mainseal mate! That'll cost you a zillion dollars to fix!". If you're lucky while they are pulling the old tart apart they'll notice the pipe is a bit ordianary and replace it and then the leak will be fixed. If not then the leak will recurr within a few days, you'll get the sh!ts, the dealer will get the sh!ts with you, you'll sell the bike and then spend the rest of your life saying Guzzis are awful sh!theaps. Simply replace the hose first, make sure the ball valve is there and not gummed up and use decent clamps to secure it. 2.) If that doesn't work there are a couple of other areas prone to leakage. a.) The cam end welch plug. Solution? Clean it with carb cleaner and slather it in epoxy. b.) The two bottom bolts of the rear main bearing housing aren't in blind holes. They should be sealed with Loctite and, if you're paranoid, (Who? Me?) PTFE tape. Finally you may be unlucky enough to have a porous rear main bearing flange but this is stupidly rare! 3.) Sniff the oil. If it is gear oil chances are it's creeping up the clutch thrust pushrod because the seals have hardened. Offhand I can't say if the V11's use the same seals (But I'd bet London to a Brick they do!) as the older 5 speeds but these are notoriously leak prone, (Funnily enough mine never leak, I don't know why? I'm not a magician?).Replace them? Problem goes away! Look, obviously I can't say definitively that you haven't got a blown rear main seal but if it were my bike I'd certainl;y replace the breather hose and, if suspected, the clutch pushrod seals, before pulling the motor out. No, I'm not trying to be smart but I've been working on these things for twenty five years and the only blown mainseals I've seen are on bikes that have sat idle for a few years or have been grossly overfilled with oil. Oh and the odd one that had been owned by the sort of moron who's idea of preventative maintenance is to bounce up and down on the seat and as long as the rims don't rub on the road? Well, it's fit to go!!!! Always think *easy*! It's a Moto Guzzi for God's sakes!!!!! Put petrol in it and ride it till it stops!!!!! Pete

Stiffhead? Nice Look, I'm a carburetor sort of bloke as you're probably aware. I like 'em, even a mouth breather like me can make 'em work. What i can say is that I've ridden Cliff's Sport Corsa with his earlier itteration of his 'pooter that was built to replace the excrable 16M. All I can say is that it's awesome, jaw-droppingly, wonderfull! OK so it's Cliff's own bike and he's spent a lot of time setting it up but it's power delivery is flawless, (OK, he was still pissing and moaning about it but I thought it was flawless!) right from idle to WAY too bloody fast!!! No, hiccups, flat spots, etc. Just twist the handle and watch the horizon come towards you at an indecently rapid rate of knots!!!!! Cliff can explain it all, as I said, I'm a bonehead when it comes to FI. The thing is it's a complete replacement ECU and it can now be run closed loop if required. Compared to the other options, flashloaded programs from AM suppliers, (Haven't found one I like for the 15M yet.) or a PC III, which I know work and people are happy with but I don't like the idea of stacking a box on another box, if you see what I mean, Cliff's unit is streets ahead. Yes, he's a small operator a long way away, but all the folks I've spoken to who have bought and used his product are very impressed with the level of after sales service he provides and are more than happy with the product. You know where to send the xheque Cliff Pete

The grease pot at Mandello has an almost mythical status, a bit like the Unicorn . Not only does that bearing rarely have any grease in it it also has a nice little hole to allow water in through the inner bearing race I dunno if my little schpiel on stripping a bevelbox is still available on this site? If it is the pics there show you the various bits and pieces. Incidentally, if it *is* stored somewhere could somebody e-mail it back to me or to the Guzzitech site as I think it's probably worth keeping even though most people are a bit confused by the chicken. pete

What makes this so enraging is that there ARE good dealers out there, but if your dealer is a complete dipshit, and there are lots of those around, it means you can't get ANY information at all. This is insane Pete

I'd love to be able to give suggestions as to what to fit. Unfortunately I can't. I have very little to do with the newer bikes, not because I don't want to, simply because there aren't very many around here. NSW has always been a Guzzi wasteland and while the official dealers don't grease splines, *forget* to reinstall the clamp bolts for the oil galleries on Calis, refuse to admit that safety recalls exist and then claim to of performed the work while not having done so and seem unwilling to do, or supply for, warranty claims I'd say there is very little chance of there being many more of them around If I don't get to look at them I can't either try and find sources of the *Good S#it* or try to fathom out why bits are going tits-up in the first place. If you look at my *profile* you'll see I own 'Lots of old shite', the reason for this is because it does everything I want so I'm not in the market for a *new* Guzzi, or any other brand for that matter. I'm very interested in, and want the company to do well and have many happy customers and I'll always try and give help and suggestions where I can. I won't though try and give advice on stuff I know very little or nothing about. The likes of Paul are going to be far more helpful to you here than I am, sorry. Pete

The Tonti frame single plate clutch failures are all down to the friction material disitegrating rather than the flywheel itself. I've just heard of the first Scura clutch I've heard of disintegrating in Oz on a bloke down in Melbourne's bike. Yucky! Anyway, the earlier pic posted is of one of the aftermarket alluminium flywheels of the *conventional* design which are an alternative to the RAM unit for people with the older style clutch who want to shed some weight from the flywheel assembley. To be honest I have no qualms about recommending thes to people as I've not had one fail, and I've installed a good few of them. Notice that it also comes with a different thrust cup, this is because the actual *Back* of the wheel is thicker where it bolts to the crank so the whole clutch is moved towards the gearbox. The thrust cup has been machined to compensate so the pushrod doesn't come back too far to be adjusted properly on the arm at the back of the box. I know this isn't strictly relevant to this thread but it is probably usefull in clearing up misunderstandings over what is what. I know that many people swear by the RAM clutches, I've installed a few and I always think that the way they carry their weight right out away from the axis of rotation must negate some of the benefits they claim. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they are a bad product at all, simply that as a one-eyed traditionalist I can't see anything really wrong with the earlier system. Having said that I do know that Guzzi had to do something about improving the clamping force of the clutches on the V11 series as the old design was begining to show signs of having reached it's limits of endurance, even in it's final 10 spring itteration as used on the Centauro, 100 Sport and Daytonas. I think if I owned a Scura I'd be replacing the stock unit as a precaution. It's important to remember that none of the alluminium wheels are designed to use any sort of friction washer between the bolt heads and the wheel itself. Flat washers should be used to spread the load but using schnoores tends to damage the alloy resulting in stress raisers being started. On all the alloy wheels I've installed I use 1.0 bolts with flat washers and some loctite 243 to keep 'em still. Remember, it isn't the bolts that drive the flywheel, it's friction between the back of the wheel and the end of the crank, all the bolts do is give the clamping force. If they are loose they will not only damahe the wheel as it rattles around but they will shear in very short order if large loads are applied. HT bolts are designed to work in TENSION, (oddly enough ) not in shear. They don't like that at all!!!! Pete

Hmmm, this seems to be yet another example of the cretinism exhibited by the engineers during the Aprilia years. For others see the clutch wear problems on sigle plate Calis and the hydrauilic lifter fiasco which should NEVER, EVER of happened. The tale is that Mr. Aprilia, (Wossisname???) sacked the whole sorry bunch of 'em after this series of disasters but who can tell? I've always been of the opinion that guzzi engineering is bloody good. What has in the past let the side down is the bean-counters trying to save $20 on a bike and buying inferior crap from outside suppliers. I sincerely hope that this is still the case and the engineering is sound but I have my doubts. Put it this way, If and when i get a V11 the first thing I'll do is strip it to the last nut and bolt and go through it with a fine-tooth comb. I'll crack test everything and since i've always fancied a scurra the clutch would be junked and I'd make something I could trust . I'm sure i could find something reliable of some shitbox Toyota I could adapt Pete

Sorry, no they won't. The 1100's have a larger crankpin for starters. If they are nice and cheap though you can buy them and sell 'em to me How much is your *mate* asking??? Pete

The flickering oil light is the bikes way of telling you it's destroying it's big ends. If you have a look at the blurb I wrote about windage trays you'll see why. As for the twin plugging how did you modify the advance curve to suit? Pete

When the V11's start turning up crashed, burnt, broken or otherwise munted by mouthbreathers I'll pick one up, prefferably an early short spine model. Then I'll put thinner tyres on it bugger around with one of Cliff's computers and try hot-rodding it. Then I'll get bored and find an old Centaro motor and I'll start making Paul's life insufferable by nagging and whining at him until he sells me all the shit I need to build a copy of his six speed Daytona. Then I'll either get caught going way to fast and be sent to gaol with the Judge describing me as a 'Senile delinquent' or I'll crash it and spend the rest of my life sucking pap through a tube in an intensive care facility! Honestly, I really like the V11's but I honestly don't need one and can't see a time in the immediate future when I will. If I get the opportunity I love messing about with them but they are still few and far between here in NSW. I'll gladly try and help owner of them if I can but own one????? Pete

Had a visit today from a new Ballabio owner. we went over his bike and finished off the Pre-Delivery which hadn't been done by the vending shop . Anyway, among other things the sump wasn't removed at the 1st service so come 5,000kms he's bringing it back and we'll pull it off, along with the spacer. I'll have a squizz at Jason's pics and do some preliminary planning but having a 'Broad Sump' engine in I can pull the bottom off should make it much easier to organize straightof the bat without faffing around and modifying things several times. I informed him about this site, he should hook up soon, he's looking for advice on different screens/ fairings for the Ballabio as he hates the standard one. Pete

Thanks mate, I've got to go to Melbourne today to shovel a couple of old Tonti shitheaps into my trailer to drag 'em back up here for work so i won't get a chance tio have a look until tomorrow night. After that I'll print out copies of what I need and you can whip 'em down if yuou like. I'll give you a hoy when I'm done. Many thanks. Pete

Look, has anyone had or are they going to be, taking the sump off their bikes soon? If so could they also be persuaded to remove the intermediate spacer and take some photo's and send 'em to me? I'm pretty sure that designing a windage tray for the V11's will be fairly simple but I'm loath to do one on spec. The shop I use for lazer-cutting the plates I make for earlier models can easily produce them for me, the *basic* design will be very similar to the early ones but I need to know if there is anything that sticks up or down through the plane of the bottom of the crankcase. If not I can probably get a prototype cut for Enzo next week. Pete

OK, here y'go; ************************** Firstly it is important to realize that what goes on inside your engine is happening FAST. When the engine is spinning at 6000RPM the crank is whizzing round 100 times a second, the pistons are flashing up and down at the same rate and the valves are opening and closing at only half that speed. If you want to have a look at it so you can get some idea it is perfectly OK to take the rocker cover off your engine when it's warm and start it briefly, give the throttle a twist and see what the valvegear is doing. It'll spray a bit of oil out but you only need to do it for a second or two and it is quite impressive to see how fast everything is happening! Now imagine what is happening inside the crankcase! Top engine shops have the test beds to run motors with the sump off. Oil is fed to the pump and then plumbed to the main delivery galleries and the engine can be run and the internals exposed and *frozen* with a strobe to examine the way oil is thrown off the crank and other parts of the motor. If one does this it is quite impressive to see. The crank looks like a whopping great 'Dough Hook' like you see at industrial type bakeries with great streamers of oil being thrown off and being dragged around by the crank. Now imagine what it must be like with the sump on and the oil level quite close to the crank. The crank, any crank, is a big, irregularly shaped, piece of steel. As it spins the webs will create a big low pressure area behind themselves as they spin. Nature abhors a vacuum so the air/gas, and anything else suspended in it or close to it will try to rush into the low pressure area and try to fill it. Also, as the crank spins it will spin everything else in there too, air, oil vapor and droplets and the oil that the hurricane forces it creates will pick up from the surface of the oil in the sump. This will have several effects. Obviously as the leading edge of the crank spins through this cloud of muck it is going to use energy pushing it out of the way and/or accelerating it up to crank speed. Likewise the low pressure area behind the trailing webs is going to be trying to slow the crank down, (Every action has an equal and opposite reaction, yes?) so it is in the interests of maximising power to make the air inside the case as thin as possible so less energy is used in this way. After all, any energy not used for this can be used to make the crank and therefore the wheels go round faster. Secondly there is the matter of heat. Air is a really good insulator. While the oil is being whipped up into the air inside the case in droplet form or is bouncing about after being thrown off the crank it can only dump heat really by radiation. If, on the other hand it is more effectively de-aerated and returned quickly to the sump it can dump heat by conduction to the walls of the sump and thence radiate it away far more rapidly and efficiently. This gives the oil an easier time and helps ensure that parts that are cooled and lubricated by it are better protected. Thirdly, there is the matter of crankcase pressurisation. Above the pistons, during the power stroke, there is a shirtload of pressure! Tens of atmospheres of pressure! While the piston rings do a pretty good job, especially with Nicasil bores, of keeping this pressure above the piston so it can be forced down the bore there is always going to be a bit of leakage. When this is happening 50 times a second even this little bit of leakage is going to ensure that the pressure inside the crankcase is always going to be higher than the pressure outside the crankcase which is atmospheric-ambient. There is also the pumping action of the pistons and leakage past the exhaust valve which add to the pressure to a greater or lesser extent during the cycle of the engine but effectively the pressure inside the case is always positive and this has to be relieved by being vented, eventually to atmosphere or in the case of most motors into the airbox. Why into the airbox? Because as the gas is vented from the crankcase it will carry oil as vapor and droplets which is then attempted to be separated by some system, either a collector box or in the case of the later bikes by using the frame as a plenum chamber in which it can condense out and be returned to the motor but a small amount of vapor will remain in suspension and by re-breathing it through the airbox and thence the combustion process it keeps the eco-fascists happy. The issue is how much oil is vented out with the excess pressure. The more oil there is in suspension in the air the harder it is for the condensing and return system to cope so it is in the interests of better oiling and return to minimise this. OK, so what is a windage tray and what is it’s function in a Guzzi motor? Essentially the plates I use are simply that. A plate that separates the main part of the crankcase where all the action is from the sump where the oil is. In very high performance applications windage trays may have scrapers that actually drag oil off the crank webs as they spin, usually in the form of knife-edge weirs that run within a few thou of the webs, and fine mesh screens within the case to strain out oil droplets and encourage them to return quickly to the sump. These will be in addition to the plate itself that sits just above the level of the oil. The plates I built were an adaptation of the plate we bought for the racer. This was made of very thin, (1mm.) aluminium and in that format it was very prone to stress fractures. For road applications this wasn’t a particularly smart idea so I got them cut from 2mm stainless. Heavy as death, but they aren’t gunna fracture! Obviously there have to be holes in the plate to allow the oil to drain back to the sump. On the first run of plates I did there was an orifice in the plate above where the oil filter sits and the pressure relief valve, along with a pattern of holes away from the crank in such a position that the windage from the crank would push oil that had drained from the walls of the case of been thrown and settled on the plate would be pushed towards them. To be honest I think it can be done better, especially if there is no oil filter in the sump with the potential to foul the plate. While the oil level will only just come to the top of the filter, which with the early filters sits just below the level of the plate, it does mean that there is this expansive hole in the plate that the crank can still pick up oil from. For models with an ‘Outsider’ type oil filter I see no reason to have this hole and would think that probably the better design would be to have a plate with no large hole but a series of slots around the edge and a thinner slot in the middle and it is this that I’m going to prototype and install on my SP or Convert as a testbed when I have the time, money and opportunity! The whole purpose is to encourage the oil out of suspension in the air within the crankcase. Yes, it’s flung off the crank at a fair old pace and will tnd to bounce and splatter off the crankcase walls and the plate itself, but at least it won’t be splashing straight into the oil in the sump and aerating it and throwing still more of it into the air in the case. Once it has hit the walls or the plate surface tension will encourage it to stay there and simply drain back to the sump. I know this works because the problem with the racer pumping out quantities of oil when pressed hard was completely eradicated once we had a plate fitted! Allowing the oil to drain onto the plate and thence through holes in it into the sump also helps ensure that the oil in the sump is less aerated. This is a good thing as you really don’t want your oil pump trying to pump an oily foam! Not only is oily foam not a particularly good lubricant or coolant it is also a damn sight harder for the pump to pump it efficiently. Ensuring good separation and de-aeration pays other dividends as well, as previously mentioned it enables the oil to cool easier by conduction. Another benefit which will be of particular interest to owners of ‘Broad Sump’, post Sport Corsa, Centauro models is that the plate will also act as a baffle under hard acceleration. It has been found, certainly with hard-used V11’s, that under hard acceleration or wheelieing it is sometimes noticeable that the oil pressure warning light will flicker. Believe me, this is BAD S#IT. The switch operates at some ridiculously low pressure and for it to come on there has to have been bugger all oil going through the pump for a while, (By ‘a while’ I’m talking in terms of very short periods of time but remember, everything is happening ‘very’ fast in there!) and if the switch has time to close after pressure has been lost then the mains and big ends will have been in a boundary lubrication situation for a good many revolutions! I don’t care how many people tell me “Oh, my V11 does that quite often and it hasn’t done it any harm.” Believe me, it’s doing it harm. It may not kill it at once but it will be the ‘Death of a thousand cuts’ only it won’t take thousands of occurrences, probably only singles or at most tens of them. The most likely cause of this is the fact that the ‘Broad Sump’ bikes have the oil pick-up at the front of the crankcase/sump. When the machine is accelerated hard or wheelied the oil will surge towards the back of the sump, away from the pick-up. If this is extreme enough then the pickup will be exposed. Exposed pick-up = no oil to pump. No oil to pump = no oil to bearings. No oil to bearings = ‘Dogga-Dogga’ noise! So I think it would be fair to say that there are obvious advantages to fitting some sort of windage tray to the ‘Broad Sump’ models, if only to help prevent this starvation problem. Now though, lets look at some of the issues with building a plate for this application. Firstly let me say that I’m NOT that familiar with the internals of the new design. I’ve only had one broad sump off and that was on a Sport Corsa many moons ago so all I’ve got to go on are the pics in my V11 manual, usually because the filter can be changed without removing the sump via the stupid, hard to remove plate, the sump doesn’t need to come off after the first oil change. (And I’ll bet most dealers don’t even remove it them, even though the service specs call for it!). However the crankcase is essentially the same as earlier models but it has a bolted on flange beneath it, screwed on internally rather than externally, and it is to this that both the sump and the plumbing for the oil cooler thermostat and the oil filter mount are bolted. Beneath this is the sump plate itself which is attatched by external screws. I guess, but I’m not sure that the reason the Broad sump was designed was that it has a lower profile than the earlier sumps and this allows the motor to be dropped a bit, lowering the machine’s centre of mass. I DON’T know if the capacity of the sump is still the same but I’d guess it probably is, (give or take a few cc’s!) given that it is wider but shallower. The location of the filter and plumbing and where the pressure relief valve, (Built into the thermostat/filter mount.) protrudes woill be the governing factors on the design of the plate. The plate itself will still sit, as do the plates for earlier bikes, immediately under the crankcase and above the flange/spacer. Holes will have to be made for a.) anything else that protrudes above the base line of the crankcase from the sump/flange area and b.) to allow oil to return to the sump. It is important tor remember that the oil level must sit just below the plate otherwise it is purposeless as oil above it will still be able to be picked up and flung around by windage. If the Moto Special sump is used the whole oil cooler/thermostat and flange will be discarded (but an earlier type oil pressure relief valve has to be fitted to that sump, don’t forget.) but the plate design will be dead simple as all it needs is holes or slots cutting in it to allow for oil return. While the starvation problems associated with the ‘Broad Sump’ will be reduced, if not eradicated, by the MS sump the other benefits of reduced frictional losses, (Probably very small.) better cooling and the prevention of windage and surge will still be applicable. I know that Paul has a deep sump on his six speed Daytona but I’m not sure whether or not there might be ground clearance problems on a V11 due to the greater depth of the MS sump. Best idea would be to see if anyone at V11.Com already has one of these sumps and then if they have no problems start on designing a plate. I’ve probably missed a whole load of stuff but I hope that is helpful and informative. Pete.

Al, Jaap, Docc? I've just written a bit of a blurb about the benefits or otherwise of some form of windage tray, especially as I see it in the V11's, and posted t up on the WG site in response to a request from Enzo. Would you like me to transcribe it here? or do you want to? It might be of interest to some folks. Pete

Junking the pistons will save you well in excess of a kilo! OK, so the rods rattle around a bit when you hit the starter button but WGAF? I like that one Pete

Just shave off the hair on yer back you oily, greek prat! That should save about 10 kg . What sizes are you looking for John? And what types of fasteners? I don't mind doing the legwork on this next time I go to Specialty Fasteners in Townsville St but I'll need to know sizes and bolt types, especially for the fairing fasteners. All the *usual* stuff will be M6 and a bit of M8 I suppose, all of which can probably be ordered in anodised red, gold or blue if you want. I'd tend to avoid using it *everywhere* simply because, as others have said, it isn't the strongest or easiest to use. Having said that the bling factor in visible applications is high so i can see the appeal. BTW, have you got any front mudguard mounts or fork braces left over from your Tonti Tarting days? I'm after some way of mounting a steel front guard to the SP? See, even I tart my bikes up sometimes Pete

The reason why different pushrod materials require different clearances is that the differences in the coefficients of expansion of the two different materials will alter the requirements for a cold clearance. The whole point of having a clearance is to ensure that when the engine reaches operating temperature there is only a minimal clearance in the valvetrain to a.) prevent hammering of the cam flannks and assorted valvetrain components and b.) to ensure that there is still sufficient room when the fallower is on the cam's base circle to allow the ingress of cooling and lubricating oil in sufficient quantities for it to form a protective wedge when the follower starts to climb the opening flank. Standard, early Guzzi big twin clearances were 8 thou and 8 thou. This was very, very conservative but the bikes were designed to sit idling in heavy traffic for long periods so a healthy safety margin was built in. I know from my own experiences of sitting in gridlocked Milan traffic in summer that the valves on an older Tonti *will* go frighteningly quiet when the motor gets real hot! With the later models with the *hotter* B10 cam the clearances were upped to 9 and 10 thou. Why? I'm not sure but I can only imagine that the more aggresive nature of the cam would cause more heat losses due to friction and energy transformation, (kinetic to heat) so exspansion of components would be greater so more clearance would be required? Later models the clearances have been closed substantially by the factory. This is to a great degree dictated by noise regs but also I'd guess that the factory just doesn't need to be so conservative when it suspects that few of it's engines will ever get as hot as they used to when they had fat coppers sittingh on them in traffic! The fact remains that the materials and construction of the entire valvetrain has changed very, very little in 40 years, the motor still uses alloy pushrods running forged rockers on one end and chilled cast iron followers on the other. The newer cam profiles are not enormously more aggressive than the older ones, although they are a bit less *lawnmowery* . On my *near stock* engines in the Convert and the SP I run 8 and 8 thou, why? Because it's easy, it doesn't damage anything and I coudn't give a fat rats arse if they sound like two cheesegraters fornicating in an iron tank. Using the ChroMo rods in first the hot-rod and now the racer I used 2 thou inlet and exhaust because this was what I was told to by Amadeo who I bought 'em off. ChroMo Steel has a much lower C of E than the alloy munt of the barrels and head etc so the clearances have to be smaller, (Shrug.) S'obvious really. Incidentally one of the *best* things about the ChroMo rods was the noise they made!~ When you got the engine over about 7,750RPM up to *When you stopped wringing it's neck* the pushrods would make a sort of unholy shrieking like a bandsaw cutting through mild steel Yum, Yum!!! Dunno if they really helped all that much but the sound made it worth it, like a Merlin with the charger on high boost on a strafing run! On the hot-rod I've reverted to standard Guzzi pushrods, (Albeit hand picked from my selection of pre '83 stock and I'm now running the clearances on that at 5 and 7 thou, with a P3 cam, (very similar to the V11 cam BTW.) with no ill effects, a bit more duration and slightly less noise. Although that is hard to judge as the hot-rod is a noise abatement society's worst nighmare made metal, it is a rather antisocial motorbike . As to the merits of titanium? Well, it's got toss-pot factor to burn but it isn't as durable and generally components made out of it have to be bulkier so the weight savings aren't as great as they might be. We were thinking about some Ti Arrow rods for the racer but the costs and the service intervals soon put paid to that, they were an expensive joke! To be honest I'd suggest that there are probably a zillion and one other things you could more sensibly spend your money on, lets face it, if Ti pushrods were the dog's bollocks then all the people who used to race Guzzis seriously 15 to 20 years ago would of used them. To the best of my knowledge nobody did, at least nobody successfull. If you want real toss-pot factor get some carbon fibre pushrods made up! These expand much less than the alloy and you actually have to set them with negative clearance when cold so you start the motor and warm it up trying to burn your valves out! Well smart!!!! They are also horribly prone to greenstick fractures and like anything else made of carbon fiber are no good for anything apart from being used as expensive firewood, just MHO of course. Pete. (PS. If you want to set the clearances hot you can. get the motor stinkin' hot then whip the covers off and set everything at 2 thou as quick as you can. Personally I wouldn't bother but you can if you like.)

Yucky! If your engine is outside of the recall range you might have some trouble convincing the factory to pay for the damage but 2000-2001 models were the ones effected. How many RPM did you reckon you were doing? Most motors I've seen with a leg out of bed have been having the bejasus caned out of 'em! There is as much damage to your block as there was on our racer and it had a rod let go at about 6,400 at turn seven at Eastern Creek Incidentally, not wanting to twist the knife, but chances are that you'll find your cam has been taken out by the flailing rod, as will be the cylinder spigots and probably one of the heads. You'd be better off getting a new or 2nd hand motor than trying to revive the wreck, sorry. Pete

Crappy old roundfin LeMans= 848cc & 52 rear wheel BHP stock. V11= 1054cc & 78-80 RWBHP So the new engine is 20% bigger and produces 30% more power. Extracting more out of the V11 motor is costly and time consuming whereas the earlier models were in such a low state of tune that you could prize more out of them by doing not a lot more than waving a magic wand at them . Needless to say that's what people did, (and still do.) and at that time synthetics weren't available. In reality though none of them, new or old, produce anything more than 'Bugger All' power. My horible little hot-rod was dynoed on what I suspect, (but don't care!) was a slightly optimistic Dyno and produced 84 RWBHP @ about 9,750RPM from 891cc which I thought was pretty bloody impressive! The problem I had was that when run at that speed it torched it's big ends. Why? Because at that speed the oil pump started cavitating. And I'm sorry, it doesn't matter a tinker's cuss what oil you use if it ain't getting to the pump I'm certainly NOT trying to stop people from using synth. What people use is their own afair. I do think though it is important to debunk a few myths though. As to why Guzzi recommend synthetic? Well, they are selling a product into a *performance* market, (as are Porche.) where the customer wants to believe that they are buying some sort of specialist, performance machine that needs *Special Stuff* to keep it running right. It's all part of the 'Toss-pot' Factor that is important to most of us in one way or another, (I'm no exception .). People are hardly likely to be impressed if Guzzi said "You can run your new V11 Sport on fermented rhinoceros semen if you like, but used chip fat is cheaper." are they? Pete

The need for super-lightweight oils in many modern vehicles is, I believe, mainly a result of their having many long, complex oil galleries and delivery paths within the engine. Most engines nowadays are double overhead cam units with the cams running directly in the head castings and the cams being retained by caps. In the case of a straight six with it's oil pump located at the front of the block it will take a fair amount of time for the pump to deliver sufficient oil to the last cam bearings at the back of #6. Add in cold weather, tighter machining tollerances (Smaller gaps for the oil to be pushed through etc.) and a *traditionally* formulated multigrade and it can take a fair while for oil to get to these remote bearings. The lightweight oils have a much higher low temperature flow rate so they can be delivered much quicker when the engine is cold helping prevent boundary lubrication occuring. The downside is of course that drain-down when hot is quicker and more complete than with a higher viscosity oil. it's swings and roundabouts really. Because of the bleeddown issue though I can see the attraction of using a synthetic in those sorts of applications as they do offer better start up protection as the residual film strangth is stronger. With refference to a Pushrod Guzzi engine though??????? All the oil galleries are really short. Check out how quickly your oil pressure warning light goes out when you hit the starter? Take off a rocker cover and start the engine and watch to se how quickly oil is delivered to the rocker gear? IMHO the extra expense of a synthetic simply isn't warranted. The energy conserving nature of thinner oils also has to do with losses due to friction of the oil, both internally and in the delivery paths, once again with short galleries the savings will be minimal compared to a large multi-cylinder engine. As for the suitability of modern car-type oils? Any modern oil is so superior to what was around when the engine was designed in the early '60's it will do fine. Like a car engine the clutch is not incorporated with the engine and neither is the gearbox a pressure fed item that shares the same lubricant as the engine like most modern motorcycles. If you think of your Guzzi as a close equialent to a semi-commercial rotary hoe or a small petrol driven excavator you are probably closer to the mark than looking at modern cars or motorcycles Pete

It is very unwise to use any sort of friction modified oil in air cooled motors, it will glaze the bores as soon as look at you so avoid anything with an FM prefix or sufix. Pete

Buggered if I know? Perhaps they want to sell more driveshafts???? . The only reason I can think of offhand is that moly can build up in the races of bearings and cause problems with the rollers skidding rather than rolling but thats just word of mouth, not anything I've seen in a book! Pete

What do I use in all my bikes? Well while I was in the USA the Convert was fed NAPA 20/50 Over the years I've used a variety of oils, usually bloody cheap ones. I used to use 'Auto Pro', (A NAPA eaquivalent in OZ.) which was simply Valvoline with a different lable on. Then Valvoline got bought out by Woolworths and they cut down radically on the anti-scuff agents and more expensive additives so I stopped using that. Nowadays I use Penrite HPR series oils. Penrite are an Oz blender and they specialise in supplying non friction modified oils with high phoz and zinc contents and they also offer a wider range of multigrades than most major companies. Most of the time I run HPR 30, which is a 30/60 but they also make 20/50, 40/70 and a range of other high and low viscosity multis. Theya also do synthetics for those as want. I dion't think there is much to be gained running synthetic in a road bike, we do run Mobil 1 Racing in the racer though because being a race bike it is asked to go flat chat virtually from cold and in those circumstances the added protection offered before the lubricant reaches its proper operating temperature does, IMHO, warrant it. As for the the issue of Porche recommending synthetics? So what? The purpose of an oil is to lubricate and cool. Perhaps Porche skimp on bearing areas and cooling systems? I'm not aware that anything inside a normally aspirated Porche motor that is anything special in engineering terms?? But I've only seen inside a couple of them, they don't interest me very much. Finally it isn't that pre spine frame Guzzis are ridiculously tough, They are tough but after about '84 more and more manufacturing was farmed out to the lowest bidder and the bean-counters were allowed to run riot. It's been that way, more or less, ever since. Every time someone new takes over the factory promises are made about improving quality and the next thing they're cutting costs! It's bullshit! While the later models do have bigger crank bearings the fact remains that the motors are producing 20% more power than 20 years ago so maybe the bearings are taxed more and need synthetic oil? Personally I don't think so, bearing failures have never been common on any model, even things tha have been hot-rodded to the max, as long as the oil pump was working, the bearings wern't starved and the motor wasn't over-revved. By all means use synthetic if you wish, I'm sure there are lots of theoretical advantages. It's just *MY* belief that on a road bike they are not neccessary. Especially a slow-reving, air-cooled dinosaur. Pete

The reason plugs used to crap out early was due mainly to fouling, mainly caused by lead in the fuel. Since lead is no longer added plug intervals are greatly extended. The fact that many motor cars now go 100,000Km between plug changes is indicative of this, the environment inside a combustion chamber is not that much different be it in a car or an older style, air-cooled bike motor. It is possible that the average bike motor will be used harder than the average car motor but this in itself won't make that much difference to the life the plug leads. By all means change plugs regularly, but it is unlikely that running a slightly older plug will make ay noticeable difference unless the old plug was faulty to start off with. In my experience playing around with the gap and ensuring that you have the right heat range is far more beneficial than simply sticking in new plugs. If you find a marked difference between performance with plus of duiffernet types it is most likely down to subtle differneces in heat range more than anything else and I'm afraid all the magic plugs are simply snake oil. Even the multi electrode/surface discharge types will, in the environment of the combustion chamber, rarely, if ever discharge through more than one route, ie, you get one spark! Pete