Not for my 1098 but this Guzzi from hell, an 1100 Sport Potted History, oil leaks around the base, replaced bottom end gaskets and Hylomared the joints 3 times, before I found the leak was from the back and front crankshaft seals. The bike has been rebuilt and all the seals were new Compression test revealed low LH cylinder, couldn't get a leakdown done, but think the crankcase is getting pressurized and oil in LH throttle body too. Breather system fine, I even increased the breather hose diameter. Examination of the cylinder showed this, on a bike with less than 10k miles Looks like honing completed by a 5 year old. Only reason I can think of is the bike has had problems in the past with the rings. I never ran it before rebuilding it (Crazy fool!!!) So now checking sizes and the plan is to get the barrels replated with Nikasil and new rings. Wondered if anybody has had to get this done in the past and if so have any recommendations on where to go/not go Many Thanks John
Baldrick is a well known Guzzi mechanic. Give him a shout and see who he suggests. I guess it also depends where you are as Baldrick is South London area. Vinny
Just seen your video. Are you saying there is an issue with high amount of back flow from the tube? as this is normal although I have never tested the flow? No oil seen from there so that seems good. re the heads? Have you tested valve clearances and if its just built. It might be an idea to run it a couple of hundred miles to bed in and see if the compression improves. If this is out of spec? what readings did you get? Vinny
Hi Vinny No I'm not saying the flow is necessarily unusual, I had other owners do something similar on other models of Guzzi and they reported that they pulse pretty good too. The problem is it's hard to quantify what is too much. I also increased the diameter of the breather in case that was a problem too. The bike has a splash plate installed between the extender plate and the crankcase partly to reduce oil splash and vapour. The breather breathes out the crankcase up to the frame where the oil coalesces and runs down the frame back to the sump, the top of the frame has the breather pipe to vent the air overboard so I really have no idea how much oil is coming straight out the crankcase. There is no PCV on this system either (Guzzi omitted it on this model) but the system works fine it's not a known problem area. As another exercise in futility I also measured crankcase pressure using a tapped plug in the dipstick hole linked to a water manometer. At 2k RPM I got about 1.5" H2O at 3k around 2" maybe a bit over. Putting my finger over the breather momentarily and it shot up past 6. So I concluded the breather system is completely fine, a blocked system was my first thought. However 2" of water is pretty low, it could be of course that the seals are now feked so matter what I do it will continue to leak, but I have to start somewhere and rightly or wrongly I see 3 indicators pointing to the rings. Really wanted to do a leakdown but the guy who has shop air was all over the place and put me off 3 times, which was a shame as I could have done a wet and a dry leakdown which would have given me valuable data. The compression test was good on the RH cylinder, 175 psi LH 160psi, I think 170 is around nominal, so it's holding compression fairly well. So that leads me to conclude all is good with the valves. Although I agree it doesn't completely rule it out, but with both leaking seals in the crankcase, oil in the throttle body, the honing suggesting a previous problem and the slightly lower compression, the rings to me look like a better bet. Got the valves checked and assembled by a good shop that I trust so I don't think there is anything wrong with the top end. Bike has done about 400-450 miles since the assembly, it runs fine, but continues to pee all over my boots. No leakage on a cold engine either. At the moment I'm getting the barrels and pistons dimensionaly checked to see what they are and if they are within spec. Rings looked fine, although only visual and no bad straight scoring on either piston or barrels. Reason for asking about replating is if it has had problems with ring sealing in the past, getting the barrels redone and a new set of rings would put me back at zero and give me a fighting chance to get new rings bedded in.
Thanks I see more of the picture now. I had a Guzzi California 1980s that Baldrick helped me to rebuild and advised on many issues. He has done many rebuilds and knows them inside out. I think he tends to be on the Guzzi forums though. Or if you pm me, I can pass his details to you. I did have the same issue when I overfilled with oil. On a run to the coast oil sprayed out all over the rear swinging arm and rear tyre. I learnt to put less in the engine then. Just out of interest are you putting the right amount in? Vinny
Yes @vinnychoff oil level is around the center of the dipstick I know they can puke oil if overfilled, the help is appreciated I'm open to all comments. Just want to get the fekin thing to stop dribbling oil. The leak is not horrendous but it annoys me, so I want to fix it As an iterim fix while rings bed in I could add an additional temporary breather line, by boring the distributor blanking plate on top of the crankcase and installing another dash 8 tube fitting and running a second hose. For now I'm going to wait to see what the dimensional checks on the pistons and barrels reveal and take it from there John
Some time back I would have agreed as I had my 916 cylinders plated by them and it has been fine, runs well, plenty of compression, uses no oil etc. I was happy and so had my Monster cylinders bored/plated by them, they looked fine and I assembled with new pistons & rings and everything set correctly but within a year/3k miles I had big oil consumption and compression had dropped significantly so I stripped it down to find the plating wearing away with definite 'ridges' at the bottom & top of the cylinders. They re-did them for me at a discounted rate and I rebuilt with new piston rings (despite the year-old rings looking fine) and was very particular about running in. Bike ran fine and had huge compression but was always using IMO using too much oil. Rather than strip down again immediately I ran it for the last few years but oil use has got progressively worse and with about 9k miles on the new bores it smokes like a 2-stroke due to the wear, using about 2L of oil per 1,000 miles. So I'm in the position of needing to get the bores replated again and I'm reluctant to go back to Langcourt because I can't see any reason other than the plating process as to why they've worn so badly? I've been recommended to use Poetons; https://www.poeton.co.uk/ so I'll probably give them a try as I really want this to be the once in lifetime job I originally intended it to be. That said the 916 is still fine after 20k ish miles so they can do/have done it right, maybe I have been unlucky but I know of at least 2 others that had the same problem as me, at around the same time...
@Dukedesmo Thanks that sounds horrendous, although nice to know it's not just me, thanks for the info and taking the time. It's bloody disparing when this sort of thing happens after all the money and time spent, you have my sympathies The Apicote 2000, coating looks interesting, I'll make some inquiries, appreciated John
From my experience of Two stroke cylinders from when I was racing Karts. I have used Langcourts a couple of time with some pretty ropey results of flaky nicasil. Ever since then I’ve always used RCS in Oldham. The guys called Darren and is fairly old school engineering type. I’ve never used Aptech but again heard various reviews.
