V11 Sport - Oil FIlter Change

[jsciullo]

I cant find the "special oil filter" wrench from anybody. How are you replacing the oil filters on this bike?

Jim

[callison]

If you're talking about the oil filter access on the sump, it's a 27mm hex.

 

For the oil filter access:

If you could find a 27mm wrench, you'd buy it and find that it's way too large to carry around on the bike.

 

There are several alternatives.

1) Take a 27mm nut and have it welded to a steel handle.

2) Find that a sparkplug wrench for a bike just happens to have an outside hex dimension that fits adequately. (I did and it fits in my tool pouch as well)

3) Buy the Volkswagon tool for about $18 dollars. I don't know what this tool is specifically or for which model, but it does exist.

4) Just drop the whole pan and don't worry about the tool. Should the filter be in really tight or the filter wrench slips, then this will be the only approach anyway. If you have a dedicated tool, this can actually be faster (see below). You do not need to replace the gasket for this option either.

 

For the oil filter wrench:

There are several oil filters that fit these bikes. The original UFI filter has a different number of flutes on the case than some of the others (Fram for instance). There is a good metal wrench available (Vector 17030) for the UFI filters while for the Fram filters there is a plastic one. The plastic wrenches tend to just expand and slip on a tight filter. When that happens, it's easier to remove the sump. At that point, nearly anything that will get the filter off becomes the qualified tool. Strap wrenches, clamping filter removers, a screwdriver punched through the filter. You get my drift.

 

For the sump:

Get an extra allen wrench that fits the sump screws, lop it off with a Dremel cutting wheel. Dedicate an extra drive socket for it and store it as a unit. Makes removing the sump becomes a very easy task.

 

Read about filters at http://www.twocreeks.net/toby/ufi.shtml

[dlaing]

Here is some additional information you may want to know about engine oil changes.

Non-OE Oil Filters

 

Fram PH3614 will fit but construction is questioable.

 

Go to WallMart and get the SuperTech ST3614 for around $2 (vs $15 for the Guzzi filter). This filter is made by Champion labs, is better constructed than a Fram, and has a 94% multiple pass efficiency rating. Just be sure to remove the decal on the filter before you install it.

(Tip from Tracy Martin, off of the Wildguzzi.com site)

 

Also the Amsoil SMF125 is supposed to work and be of very high quality.

 

Capacity:

3.5 liters of 20W/50 engine oil = 3.7 US quarts = 3.08 imperial quarts

Don't overfill it. The dipstick is read after screwing the dipstick all the way in with the bike upright. Recycle your Oil!

[Woodburn]

4) Just drop the whole pan and don't worry about the tool. Should the filter be in really tight or the filter wrench slips, then this will be the only approach anyway. If you have a dedicated tool, this can actually be faster (see below). You do not need to replace the gasket for this option either.

Hi Callison,

You mentioned that you don't have to replace the gasket when you remove the whole pan. After how many oil changes would you suggest that you do replace the gasket, if using this procedure.

 

I have a brand new V11 sport and would like to do my own service as much as possible. Just got her last Wednesday!

 

Thanks.

[RichMaund]

Here's how I like to treat Guzzi pan and valve cover gaskets:

Glue the gasket to the valve cover or the pan side of the surface using a rubber cement like "Gasketcinch".

Burnish a light coating of dielectric grease on the other side of the gasket with a finger tip.

Now bolt it up!

Next time you have to remove it, just pull the fasteners and rap it with a soft mallet. It'll come off cleanly. Do your work and then reapply another light coating of the dielectric grease before you reinstall it.

I have easily reused the gasket a half dozen times this way before I felt it looked like it needed replaced.

If you keep spare gaskets around in the shop, the ones you're using will last even longer!

This was a tip given to me by a good friend and Guzzi mechanic many years ago. It's worked for me for well over a decade.

[dlaing]

I think Carl may have meant the opposite of how you read it, that if you use the tool, you do not need the gasket.

In any case the pan gasket costs about $11 US. I just got one today from Sport Cycle Pacific. If you can afford them, use them.

I try not to use gaskets more than twice. The more you use them, the tighter you have to tighten the bolts to get them to seal, and the harder they are to get off. Oil leaks are no fun.

Rich gave good tips on preparing the gaskets.

Another point is that you are "supposed" to clean the internal wire mesh filter everytime you change the regular filter, which requires dropping the pan. I think most of us agree that cleaning the wire mesh filter every 6000miles is overkill.

I think a good strategy is to replace the filter every 6000 miles and to drop the pan every 12000 miles. But other strategies will work, too.

I also like the idea of cleaning the bottom of the pan.

[callison]

Er... change the gasket. Well, I did once on my Sport 1100i, but only because the dealer had glued it in place with some awful strong stuff (I had to chisel it off and then resurface the surface). That was at the 3500 mile point and that bike now has 60,000 miles on it. Still on that second gasket. The ONLY time it has ever leaked was when I forgot to tighten two bolts and they dropped out letting oil slowly migrate to the rear of the pan and then drip. A couple of drops a day. Replaced the bolts and the problem went away. I don't even bother to put a mild adhesive on the gasket nor do I over-tighten the bolts. They're finger snug and then about 22 degrees more with the wrench. That isn't very much. Works for me, but I'm careful because I have a surplus of thumbs. You could say I'm digitally dyslexic and the ambi-klutztrous.

 

I have had problems with the oil filter wrenchs failing to grip the filter so that it can be removed through the access port. Instead of spending time fighting with a failing enterprise, I have taken the proper size allen wrench and cut the straight section off and semi-permanently attached that to a 1/4" socket. Having a specialized tool like that can make removing the pan a fairly easy job. As I have other less modern Guzzis, it makes sense to have this kind of tool because dropping the pan is a required procedure to change the filter.

[Guest Squashed Nose]

Please excuse my stupidity but why on earth would you want to carry around your oil filter access wrench?

 

Is this for emergency roadside oil changes?

[dlaing]

Squash Nose, you forgot that unlike England we Yanks can ride 6000 miles on a long Holiday weekend! Or more realistically, its cause my stinkin' landlord won't let me change my oil on the premises, so I have to pack my tools, ride off to my mother's and listen to her whine, "Don't make a mess of my driveway!"

Carl, I guess I misunderstood you. But I think I got it now; either way you change the filter, (by 27mm hex tool or by drop of the pan) the gasket should last several (10+) oil changes.

Okay, I'll take your word for it and reuse the pan gasket a few times.

[callison]

Squashed Nose. I don't see where I said anything about carrying the oil filter wrench along. I do carry a socket set on long trips though, and that includes the allen/socket combo I mention above and that fits a whole lot of things on a Guzzi besides the pan. Very useful. And if I remove the pan, a screwdriver can remove the filter, and there's one of those in the toolkit as well.

[Guest Squashed Nose]

You wrote:

If you could find a 27mm wrench, you'd buy it and find that it's way too large to carry around on the bike.

 

Which doesn't necessarily mean that you would want to carry it but it does intimate that you expect somebody to.

 

And if you yanks can do 6000 miles in a long weekend (I'm assuming four days here), that makes 1500 miles in a day. If you rode continously you would have to average 62.5mph for all four days.

 

No wonder you're guardians of the planet, your wedding tackle must be immense.

[dlaing]

No wonder you're guardians of the planet, your wedding tackle must be immense.

Actually its a compensation thing, you know like, small tackle, big fast boat.

Our Guardian Dictator says, the aliens are out to get you, so mortgage your home and pay your taxes so we can defend you from the axis of evil.

Personally I get pretty tired after 100miles of riding. Must be the anthrax and smallpox.

PS like the comment about 6000miles in a weekend, I am just joking, albeit bitterly about the guardianship.

And speaking of bitter brews,

Guzzi content: Don't buy Fram filters.

[callison]

You're right, I did say that you wouldn't want to carry a 27mm allen wrench around (it would be larger than the toolkit), it's just a measure of how prepared you feel you need to be to get on a bike that has very little brand/dealer representation in the U.S.A. It may not be necessary to be able to remove the cover, but it doesn't hurt to have the tools available to do so. I don't carry around a 27mm allen wrench for the simple reason that the old spark plug socket from my RD350 fits well enough to remove the cover. It's a piece of stamped metal, low quality, but lacking bulk and weight, so it has the merit of being an adequate tool for the task. But I still can't get the filter socket to grip well enought to spin the filter, so it's a moot point (and I don't carry those filter grips around - they're huge). The other end of that cheesy socket does fit on the crankshaft nut for doing tune-ups. I replaced the alternator cover screws with the same type as the pan a long time ago, so that "custom" allen driver fits there as well. If I have to remove the pan, I can do it easily, and if I have to remove the filter, I can remove the pan and a stab with the screwdriver will proved the means to spin it.

[Guest jeremy]

belive it or not 1 1/16" nut is close to the same size as 27mm and much easier to find, thats what I use, then I just carry a socket and an adapter, much easier than a wrench. Also when you have wide open expanses and can run 100 MPH uniterupted you can cover a lot of ground, and wear out tires really fast.

 

[callison]

You can really wear out tires commuting a hundred miles a day on them too. Especially on the cobby roads here in California. I wouldn't have thought that anywhere in the USA would offer wide open expanses that you could run 100+ in uninterrupted though, not even in Michigan.