Tom M

Mine too. I think all of the LeMans got them? Nice looking bike you have there badge. If you get tired of looking at your elbows with the stock mirrors there are extended versions available for not much money from Buell.

That should look real nice on your bike Bob. Please post some pics when you get it mounted.

Guzzi content too... http://asarnir.blogspot.com/

Raz, I'm new at this too but if I were you I'd throw in those FBF pistons, set them level with barrel tops if they aren't already there with the appropriate thickness base gasket, replace any worn parts in the heads and have the mating surface lightly skimmed, regrind the cam and replace the followers, then bolt it all back together. If it pings a bit next summer you can always pull it apart again next winter or later and do all the machining if needed [edit: or put the stockers back in. There are many people out there like Guzziguy and Mal who are completely happy with their FBF pistons, and they didn't do anything to the heads.] FWIW I had absolutely no piston or head damage from the pinging that my bike has had since I got it almost 5 years ago. Winter wrenching projects are better than watching TV!

Thinner base gaskets are available too and are probably more cost effective unless you want to remove a lot of material from the barrel at either end. Both of my pistons are .25mm below the top of the barrels. If I end up reusing my stock pistons I'll go with a thinner base gasket rather than machining the cylinder. There are few good tech articles on assembling top ends and checking clearances here:http://www.nrhsperformance.com/tech.shtml Guzzimoto, how much did you remove from the heads?

The FBF wrist pin had a much larger ID than stock so I'm sure it was lighter.

6th gear info and a calculator here: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...40&hl=speed

With rings, wristpins, and circlips: FBF = 586.5 grams, used stock Guzzi (D class) = 604.6 grams according to a shipping scale at my workplace. The FBF was 18g lighter. Anybody else care to weigh in on my cam follower picture above?

I wish I was that clever but it was just a coincidence that I had a pad of graph paper laying around. I was just trying to get a decent picture of the pit on the face of the lifter. What do you think of the pit?

I got the FBF pistons and they don't look anything like the picture on their web page. They look like the ones from the old thread with a high dome and no reliefs around the wrist pin. This is not what I wanted or expected so I am sending them back. The picture on their web page is the Cali piston. Guzzirider told me that his pistons had Wiseco markings on them, the set that I received does not. I suspect his and the ones Raz got are a newer design than what I got. I did not get a chance to weigh them Ernst but I did take a quick measurement on the skirt length and it is 3mm shorter than the stock piston. I took some pictures of the two next to each other for anyone who cares to see the differences between the two. On the bench From the bottom With wrist pin connecting the two to show dome height difference Bottom with wrist pins removed. I didn't take a side shot but the FBF wrist pin has a smaller ID than stock. My plan now is to reuse the stock pistons after having their skirts recoated and the domes ceramic coated unless Mike Rich comes through with a new batch of pistons very soon.

I checked for the radius and it's definitely there. I also checked the faces a little closer and noticed that I did have a small pit or two on both exhaust followers, but both intakes were clean. Here are a few pics of one of the followers with a little pit. I expect this means I should change them before it gets worse or damages the cam?

In the pic above with the FBF piston next to the Guzzi piston it appears to me that the FBF is perfectly round with no reliefs on the wrist pin sides of the piston. The picture of your FBF piston has reliefs on the sides.

Sure. I'll take some pics to show how they compare to the stockers and see if I can find an accurate scale. I wouldn't expect them to weigh less than the stock pistons because that would cause an imbalance with the crank, wouldn't it? Raz posted a pic toward the bottom of page 1 of this thread that shows an FBF piston that he bought from Antonio. That one looks different from either of the FBF pistons shown above!

Good stuff Greg. Thanks. I'll check them out this weekend.

Ernst, I believe FBF changed their piston design a while back. If you compare the pistons pictured on their website to the pictures that have been shown in the thread below you will see that their latest design has a dome shape like the Mike Rich pistons, not like their older high dome pistons. There have been a number of guys that I know of (Guzzirider for one) that have seen good results by just installing the newer FBF pistons without doing any extra machine work to the heads or cylinders. That said, I will measure everything to the best of my ability to make sure the pistons fit the bores correctly and have the proper squish clearance in the head. I understand why you advocate machining the chamfer in the head away but that removes a lot of material that will need to be compensated for with a much thicker gaskets. I'd like to avoid that extra machine work if possible. I won't be throwing away my old pistons. If I'm not happy with the FBF setup I can always go back to the stockers. Newer FBF pistons. Note the low dome height: Old piston comparison pic from old thread here: More recent piston thread with Guzzirider info: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...mp;hl=Mike+Rich I also spoke with a local Guzzi guy who's friend installed the FBF pistons a little while back and he's very happy with them too. I know I didn't need new pistons but I figured as long as I've got the engine open and happen to have the money available a little more power will mean a little more fun for me . As I said at the beginning of this thread the only reason I'm even in there right now is because I'm sick of the pinging. I wanted to install the Mike Rich pistons last winter for the same reason but they weren't available then and still aren't now. Thanks for your input!

Nice work BFG. You have a great eye for photography. Is that your profession? Damn that Griso has turned into a nightmare! What's the problem with your Scura? The last thing I recall is you dropped it and cracked the timing case, then repaired it with epoxy. Obviously something else went wrong...

They said I got the last set that they had in stock. They didn't tell me if or when they plan to do another batch. If I knew you were in the market I would have called Mike Rich and told him he had another customer then maybe he would do another run. He said he was close to having enough customers when I spoke to him last month.

I cleaned up one my piston crowns last night with a wire wheel on my bench grinder, followed by a bit of scotchbrite. It worked great. This is how I used to clean up 2 stroke pistons way back when, but I was hesitant to do it on the Guzzi piston with the more complex crown. That said, I ordered a set of FBF pistons yesterday. I wanted to go with Mike Rich pistons but I'm done waiting for him to get enough orders to make running another batch economically feasible.

Timesert makes a steel 24mm insert that might work for you. I've never used one but a lot of folks prefer these over helicoils. http://www.timesert.com/html/mtrcsert.html If you stick with the helicoil plan I would look for a 12mm OD / 10.5mm ID sleeve to fit in the stud hole in the jug. Then you could use the jug for your drill fixture without risking damage to the head. That said, even if you did oval out one hole in the head a little I can't see where it would hurt anything. There would just be a little more clearance around that one stud. Pack the flutes on the drill bit with grease to catch the chips and obviously do everything possible to keep the chips from falling into the sump. Good luck!

Same here. Mine looked great. I can take a pic if you like. I saw your pics in the other thread, those exhaust followers look nasty. I'm surprised your cam is OK. Hopefully Pete or Greg will chime in on your other threads.

Your piston wear looks similar to mine Slavomir, except for that gouge on the skirt. With no corresponding mark in the cylinder I would hope it didn't come from the factory like that. Some anti-friction coatings for pistons are there only for the break in period. I wonder how long the coating that Guzzi used is supposed to last? Here are a couple shots of my other piston in case anyone cares:

Mike ran out of pistons in the summer of '08 and won't do another run until he has enough buyers. I've been on his list since fall 08 and I'm not going to wait much longer. If he doesn't come through soon I may go with FBF pistons or have my stockers recoated by this outfit: http://www.swaintech.com/store.asp?pid=10298 I change my oil every 3-4k miles. I've been using Mobil1 V-Twin for the past 2 years. Before that I used a few different oils but no cheap stuff. How many miles were on your bike when you changed pistons Dan? How did the skirt coating look?

I was surprised to see that amount of wear on the pistons and rings too Raz. I bought the bike with 7k on it and have always used top quality oil. I was hoping for comments from others who have pulled their pistons to comment on the wear that I have. The valve stem wear doesn't surprise me based on what I've heard here and what Mike Rich said when I spoke with him. Be careful with those heads. The Ferracci pistons already raise the compression above stock. I would think that removing a millimeter or so off of the head will really push the compression up there. Once the material is gone it can't be put back, but you could always go to a thicker base gasket I guess.

I've been trying to resolve a pinging issue since I bought my LeMans nearly 5 years ago. I've messed around with air-fuel mixture via the PCIII and even done partial throttle runs on a dyno to see if I had a lean spot in the 5000rpm ping zone, all to no avail. Since it's winter now and I won't be riding again for a while I decided to pull the heads to measure the squish clearance to see if that's the cause of my pinging as discussed in this thread from a while back: http://www.v11lemans.com/forums/index.php?...quish+clearance I also figured I'd remove the valves and check them since Mike Rich and a number of members here have seen significant wear when they removed them. I found all of my valve stems were at or past the wear limits. The exhaust valves in particular were worn .004". I snagged a set of FBF valves off of ebay from Ferracci a while ago since they were $20 each instead of their normal $72, figuring that I'll install them if needed or stick them on a shelf for later use if mine were OK. Turns out I will be installing them now. I don't have gauge pins so I couldn't measure the valve guides. I'll wait and see what the machine shop says about them. Here's a pic of the new valve next to the old one. Maybe you can see the step in the valve stem. I found no blow-by on my pistons and the cylinders still had a good crosshatch pattern visible, but my ring end gaps were at or a little beyond their wear limits so I'll be replacing them while I'm in there. Also, the anti-friction coating on the piston skirts has worn through. If I reuse the stock pistons I'll send them out first for new skirt coating and have the crowns coated too. A few more pics: As long as I have the barrels off I figured now would be a good time to replace my crankcase breather tube. It's not leaking but it does have some dry rot cracking. I also decided to clean up the 2002 bubbly paint issue on top of the motor. I repainted the bottom of the engine a few years back with very good results and I had some paint left over. Much of the paint on top of the engine blew right off with a blast from an air gun. The rest yielded to a wire brush and screwdrivers. After paint removal: Repaint done and masking materials removed: It's not exactly show quality but nobody can see that part of the engine when the bike is together anyway. Rather than buying a bike lift I decided to build a wooden platform to save my back a bit. I'm glad I did! Here's a pic: I haven't done the squish clearance measurement yet because the heads are at the machine shop. I'll post more on that and on my progress once I get the heads back. PS Many thanks to Pete Roper for his excellent tear-down instructions at http://www.thisoldtractor.com/guzzitech.dk/english/index.htm

I found that a little carb cleaner sprayed onto a rag cleaned most of the crap at the top of my cylinders. To get them completely clean I used scotchbrite and carb cleaner. That combination didn't work on the piston domes, they're going to require something stronger. When I dropped my heads off at a local shop for a refresh I asked the owner/racer who has built many engines what he does with nikasil bores when rebuilding and he said he uses WD40 and a hone wrapped with scotchbrite to break the glaze on the cylinder walls. I plan on following his advice when I put mine back together.