pete roper

My guess is they will find out pretty quickly why people stopped doing this experiment in the 1970's. By reversing the heads you get inadequate air flow to cool the exhaust sides properly and the heads fall off the exhaust valves. Also any sort of 'Ram Air' system requires a large air box to act as a plennum chamber and doesn't start to deliver any real, tangible, benefits until you're going at 130MPH plus. It's a gimmic. An interesting and stylish gimmic but it won't deliver any performance increase. As mentioned above you can't simply whack the heads on left for right, you need to grind up a different camshaft. Terrific waste of effort. It's a nice looking machine but.... Pete

Bad luck mate. The side plate/'Pork Chop' damage is typical of that experienced by others who have dropped their G's. I was very lucky, the one time I threw mine on it's side I put my foot under it and nothing broke . Jon wasn't so lucky and lost his plate, got it welded, then it got biffed again and broke again, (I think?). I suppose the one small piece of silver lining in this is that at least this can't be blamed on the bike so we aren't going to hear the endless carping about trivial problems from people who would complain that a house brick wasn't good enough because it's corners weren't sharp enough Pete

Dave, the MGS-01 is a full blown race bike. Firstly, I doubt very much if it makes anywhere near that power. Secondly even the *stock* out-of-the-crate MGS-01 has service requirements that would make anybody less than a very well financed race team shudder! I remember a few years ago there was an upsurge of interest in the idea of Titanium con rods on either this site or one of the others. I gave a link to the Arrow racing site which lists the service intervals for Titanium con rods, which they make and sell. I think the gist of it was. New rods. Run them in practice. If they seem OK run them in race. If you have any doubts disassemble the engine and re-size or replace as neccessary. After race? Throw them away and fit new set. I seem to remember that this, about 4 or so years ago, would cost you approximately $6,000 a weekends ride in parts alone! Talk about a thread killer! The MGS-01 may not have requirements quite that high but they're up there. The super-tuned bike ridden by Guareschi is a wonderful thing and a great statement as well as being mind bogglingly fast but believe me it has NOTHING in common with a V11 or even much in common with a stock MGS-01 really and you really, really wouldn't want to ride it on the street. Not that a lowlife like me would ever get to sully the its of a big team like theirs I have to admit I'd still be bloody nervous. Not as nervous as I would be if I was strapped to a pole in the room with the test bench in it that they'd use for development work while they sat outside and revved the tits off it on the brake. I'd be the only one there. all the developers and engineers would be in another room wacthing it either on a video screen or through a slit in a steel wall with a bulletproof glass plate over the slit. all the information they needed would come down cables to computers, they don't need to be in there waiting for bits of metal to start flying around before they run! pete

Others have done this without problems. The thing to remember is that the more incompressible oil there is in the engine the less compressable air there will be. this means that the pumping acion of the pistons as they rise and fall will be greater which has the potential to tax the breather system more than it did before. this is likely to manifest itself in one of two ways. Either you may blow a seal, (unlikely as if it was going to happen it would of happened to someone else by now.) or excess oil may overwhelm the capacity of the spine to allow it to condense and return to the engine so some of it will be expelled to the airbox. Next time you have a squizz at your air filter look in the bottom of the airbox. if there is evidence of pooled oil, (Rather than just a dampness caused by misting.) some will be being expelled. The most serious side effect of this is likely to be that your filter gets grubby a bit quicker and if it is bad enough it could possibly promote detonation but both these scenarios are extremely unlikely. The plate's ability to hinder pick-up of oil from the sump by th rapidly rotating crank also aids with limiting oil expulsion. As I've said before the small increase in capacity over the earlier engines, 11068cc rather than 948cc, is only slightly over 100cc. Not all of this is going to be part of the 'pumping' action as the maximum crankcase volume and minimum crankcas volume will not differ by this whole amount. All the earlier bikes, like our racer (998cc.), that run sloppage sheets I've used plates bolted to the case and used the underside of the plate as the 'Level', I have to admit I've never bothered measuring how much went in. So the 'pumping' action is going to be very similar and we've never had any problems with the oil running at that level. If adding that much has made the problem go away? Great! Stick with it. The only thing I can think is that previously the oil slopping away from the pick-up under acceleration was able to do so only enough to expose only a tiny part of the pick up. Either that or it was drawing air in from above the level of the oil somehow and now its fuller the 'ole is below the level of the oil. Can't really see how this would be the case though Pete

It's an experience I don't own a Hi-Cam but a good 'Tona will crack the 100HP barrier if not with ease then with some sensible work, mainly tuning the FI. It should be remembered though that is is still a big, heavy, crude, long wheelbase mororbike. If you wants *Fast* there are any number of bikes that will do that much *better* than the 'Tona but it FEELS ike I think a motorbike should feel and it has a real "You f@ck with me and I'll kill you!" attitude that makes you feel like a man, even if you are, like me, a mouse studying to become a rat . I'm hoping that my Griso 8V will offer the same sort of visceral punch, it's essentially a very similar engine in most ways to the earlier Hi-Cam. Thing is that the nice people at Piagio will probably of sanitized and Honda-ized it so that it will appeal to yer aveage BMW owner. S'not really an issue though as making it uncivilized will probably be a lot easier than making it civilized. There has to be *more* to get out of the 8V as its what Guzzi have pinned their hopes on for the next few years. I just hope that someone can convince the Piagio drones if they made a Nuovo LeMans it wouldn't steal sales from Aprilia but it might get some riders off other mounts like the Bimmer twins. I'm told that the filthy scow with the first shipment of 8V's has docked in Sydney so I hope to be able to join BFG soon in a festival of gurning at my new steed and trying to work out what does what and what's going to go wrong before it has a chance to Pete

Look, I'm not buying into anyones bunfight and I'm not clever enough to do the separate quotes thing so you'll have to follow this as best you can Pete

You can get thermal paste at computer shops apparently as its used in various applications by nerds . I simply use zinc based anti seize although copper based ones like 'Copperkote' will do just as well. Thier whole purpose is simply to fill the air gap and help heat transfer to the sensor, there's nothing clever about it. Olive oil or ordinary grease would probably work just as well but would need checking and replenishing more often. the *stuff* with copper or zinc in it simply has more solids and may *bake* itself into a useful heat transmitting plug. Thats my theory anyway and I'm sticking to it. The main thing is to be very careful removing the sensor. The horrid plastic mount it is screwed in to is fairly fragile and may break, esecially if it is old and has hardened through heat cycling. I have yet to break one but I'm always waiting for it to happen! If it does I'd reommend replacement with the brass part but add some gloop to that too. With the plastic one once the gloop is in wind the sensor back in slowly and in steps to allow and air or excess gloop to creep out past the threads or there is a chance that the plastic mount will crack as the gloop tries to expand. I've never had this happen either but it is a possibility. Readings taken from my Axone show that the 'Before' and 'After' temperatures being detected can vary enormously. 40*C is not uncommon. More than enough to make a joke of the fuel supply. Pete

It's always a good idea to replace rod bolts. You can re-use them if you are certain that they haven't stretched to beyond their elastic limit the thing is unless you know how long they were when they went in you don't have any real way to judge. Carillo say you can re-use their bolts if they have been torqued by stretch. Many, many people re-use rod bolts in road going Guzzis with few if any problems. In my proffesional capacity I always replace them. Not to do so, especially on an older bike, would be insanity and simply beg for some numpty to sue my arse off if he over-reved it and had a rod come apart. The bolts are fairly pricey, no question of that. It really depends on how you've ridden it and whether you think there might be any cause to suspect them. Given the fact that you may have bearing damage which would have the potential to make the bolts work harder than they should perhaps the best option is to replace them this time but note the length of the new ones and keep the note somewhere so that next time you check the rods you have a refference. The fact that your engine hasn't made the 'Dogga Dogga' noise bodes well. You will probably find that there will be some marking of the shells so why not just fling in a new set anyway? They're cheap. If they, (The bearings.) are seriously damaged I'd be taking the rods out and getting them checked/re-sized anyway. It's easy to be paranoid but having a rod come apart is almost always fatal for most of the engine. Compared with the cost of a couple of bolts and a set of shells the costs can be astronomical! Pete

My guess is that a Dyno run would prove little. If the plate does give a noticeable improvement in performance while a small part of that may be due to the more rapid removal of oil from the *air* within the case and the prevention of crank windage picking oil up from the sump I'd think that under hard accelleration as the oil sloshing back in the sump, unrestrained, would tend to surge into the rear crank web. Now THAT will cause a very noticeable viscous drag! If the plate is doing it's job well that surge would be prevented so there would be none of that viscous drag. On a dyno though there is the problem that although working hard the bike is stationary so there would be no rearward slop when you whack open the throttle. Pete

I use 6's in virtually everything. They work, there don't seem to be any downsides, it's what the factory sez, I can't see the point in changing. If ay of my bikes started pre-igniting to buggery or showing some indicator that they weren't happy I'd change 'em but since I see no problem I just 'Do as I's told!' Pete PS, the newer smallblocks all use 8's FWIW.

Have you packed the ETS with thermal paste/wunda snot? pete

Ratch? Dave? We know you don't like each other but do you have to carry on like such a pair of pantomime Queens? . At the end of the day everyone thinks they want more power. That's fine. I don't doubt it for a minute but just so that people can do a bit of extrapolating on what is involved in chasing power out of what is essentially a ditchpump motor. Probably about 15 years ago now I did just about everything I could, using well proven mods from world reknowned Guzzi tuners and a few ideas of my own, to build my idea of the ultimate Guzzi Hot-rod. BAck in the early eighties I had the good fortune to get a ride on one of Amadeo Castellanis short stroke bikes. It was a peach. Ever since that time I'd wanted to build something similar. To cut a LONG story short it was very, very expensive. Not just the parts but the time, the machining etc.etc. The end result was a comparatively tractable bike that made 84 RWBHP (IMHO optimistic as most Dynos are.) out of 891cc @9,750RPM. I rode it hard. Very hard. It was fun. Big end shells lasted in the region of 20-30 hours. Every 2nd or third set of shells the rods needed re-sizing. If I'd had them done again I would of had to buy new rods, (Carrilos, especially 'Special Order' ones aren't cheap.) Pistons? Ah, shit! Why go into detail. Essentially I had to throw away very expensive parts VERY OFTEN to get that sort of performance. Our race bike has over 100cc more, produces much the same power and is more reliable! And the clincher is that my Griso produces only a bit less, ( A decently set up V11 will produce much the same!) but I NEVER HAVE TO DO ANYTHING TO IT! How good is that! I'm sure I've said it before but by far the best money you can spend is on suspension and set up. After that? Yes, there are a host of things you can do to make the bike a bit more powerful and a LOT more enjoyable. Jon Margrave's (Guzzi Jon.) LeMans {RIP} is a fine example of this. It was simply set up well and worked splendidly. I only wish I'd had a chance to ride it before it had been trowelled. Yes, in standard bore/stroke form the V11 has a staggering 78cc more than our race bike and 179(?)cc more than my little hot rod but the architechture remains the same apart from an inferior bore/stroke ratio and a much longer stroke on the V11. 100HP/ litre has for a very, very long time been seen as the realistic limit of output from an air cooled 2V twin of any configuration. Sure you can get more but you start moving into the area of very limited service life of expensive componentry and the laws of diminishing returns start reaching the upper end of the parabola. I still reckon that what many people want when they say they want 'More Power' is essentially greater tractability, especially in the area between about 5,000 and 7,000RPM and the ability to not be faster but *quicker*. Best way to achieve that as a first step is to make sure both wheels are on the ground ALL the time. Second step is to optimise the actual *Bits* you have by correct set up, (And this can involve something like a My15M or a Power Commander or whatever but try just setting up the stock ECU properly first. I'm amazed by how many are really, really bad!). Next on the list is, as Skeeve says, the heads. Just clean the por things up! This is a MASS PRODUCED product! You can make huge improvements by simply matching stuff up so it actually FITS TOGETHER like it should! Then you can look at pistons and squish in conjunction with a cam, (Although to cam up a V11 will produce greatly accelerated wear in the guides and followers.). When you do that you'll have to re-map it again. After that you can start doing all the fancy stuff if your pockets are deep enough. Alternatively you can buy a 2 year old R6, stick some race-glass on it, set up the suspension, change the oil and buy a set of slicks and a day pass for a track day once a month or so and go flog the bollocks off it and enjoy your V11 for what it is on the road. The R6 option will be a LOT cheaper than trying to get the mythical 100 ponies out of the ditchpump, especially if you want *reliability* (Term used advisedly!) thrown in. By all means modify the f@ck out of your V11's and chase horsepower! Stick a sodding blower on 'em if you want and can afford it! It'd be fun, (But I'd be the one in the suit of medieval armour cowering around the corner carrying a dustbin lid to deflect the frag when you wick the bugger up on the rollers! ) Just don't expect it to be either easy or cheap! It certainly won't be something you'd want to ride to work or the local tiddly-winks tournament Pete

Better yet you could do your own Dave! This is what Savagehenry did because he was/is impecunious enough and had enough access to tooling to make his own. Nice thing is that he asked me if I minded before he did which while completely un-neccessary was polite and appreciated. I have no issue with people 'Rolling their own'. If they were then to market them under my name I'd be pissed off but I have no copyright or patent on the design Oddly enough I don't think its really worth copying if you want to source a money making venture . If you're burning or expelling a lot of oil if you have 4 litres/quarts in the sump there are a couple of things. 1.) The plate will help combat expulsion, although this isn't its primary purpose. 2.) If it IS being burnt at a significant rate I'd want to find out why. Glazed bores or buggered guides/rings are the usual suspects!) If you do want to make a 'Lower' plate it wouldn't be very hard. Simply use one of mine, or your own facsimile, as a template and then weld in a 'Stepped' spacer. Either step it *UP* from the sump plate proper or *DOWN* from the block. You'd probably have to grind and modify a few bits to allow the ingress or egress of assorted pipes and bits of munt, (That's one of the reasons why mine goes where it does, its easy !) but if you're a competent welder, (Or if you're like me, know one! I can't weld to save my life!) it shouldn't be a big issue. Pete

In a previous post I explained exhaustively and at great length why I actually believe that in THIS application my plate, or something similar, is actually superior to the V sump. Whilst it is inevitably going to be a Quixotic undertaking I'll reitterate that the plate was designed to do ONE THING and one thing only. That is to inhibit, but not stop, the rearward slop of oil to prevent pick-up exposure under severe acceleration. It isn't supposed to offer any performance gain, was not designed to offer any and has never been sold as a performance enhancing product, (Unless you consider not rattling to a halt with shagged out big ends to be a performance issue ). If you want a *real* windage tray with weirs, dams and scrapers one could be designed without too many problems but this would defeat one of the major objectives of the entire project which was to produce something that; a.) Worked. b.) Was unobtrusive. c.) Was easy to install. and........... d.) Was CHEAP!!!! This last one being probably the most important criteria when dealing with your average Guzzi owner as we tend to be the sort of people who are so mean that we can peel and eat an orange without taking our hands out of our pockets Many people will probably never need the protection offered by the sheet. To be honest I'm most likely one of them as I'm neither a good or a fast rider and only pop wheelies occasionally by mistake, (Any power being used to lift up the combined bike and rider is being wasted when it could be used for making the horizon come towards you faster!). When I designed the prototype of the 'Broad Sump' plate I didn't even own a V11. I now do and it WILL have a plate fitted before I ride it any distance simply because to ME it makes sense to fit an unobtrusive plate costing peanuts rather than even risking destroying my crank and connecting rods and a host of bearings and even possibly the crankcase The use of a plate, like the use of a hose clamp on the filter, is NOT compulsory. I've never had a filter come undone. That doesn't mean that it doesn't happen, once again the results can be disastrous. Certainly on my Scura I'll be using a hose clamp on the filter simply because it is cheap and easy insurance. Anybody who feels that any mod is un-neccessary is under NO compulsion to undertake said mod! It really is mind bogglingly simple. Pete

My first thought was temp sensor too. While replacing the mout with a brass one is a good idea you can achieve the same result by simply packing the plastic one, carefully, with some sort of conductive paste and then slowly screwing the sensor back in. Slowly to allow any air to escape as if you screw it in quickly it is quite easy to crack the housing through hydraulic pressure. The big problem here is that the previous owner has stuffed around comprehensively with the entire wiring loom. Who knows what they may or may not of done? An obvious first step is to check that ALL the sensors are working and working correctly. Check the resistances and then the connectors and connections. One good piece of news is that you can forget the 'Choke' as being a contributor to the issue. All the 'Choke' is is a fast idle lever that cams open the throttle plates a bit to help overcome the internal friction of the cold, thick, oil in the bearings on start up. The spigot on the fuel pressure valve has been covered but note that this is on the tank, not the engine. Pete

(Sigh.) The sump and pick-up design of the V11's, (And the Sport-i/Daytona and Centauro models) is completely different to the earlier big blocks. The Lario is a smallblock and once again is a completely different design, (It actually has a sort of 'Slopage Sheet' cast into the crankcase but for different purposes.). Whether or not my design is complete charlatanry is basically irrelevant if it is being discussed by people who don't know the differences between the various models. Do a search on the subject on this board and you'll find all the pro and anti arguments discussed to the N'th degree. Sorry. I simply can't be bothered explaining it all over again. Pete

Light came on only once that you noticed. It may of happened before or after without your being aware. As I previously mentioned the problem is that bearing damage will happen almost instantly but while it may not lead to sudden death the effects are going to be cumulative and get worse every time a delivery interuption occurs. My take on the *correct* amount of oil is that level should be as close to the underside of the plate as possible as the lower it is the greater the opportunity for rearward, uninhibited, slop under hard acceleration and that is exactly what the plate is designed to prevent. This will be more than the *standard* quantity but IMHO not enough to cause problems with seals or breather function. Mark the stick and fill accordingly. Pete

Various people have mentioned that their bikes seem to run better with the plate in. I hope this is the case and I can see some reasons why this might be so but it wasn't the purpose the plate was designed for. If they do run better? Bonus! Since your guage is a mechanical type I can't see any reason why the pressure should drop providing everything is OK. The pump should pick up at a constant rate and once up to pressure the limiting factor should be the crack pressure of the oil preeure relief valve (OPRV.) which on Guzzi big blocks should be about 55-60 Lbs PSI. Things I can think of might be the previously mentioned damaged or ovalized bearings or perhaps as the pump works harder air is being drawn in before the pump or oil is being forced out of the galleries after the pump. Are the o-rings on the thermostat/filter housing in good condition? Another possibility is that the pump itself is somehow damaged or running excessive clearance. While the engine is obviously working fine at the moment if it were mine I'd be popping the timing chest off and having a looksee to try and identify if there was a problem with the pump and if that checked out I'd be dropping the big end caps for a squizz at the shells. Did you ever see the 'Flickering oil light of death' prior to the installation of the plate? pete

This is interesting and contrary to the expeience of myself and others. What sort of pressure guage are you using? Is it a mechanical type or one with an electronic sender? The reason I ask is because current draw tends to increase when the engine is under heavy load. If the guage uses an electronic sender then the drop in pressure may be related to this. Another possibility is that you already have damaged or ovalized bearings and when extremely heavily loaded pressure drop off will be higher than when running under light load. If there is a significant drop off I'd be looking for another cause. The plate is there to prevent pick up exposure. Pressure should be good or, if the pick-up is exposed, non existant! If it's simply dropping off a bit then I think it's something else. Pete

The Hi-Cam was all Todero's. I always feel a bit miffed about Witner taking the credit for the spine frame. Tony Foale was building spineframe Guzzis that bore a remarkable resemblance to the early 1100 Sport C machines when Dr.John was still campaigning Tonti's. I believe that he actually visited Foale, saw the design and used it and never gave Tony credit. Not saying this is the absolute truth but I do know for certain that Foale's spineframe design pre-dated the Witner racers. Pete

Six stone weakling they might be but they will SMELL like a wet bear and LOOK so odd that everyone will be afraid of them, even the big bloke who used to kick sand in their face at the beach! Pete

Couple of things. I hope that when the cam was replaced the followers were too? Secondly, before you become completely woebegone whip the offending rocker off and check the pushrod. It's not unknown for the ends to come loose/fall off or the rod to simply mushroom and collapse. What year is the bike? 2003 seems to have been a bad year for cam hardening! Pete

Guzzi use tri-metal bearings which are theoretically superior to the bi-metal ones used in most engines. Since their purpose is to remain separated from the journal on which they run I've never really found out why this is so and its not one of those things I as a mere mechanic feel it is vital to know so I just have another beer instead and dont think about it too hard . To answer the question Dave they look 'Coppery' after they've got cooked and oil has burnt onto them. It's essentially the same sort of discolouration you'll see on the underside of piston crowns after they have been in service a long time. Pete

Raz! It was admitted that he was bouncing it off the rev limiter! Would you do that with a borrowed bike! Shit! I won't do that with my own bike! At the local Italian bike day last Sunday I was amazed by the number of festerheads a lot older than the kid who in the 'Sound off' thought that holding their nearly cold engines on the RL was a 'Cool' thing to do. It's not. It's a moronic thing to do and it doesn't even sound good. One 'tard even said "I dunno why it puffs smoke like that when I do it?" Cut out the spark to two of four cylinders but keep adding fuel and it'll puff smoke! Morons! He's damned by his own admission. Yes he's only 16. Oddly enough I was once too. I had a shitty old BSA A10 that I HAD to fix myself because no other bugger would. Some of my mates had much more modern tackle, one of 'em even had a Honda 750-4! He was a s close to God as anyone got! I wouldn't of dared ride it, never mind rev it till it broke! Sorry. It's exactly the sort of attitude that says "It's not my fault I stabbed that pensioner and stole their handbag! It's because I come from a broken home and don't have enough money for a Ferrarri and an in-ground swimming pool!" Kack! BS! Cobblers! Rubbish! Too many excuses. Not enough bloody responsibility! Pete

No. THE KID pays to repair it otherwise he'll carry on being a selfish, ungrateful retard. AND you add in a BIG component of what is known as 'C-u-n-t Tax' to the bill. Friend or no friend his brat needs to be taught a short, sharp lesson. If it was one of my loathsome offspring they'd be living under the house and eating snails until the bill was paid and I'd be beating them half to death on a daily basis, just on principle! Pete