pete roper

Yup! Enraging! Even with the bike up on the hoist I ended up having to grovel about and work 'em round with a cold chisel and then have at 'em with the vice-grips! All the while contorted into the shape of an obese, angry, serpent and looking at it upside down! I dunno whether these bolts have loctite on or whether they simply seize in because they aren't taken out very often and crud can get down the threads from the top of some of them but for people inexperienced in getting this sort of stuck munt out it can be a real chore. A good idea is to BEFORE you try and turn the bolts with your allen key, (I have Snap-On allen key sockets that are second to none and fit the caps of the screws well! Don't even think of trying el'cheapo keys!) use a big hammer and a broad, flat, punch to shock the bolts by striking the punch directly onto the head of the bolt with the hit-o-meter. This will sometimes help by breaking the layer of electrolyic corrosion between the bolt and the alloy making it easier to remove them. Note I say *sometimes* Pete

There is always one. Sometimes there are three! (Bolts that are seized that is!) Took me five f*cking hours to get the sump off this Centauro I have in at the moment but it's now done! Hooray! So I now have something to hack about with to get the slopage sheet prototype underway! Pete

I have to admit, (Gosh what a surprise!) that I'm no real fan of the smallblocks in engineering terms. As a ride?! Brilliant! second to none, especially given their period. BUT they require a hiher level of maintenance than the big blocks and a dedication bordering on fanaticism if ridden hard. Greg has it right bt for possibly a more generous view than that of us two hardened old cynics try talking to Sean Fader who works at Guzzi Classics in LA. Not only is he a great fan of the smallblocks, he races one! If anyone can give you the good oil it will probably be him, Greg's mate or ???? There's a bloke on some of the lists... scratches head.... Mike Wilson??? Who is another smallblock nutter. I'm happy to admit that a lot of my feelings about smallblocks are pure, unbridled, predjudice, but I can't belive that your mate can't find a decent big block within 500 miles??? Pete

Well, just to return to this hoary old chestnut I stuck a Z6 Sportec on the back of the Griso last week. The local tyre wallah reckoned this was the second most sticky tyre after their TOTR 'Tracktec' or 'Racetec', some such silly name. I went to the coast this wekend and managed to scrubb it in fairly well on Friday. The ride down was uneventful but fun but on the way back up on Sunday I managed to get involved in a bit of pretty serious silliness with a Fireblade, a CBR600 and a 749 Deadcat. Now I don't think any of 'em had their suspension set up particularly well but I was amazed by how well the big 'G' aquitted itself. Given that it has to be down a minimum of 25BHP on any of that lot as well as being a great porker, (never mind the fact that I, also a great porker, was piloting it!). The CBR 600 and the Deadcat were both being ridden by women considerably lighter than me, (I'd bloody hope so unless they had some sort of hideous hormonal complaint!) but I managed to stay ahead of both of them all the way up the mountain and even the bloke on the Fartblood couldn't get away until we got to more open country! The new rear tyre also aquitted itself with aplomb only breaking loose once under severe provocation. All in all, great fun and nice to see Guzzi still punching well above it's weight Oh, Incidentally the on-board datalogger was re-set before departure from Bungendore yesterday and on my return it told me I'd ridden for 419Km, max speed was 182kph, average speed was 98kph and fuel consumption was 6.3 litres per 100Km. Not bad for an obsolete old air cooled sh!tbox with a shaft drive I didn't think! My beach house is almost exactly 160Km/100 miles from my home in Bungendore, on the way there are seven townships tou have to slow down for, Braidwood, Nelligen, Batemans Bay, Mogo, Moruya, Bodalla and Narooma. All of these have at least a couple of Km of 50/60Kph zone and two of them, Batemans Bay and Moruya are big enough to be verminous with traffic lights and other trip-slowing road-munt. Apart from that 30Km dash up the mountain I never felt I was *pushing it* but the big 'G' just hoovers up the miles. Yes, it needs a fairing of some sort for longer trips but really at the sort of speeds it's safe to travel at retain any hope of keeping your licence it doesn't really need it apart from for comfort in a strong headwind. While there have been a few reported problems wth Griso's I'd have to suggest that generally the level of customer saisfaction is much higher and the problems more minor, (The early CARC problem apart.) than anything that has come out of Mandello for a generation. I'm rapt, as you may of noticed, Apart from the most basic of servicing and one new tyre I haven't had to do ANYTHING to it apart from put petrol in it and turn the key. And that, lets face it, is how it should be Pete

Ah! Gearbox noise! There has just been a service bulletin posted up on the service site stating that some bikes have noisy gearboxes and it has been identified that this is because of some embuggerance with the input shaft on the gearbox. The details of what frame numbers are affected is included in an attatched PDF file but when I try and open it, guess what? A little service notice pops up and tells me that the file is irreparably broken (Smashes head on keyboard!) I'm off to the beach for the weekend tomorrow but post the pics up and I'll try and see if i can work out where the gribblies are coming from when I get back. Oh, and also can I post up pics direct to this site? I changed the tyre on the G today and found that i could, with a bit of sodding about, use my V11 paddock stand to lift it's arse up to get the wheel out. I took some pics and can try and load 'em up here if I can? Pete

North Leicester Motorcycles have afairly comprehensive stock of old Morini Munt I believe? Also Phil Doland who runs the Oz board also has a stock of weird and wonderfull crap for 'em. Is it a 3 &1/2 or a 500? Pete

Sounds like you've got a dud! I'd take it back and complain bitterly to whoever you got it from. I personally would never of sent out a bike with a known oil light problem even if it did have pressure! What sort of confidence is that going to inspire in a new owner? When you say it' eveloped a leak a few inches before the back wheel where exactly? On the CARC joint with the swingarm? If so it may be that the seal on the output shaft of the gearbox has had it or the rubber boot on the front of the CARC unit has ripped or come loose, (At least they're the most obvious suspects.) If it's coming from the back of the gearbox somewhere I'd double check the oil level in the box. It seems some dealers think that the filler hole is also a level plug, it isn't! The gearbox takes 500ml of oil and with this amount in the level with the bike upright is a little below the hole. If the box has been filled up to the level of the hole, especially if this was done with the bike on the sidestand it is grossly over filled and will be asking for leaks and clucth oiling problems. Pete

While I haven't bothered looking at how it works the oil light system works it is obviously different on the Griso, (And I'd guess the Breva and Norge.) to the earlier models. When you turn on the ignition the whole instrument console lights up like a gay mardi-gras after it's told you what you're riding, . The tach needle sweeps around and then everything except the sidestand warning light and the neutral light goes out. I can only suppose that the oil light should ONLY come on if there is a sudden loss of pressure? Given that your bike hasn't made the 'Dogga-Dogga' noise it obviously has pressure, what a pain though! Incidentally the instrument console, if the problem is in there, retails for something ridiculous like $1146.00AU, (I looked it up on the parts site last night as someone over at the Griso.com site was having a prolem with his.) You wouldn't want to break it! Another think worth getting done at the first service is get the fuel pipe in the tank replaced. There have been two instances now of people having the fuel pipe come off between the pump and filter. It's the same problem as has occured on some Cali's, the hose is clamped with inferior crip fittings that apparently move on the sheath on the hose. I'll be pulling mine off next service, (before the weather warms up!) and replacing the hoses and the clamps with *proper* EFI fuel hose and some decent hose clamps. While I haven't had the bottom off the tank yet I'm told it isn't a big job so it's better than risking it and ending up stuck out in the back of beyond with no fuel getting to the injectors! I've not had a ingle problem with my Griso! It runs like a top, I've never even had to plug the Axone into it, it just does everything perfectly Pete

While this topic isn't really V11 or Guzzi related, (Bill never said it was.) I do think it has general relevance. This sort of insidious stupidness is a creeping disease. It may move at a fairly glacial pace but it does move. The problem being that while, at the moment, the *rules* may only be being applied on US army bases you can bet your bottom dollar that next time some *safety* obsessed politician or desk-driver decides that they are going to do something, anything, to limit the carnage caused bt two-wheeled death-traps they will go trawling looking for pre-existing rules and regs, (Easier and less effort than actually doing proper research and coming up with any new ideas!). In the USA especially, probably far more than many other countries, the military is revered and honoured to the point where it is, in a lot of quarters, seen as almost traitorous to question *anything* about their rules, actions or behavior. this ISN'T a criticism, simply an observation made by an *outsider* who has spent time in the US. This attitude means that it makes it VERY difficult to be critical of *army* rules if you're an outsider, or at least I imagine it would. That doesn't mean that you couldn't, perish the thought, 'Free Speech' and all that, but it does mean that there are going to be a substantial number of people, and probably people who matter, who will effectively dismiss any criticism from such quarters as the ravings of wild-eyed, commo, loonys. So we have the potential for these wonderful new *Safety Initiatives* to bee seen and adopted by civil juristictions in the USA for everyday use, maybe only in a couple of states, but then some time wasting, tea sipper in Brussels will notice it and start a hue and cry to have the same, eminently sensible rules, introduced in Europe. I mean if it has the blessing of certain people in the USA, (And almost certainly some spurious statistics to back it up!) it will be an ideal opportunity to *prove* the effectiveness of such measures with almost no cost, leaving loads more money to fund the shiny-bum-gravy-train that is the EU beaurocracy! Shortly thereafter some sleepy-eyed idiot in Canberra will be trawling the net trying to download cyber-porn at his workstation and will stumble across it and see the ideal opportunity to make a name for himself as the 'Great Protector' of road safety. I mean if it's good enough for Europe and the USA then it has to be good doesn't it? And if we try and make as much of this legislation *universal* won't it make things easy for everybody! It's a creeping disease as I said! Personally I have no problem with helmet compulsion, I also am very glad to see that over the years most riders have chosen to start wearing the best protective gear they can get or afford, but this has come about not through 'Compulsion' but through education and also, to a certain degree, the 'Cool' factor. For serious riders it is not only seen as silly but also 'Un-cool' to ride without decent protective gear, that's a good thing, and modern protective gear is a lot more comfortable and offers better protection by far than the stuff I used to have to ride with when I was a kid. BUT!!!! while bright colours *may* help with visibility, (Most modern riding gear makes you look like you're wearing a clown suit!) being *visible* even if you're wearing a silly day-glo vest won't protect you from errant drivers, poorly maintained roads or machinery OR the false sense of security that such safety equipment *can* engender in some people, especially the young, nieve and inexperienced. To get back to the original point Bill is probably in a fairly unique position in this case as he is an *insider* within the armed forces, (Yes, yes Bill, I know you've retired and only work as a contractor but you are respected and have *clout*. That helps a lot!) he can't simply be dismissed as some crazed rat-bag and can at least TRY to fight this sort of stupidness 'At Source' as it were, an opportunity not available to the rest of us. This isn't an issue of *freedom*, a word that is IMHO bandied around far too freely and in relation to things far less important and therefore de-valued. It's simply a matter of common sense and a need to fight the continual production of more and more un-neccessary and counter productive legislation. I don't see it as soley a US issue Ben, it's ramifications go much further than that. And I noticed that Bill did cross post his msg. on WG and then the site crashed! Perhaps he is a raving Commo after all and the depasrtment of homeland security felt compelled to shut WG down to silence his crazed, seditious rantings Pete

While Nogger's suggestion is a possibiluty I have to say I think it unlikely in this case. The usual scenario with the welded pushrod is on bikes with a cable operated clutch whhich has not had the arm adjusted. The situation for pre-loading the actuating system simply shouldn't exist with a hydraulic clutch and given the circumstances where the problem occured my best guess is that either the friction material has started separating from the plates, one of the pates has torn it's centre out or the intermediate plate is warped. Any-which-way I think you're going to have to go into the clutch for a looksee. Tedious and for a beginner time consuming but not particularly difficult! There' are probably instructions in a thread on this board somewhere otherwise we can puppy-walk you through it. Pete

Sorry people, I will continue with this but I've been having to deal with a family crisis in England in the last week as well as doing everyday *work* and stuff. Incidentally if anybody is around in the SE/ East Anglia region between the 10th and 28th of September I'll be in Cambridge visting my Mum if anyone wants to save me and take me out for a beer! I'll generally be very busy as I'm going to have to try and get my Mum to accept it's time for here to move into some sort of sheltered accomodation, (She's 92!) and it ain't going to be easy or pleasant and my brother is NO help at all, even though he lives there Pete

Oh look! There's a Unicorn! And a squadron of flying pigs! And some Mermaids! And a brace of Phoenixes! and.......... Pete

I wasn't kidding! I opened my Hillier and Pittuck to do a bit of revision and what looked suspiciously like a mummified human ear fell out of the' Functions and Properties of Lubricants' chapter. Now, my admittedly failing memory tells me that this is either; a.) The result of a fight I indadvertently was dragged into with a mob of Milwall supporters in Morden after a particularly nasty grudge match with Wimbledon in '86 OR, b.) A bit of a particularly nasty kebab, also found in Morden at about the same time. While the absence of blood makes me think 'Kebab' there are also bits of human hair. Mind you, knowing the kebab shops in Morden in '86 the presence of human hair definitley doesn't rule *kebab* out of the equation! Sometimes I'm glad I'm not young any more! Pete

DAve, the top picture is the original Bruno Scola plate we were running in the race bike, as tou can see it has a long *tang* of metal in the middle, being rough-cut from 1mm alluminium that tang is prone to fracture, guess how I know. My Tonti plates are very similar but are lazer-cut out of 2mm stainless, heavier for sure but for a road bike? Also I've deleted the tang and made a couple of other what I think are worthwhile mods which make them robust and durable. When i do the ones for the V11's I'll also be doing them in 2mm stainless. Anyone who wants to go with 1mm alloy can but the forces in the case do cause flexure in thin alloy and fatigue soon sets in. I'd preffer to go for the do it once and it'll last forever principle rather than simply saving the sort of weight I could save by having a really good sh!t before I go for a ride Pete

Oh Boy! OK, lets try tackling this one Perhaps the best way to start is by looking at what forces are catually going to be working on the oil in the bearings. We'll keep it very simple, we won't go into Brake Mean Effective Pressure, Volumetric Efficiency or Thermal Efficiency, we'll just look at some very basic figures. A four stroke engine has, not surprisingly, four strokes. An induction stroke where a new charge is pushed into the cylinder, a compression stroke where that mixture is compressed, a firing or power stroke where the work is done and an exhaust stroke where the spent gas and waste heat is expelled from the cylinder. All this happens in TWO revolutions of the crank or 720 degrees of rotation. Now we'll ignore valve timing, harmonics, self-supercharging and scavenge, fricional losses betweeen piston and bore etc. end gasses and the like and just work on absolutes. As the piston reaches the bottom of it's induction stroke the cylinder will be full of new charge at atmospheric pressure, OK so it sits there with 14PSI, (One atosphere.) both above and below the piston. The inlet valve closes and the piston moves mack up the bore. Because it's easy we'll say we have a 10 to 1 compression ratio so when the piston reaches the top of it's stroke the pressure ill be ten times what it was when the piston began it's upward movement so at TDC compression there is already 140PSI acting on the top of the piston. Then the mixtrure is ignited and the pressure rise is immeiately immense, lets say it rises by a factor of ten! So now, all of a sudden, you have a force of 1,400 Lbs per square inch pushing on top of the piston! That's a lot of force and it is that acting through the connecting rod to the crank that makes the crank spin! The thing is that before it can impart thrust to the crank pin it has to work on that thin film of oil that is separating the bearing in the connecting rod from the journal. So what is happening to that oil and what does it have to be able to do to perform it's task. Lets look at friction, you know, what makes your hands warm when you rub them together on a cold night. When two surfaces are in contact there is an opposition to relative movement between them and this is what friction is. If the surfaces are clean and dry the force needed to overcome the friction depends on. a.) the matrial from which the parts are made. b.) The surface finish, if it's rough or smooth or polished. c.) the load pressing the bits together. For any clean dry surfaces the co-efficient of friction can be calculated by Resistance to movement divided by the load pressing the two together. When the static friction is overcome *work* is done and an eqivalent amount of heat is generated. In any bearing where the bits actually touch this heat has to be got rid of somehow otherwise it will build up and the bearing will rapidly fail. So what is the answer? Obviously there is one otherwise all our plain bearings would fail very early in the piece with 1400Lbs/In2 acting on them 100 times a second! Well it's very easy really. You simply don't let the bearings touch! And THIS is where the Yak Fat comes in!!!!! Lubricant! Beautiful, glossy, slippery, golden Yak Fat!!!! A liquid that can be pushed in between the two parts that are moving relative to one another! The thing is that all the energy that otherwise would be going to cook the bearings still has to be dissipated and got rid of, it's just that it is not done by being absorbed by the material of the bearings, (The alloy or babbit of the shells or the journal.) but it's absorbed by the Yak Fat! And the HUGE advantage of this is that because it is a liquid it GOES AWAY! That's right! It takes the heat and f@cks off with it, meaning the bearings don't overheat! Brilliant!!!!! What governs how good it is at this is the "Viscosity" of the fat! Viscosity is the property of the fuid by which they will resist flow: The greater the viscosity the greater the resistance to flow and vice versa, but also there is a direct correlation between this and the fat's ability to transport heat. Thus the friction in the lubricated bearing is dependent on the lubricant's viscosity but it is a careful ballancing act depending on a variety of factors. The forces imposed on the bearing, the oil's viscosity and ability to transfer heat, the flow rate of the oil through the bearing when it is *squeezed* by the forces acting upon it and the size of the bearing and journal that is having to carry the load. Obviously if you use a higher viscosity oil it will be able to carry away more heat. But if say you use an oil with a viscosity that will allow you to take away say??? 20 joules of energy in ten seconds at a certain flow rate you are still going to be going out arse first compared with if you have an oil that will take away 10 joules in ten seconds but it's flow rate is four times faster. Does that make sense? OK, think about that for a bit and I'll continue and we'll look at the formation and properties of the Hydro-Dynamic wedge. Pete (Rushing off to his selection of crappy old outdated text-books again )

Paul, as soon as I have a V11 in for a service I'll get something under way but I'm not going to do this by guesswork, I want to make sure I get everything in the right place and have adequate drainage but without marginalising the plate's ablity to prevent slop. I can't safely do that without a model to work on. Pete

Errr, Mike. 6,000 divided by sixty= 100. That's the reason I chose 6,000 RPM in my original piece, it makes the sums real easy. ay 6000RPM the crank is spinning 100 times a second. Hubert said; *This is a dynamic effect, purely based on the relative movement between gliding surfaces (of proper quality). The resulting pressure achieves values a hundred or thousand times higher than these poor 3 bars the pump may deliver. In fact, if the gap between the surfaces is small enough the pressure theoretically can reach infinite values! This happens every time the bearing is under load, the gap in the loaded area becomes very small with a resulting very strong but thin oil film, on the opposite side it gets bigger and the pressure falls* This is one of the things that I'm going to cover in my next little rant, it is probably the mostcritical factor governing plain bearings' superiority over rolling elements BUT As previously stated there is NO SUCH THING AS SUCK and while residual lubrication is a wonderful thing it certainly isn't sufficient to protect heavily loaded surfaces like big ends at full noise, even for a brief period. I've got a couple of hours spare this afternoon and I'll go through it and present MY argument on the subject. Whether people agree or not is up to them but I think that they will find the logic incontrovertable. Pete

Dave, a couple of things here and PLEASE don't take this the wrong way. When I said (In I think the *other* post.) that the amount of oil required was the amount that prevented the problem of pressurisation and windage throwing oil out of the breather was the *right* amount this was of course assuming that there would be sufficient in the sump for performing it's alloted task, which is to lubricate and COOL! The latter is very important, you could probably get a way with 1/2 a litre of oil being re-circulated as long as it was changed very frequently and could return to the sump or be scavenged quickly enough for LUBRICATION purposes but as I'll endeavor to explain in my next little rant about the lubrication system one of the primary tasks of the oil is to remove heat, not from combustion, but from the frictional forces within the oil as the bearings work upon them. As I said before the corect amount of oil is *sufficient* for it to perform it's tasks of cooling and lubrication without getting expelled, if it gets expelled until there isn't enough for it to perform those tasks then, sorry, the crankcase isn't big enough. D'you understand? The capacity of the motor isn't just *Above* the pistons, it's below as well. Although the 90 degree configuration offsets the true capacity difference from Max to Min it is stil appreciable and is one of the three causes of oil expulsion. Secondly 'Blow By' isn't the issue here, I'm sorry but you are using a technical term incorrectly. Can I suggest that if you don't know the correct terms you try and use alternative, non-technical descriptions of what you're trying to say otherwise you just muddy the water and will, more importantly, confuse other people. I can extrapolate what you're trying to say but it is technically incorrect. I'm NOT trying to have a go or 'Put you down' but using incorrect terminology will confuse people and eventually make things more difficult for everyone. If people want an explanation of some of the technical terms that I and others use in relation to motors or are confused PLEASE ASK! Most of it is common sense, but that is easily lost if several people are using the same, often incorrect term, for a part or phenomenon. As I said, I'm NOT having a go at you, please understand that, I'm sure you think I'm some sort of crazed Nazi, I'm not actually, but it IS important that everybody understands and uses the terminology correctly. Pete

I think you'll find that the real pro's do have pick-up modifications on some of their bikes. pete

Thanks for that, I hadn't seen that pic before. There is no 'Manhole' on the Breva/Griso sump. The filter just sits there in it's cavity. Pete

Just for the record I think that there have essentially been three lengths of dipstick and consequently the level of the oil in relation to the crank has changed. The early motors, up to the LeMans II/T3, prior to the fitting of the sump extension, used a *short* stick. The quantity of oil specified for the motor was the same, 3 litres give or take, but obviously without the sump extension three litres would bring the level up higher and closer to the crank than on later engines with the extension and that is indicated on the short sticks. Problems first started presenting themselves when the engine capacity was increased from 750 to 850cc. Not only did the stroker crank mean that the pin, web counterballancers and rods came closer to the oil, (The 850 crank has an 8mm longer throw so it gets everything 4mm closer to the oil.) increasing the windage problem but also the increase in the diferential between the crankcase's maximum and minimum volume increased to the point where oil expul;sion through the breather began to be an irritating issue. When the bore was increased to 88mm to take the motor out to 950 the situation became critical, hence the fitting of the extension, it's main purpose is to move the oil away from the crank and increase the volume of the case. With the extension fitted, (or in the case of the later Tonti's the one piece 'Deep Sump'.) the dipstick was extended and the 'Full' mark moved lower comensurate with the depth of the extension. While if ring seal is a bit dodgy the 950's will still tend to puke a bit of oil out through the breather the system usually copes OK. The 1100's, even in the Tonti frame, don't seem to pump out oil as vigorously as the earlier models but I think this may be due to the fact they are geared 14% higher at the rear wheel and probably don't get the tits reved off them like we used to back in the '80's. With the advent of the 'Broad Sump' I *think* the dipstick length was increased again and the level lowered slightly, this is probably the result of two things, 1.) the need was felt to move the oil level further from the crank, (Once again a longer stroke! As well as a bigger bore.) to prevent windage picking up oil so effectively and 2.) the addoption of the *broad* design meant that less depth was needed for the same, perfectly adequate, quantity of oil. The unfortunate thing though is that due to the forward mounted pick up and the sloppage problem a lower *static* level also translates into a greater chance of pick-up exposure under hard acceleration conditions and THAT is where we find ourselves today! My theory, which on earlier engines seems to have been bourne out by experience and rigorous testing both on the road and track, is that the windage issue, (oil being picked up from the sump and/or kept in suspension in the air inside the case and therefore being more prone to being pumped out and overwhelming the condensor system.) can be addressed very effectively by fitting some sort of primitive windage/baffle tray between the block and the sump spacer, (or sump on 1100 Tontis.). Once the tray is installed the oil level should be just BELOW the level of the plate. With the Broad Sump models this too will be possible with a plate in place as the plate will perform the same function of effectively separating the oil in the sump from the cyclonic forces exerted on it by the spinning crank. This may well mean that you can get a bit more oil in the sump without risk of it being breathed out which, along with the plate to hinder rearward slop, will also help prevent pick-up exposure, so double bonus there! Another advantage I have found using a tray in my old Tontis are that my engine runs appreciably cooler with a tray installed, (I have both oil pressure and temperature guages on my SP.). My thoughts are that with the tray installed oil returning to the sump and in the sump is less aerated and therefore able to dump heat through the sump fins more effectively, air is a superb insulator and aerated oil won't be able to dump heat by conduction to the sump walls as effectively as de-aerated oil. As a rider to this statement though I know Greg was having heat problems with the 'Super Eldo' and fitting one of my plates didn't make an appreciable difference I don't think? I firmly believe that the MAJOR problem is simply one of rearward slop exposing the pick-up. Address that by doing something to prevent the slop, (And a plate is easy to make and install.) an I reckon that the problem will simply disappear. Whether people agree or not is entirely up to them but I'll STILL wager a Barnyard full of Bunyips that I'm right. Pete

Interesting thing that. It's not like it's anything new, most of the engines from the mid seventies to the early nineties at least had at least one drilling in the *shoulder* of the rod at about 2 O'clock in the big end, some of 'em had two, one at 2 O'clock, one at 10 O'clock, with holes in the big end shells that matched up. That way as the crank spun oil would be spat out of the holes. While I'm sure there *must* be a reason I can't see one? All the bits like the undersides of the pistons and the bores etc. are going to get a lavish and continuous spray of oil and vapour from the torrents of oil pouring off the side clearance of the rods on the crank, oil picked up by windage from the sump by the spinning crank and spray from the cam lobes and jets from the camshaft cross-drillings. Belive me, it's a hot and VERY wet environment in there. While it may be cynical of me I suspect that a fair bit of the *need* for such things as under-piston oil jets is because they look good and are easily understandable on publicity materials. I mean a nice little *engineering* drawing of a rod on a journal with a piston on the end with a little fountain of oil coming off and hitting something obviously hot, like the underside of the piston crown, makes perfect sense, until you think that at 6,000RPM it's all spinning around at 100 times a second and the cyclonic forces are IMMENSE. The crank and everything else are spinning around in what, God forbid, if you tried to breathe it would be a hot, oily, swamp gas! How is any *jet* from a tiny little hole in the rod going to achieve anything? One other thought to ponder in case you think I'm just a complete freak who hasn't thought it through. Neither Carillos, or the Argo rods we use in our race bike, or any other *performance* rod I know of use *oil jets*. Why? My guess is because puting holes in the shoulders of the big ends will weaken the rods and produce a stress point from which cracks could migrate. Look at an '80's Guzzi rod with the drillings and you'll see that they are countersunk top and bottom to prevent stress raisers! Sorry, I think it's a wank. Pete

Externally, apart from the filter being in a *cavity* and therefore actually easily changed it is deeper and narrower than the 'Broad Sump' design. If you look at some of the publicity guff I think they have a computer generated image of it's internals in there somewhere but needless to say all it shows is a box with a series of silly looking multi-coloured tubes in it, while you probably could work out what is going where by studying it at length most of us have more interesting things to do like watching the all North Korean tiddly-winks championships on pay TV Next oil change I'll be pulling the sump off my 'G' for a looksee, at that point I'll take a few happy-snaps and try to re-learn how to post them up, much easier than trying to understand some Geek's computer mock-up! Sorry Keith, I can't tell you anything more than that yet, but I've mono'd the poor thing a few times now, (by mistake I might add!) and no sign of an oil light coming on yet, although the oil light system is a bit different on the new ones, it comes on when you turn on the ignition, the instument pod goes through it's silly hoop-la then all the lights, apart from the sidetand warning and neutral, go out Buggered if I know, but it hasn't started squeaking yet so it must have some oil in it somewhere Pete

If you don't understand you're obviously far too young Pete

Kilo, while not directly V11 relevant if you want to see an examination of a Guzzi Big Block motor coming apart and going back together I did a photo journal of a Mk IV LeMans engine rebuild I did and it's posted up, with extensive pics at. Apart from the sump the motor is pretty much the same as the V11. http://www.guzzitech.dk/english/index.htm Look in the left hand column and go to the 'Engine strip. (With pictures.)' Jens's site is actually a treasure trove of links, you'll find all sorts of interesting an vital stuff from people like Greg Bender and Greg Field linked there. If you want some good info? It's on Jens's site! Why Denmark??? Why not! It's as good as anywhere else Pete