How to stop engine pinging

[Ouiji Veck]

Run double gaskets and put nitrous through it.

Crap...you could even keep up with a CBR 600 then!

[pete roper]

Run double gaskets and put nitrous through it.

Crap...you could even keep up with a CBR 600 then!

 

 

For the few seconds before the con rods snap like rotten carrots!

 

Pete

[Ouiji Veck]

For the few seconds before the con rods snap like rotten carrots!

 

Pete

 

Ha! Yea but for that one shining moment .....!

 

Every time I look @ the Guzzi dyno charts I end up on e-bay looking @ Ducatis

Then I remember I don't like riding around above 4000 rpms all the time.

 

The little blue and red squiggly lines are antithetical to all things Guzzi to me.

Once I got the LeMans rolling there ain't too many people going by me if I don't want 'em to.

Thing is.. I couldn't care less if someone goes by me. I'd either think "nice move" or "friggin' jerk"

depending on the situation. In fact I love to see one of my friends slide around me having a ball.

It's all such great and wonderous fun but a lot of people are missing the joy of grabbing a handful of Guzzi on an impossible mountain switch back from 2500rpms..(ooops I shoulda down shifted!......aww..who cares)

 

My point? Work the ping problem out and forget about tweaking the nth HP out of the fat pig.

You wanna go really really really fast? Faster than people with 30 more HP than you?

Work on your skills, keep your tires fresh and tune your suspension.

 

Oh yea...run world specs on your valves. She'll love you, love you long time.

(Can you tell it's a cold rainy day in Ct.?)

[Pierre]

Ha! Yea but for that one shining moment .....!

 

Every time I look @ the Guzzi dyno charts I end up on e-bay looking @ Ducatis

Then I remember I don't like riding around above 4000 rpms all the time.

...

Ouiji, I take your point. However, I feel compelled to observe that I came to Guzzi's from Harley big twins. When I was making that transition it seemed to me Guzzis were revy things compared to the just off idle full torque of a Harley. So when you mention you don't like having to spin it beyond 4K all the time, may I remind you that there's a whole world of pretty aggressive riders out there mounted on bikes who also can "remember" they don't care to ride around much above 2K all the time.

 

I am reminded of an old comedic shtick. In short, I hate to see us get into the "if he's going faster than me he's an idiot, and if he's going slower than me he's a moron" mentality.

 

[GuzziMoto]

I am reminded of an old comedic shtick. In short, I hate to see us get into the "if he's going faster than me he's an idiot, and if he's going slower than me he's a moron" mentality.

 

That is so true.

[Skeeve]

I am reminded of an old comedic shtick. ... "if he's going faster than me he's an idiot, and if he's going slower than me he's a moron" mentality.

 

 

George Carlin, philosopher for the common man!

[Ouiji Veck]

Ha!

That's more of an "eye opener" than a "reminder" Pierre.

Revy Guzzy...who'd a thought?

I get it though. Those HDs must be a blast in their own way.

 

[raz]

Decreasing the squish clearance, which is often 2-3mm on a production Guzzi is more easily accomplished. The "right" way is to mill the base-gasket surface. It is "right" because then the cylinder swept area remains unaltered. The easier way is to experiment with the various-thickness base gaskets (at elast three different thicknesses are available, from the thin V700 base gaskets to the stock V11 base gaskets) available to get tighter squish clearance. On my Eldo, to get the clearance down to what I wanted required running it without base gaskets at all. Note, though, that using thinner base gaskets means at TDC the rings will now contact higher up on the cylinder. If there is appreciable wear to the cylinder, this could make a difference.

I'm sure this is just me being stupid... but I can't for the life of me understand why you would mill the base of the cylinder and not the top of it. Milling the base must be just the same as altering the base gasket thickness, in every aspect. Please tell me what I got wrong.

[GuzziMoto]

I'm sure this is just me being stupid... but I can't for the life of me understand why you would mill the base of the cylinder and not the top of it. Milling the base must be just the same as altering the base gasket thickness, in every aspect. Please tell me what I got wrong.

Milling the base of the cylinder is the same as using thinner base gaskets. In my opinion it does not matter whether you mill the top of the cylinder or the bottom. They are not exactly the same thing but the differences are minor and of detail nature (like the aforementioned altering of where the piston runs in the cylinder if you mill the bottom. You can mill the top of the cylinder and as that is usually an easier thing to do it is often cheaper. It also does not change where the piston runs in the cylinder. Exceptions to this are some Ducatis and such that use a lip in the top of the cylinder instead of a gasket and it is harder to mill the top then the bottom. So you can fly cut around the inner cylinder at the bottom. If you mill too much off the bottom you need to make sure the inner cylinder is also shortened to keep the crank from hitting it. If you do mill the top you want to make sure the guy doing it and his equipment are in good shape as the sealing of the top is much more important then at the bottom.

I have milled the tops of the cylinders and the bottoms of the heads on my wifes V11 to reduce pinging and it worked, although it has been claimed on this site by some that I don't own a V11, have never set one up, and don't ride one (or something to that effect).

[Tom M]

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?

[GuzziMoto]

Oh Jeez, if I knew there was going to be a quiz on it I would have studied.

Seriously, I don't remember off hand. I would have to look it up (if I can find it). What I do remember was that it was about 1/2 of the height of the chamfer at the edge of the chamber. I wanted to remove almost all of the chamfer but wasn't sure if I would have clearance issues then. So I went with half the chamfer. If I can come up with more exact numbers I'll let you know.

[motoguzznix]

Oh Jeez, if I knew there was going to be a quiz on it I would have studied.

Seriously, I don't remember off hand. I would have to look it up (if I can find it). What I do remember was that it was about 1/2 of the height of the chamfer at the edge of the chamber. I wanted to remove almost all of the chamfer but wasn't sure if I would have clearance issues then. So I went with half the chamfer. If I can come up with more exact numbers I'll let you know.

At the first attempt, me too removed 1/2 of the chamfer.

But to get a serious squish area I removed the complete chamfer in the meantime. But no experience yet, the engine is still not in service. I'm sure it will do better.