400 capri ?

[dangerous]

hey check this out http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/motorbikes/motorbikes/classic-vintage/auction-512612774.htm be it a thou over priced tell me if its a 2 valve head or 4 valve head? I thought only the 650 and some 350's were 4 valve heads?

[Admin Jaap]

New to me too! Maybe a model for the Japanese market?

[GuzziMoto]

It looks like a 400cc version of a V65 Lario.

4 valve heads.

[dangerous]

yeah its a jap import, bet we had them new here too, just thought they were 2v heads...

[Skeeve]

hey check this out http://www.trademe.co.nz/motors/motorbikes/motorbikes/classic-vintage/auction-512612774.htm be it a thou over priced tell me if its a 2 valve head or 4 valve head? I thought only the 650 and some 350's were 4 valve heads?

 

4v valve covers; don't think those would fit on 2v heads. Ad copy says it equates to a 350 ImolaII which is one of the 4v 350s, iirc. Likely just a 1mm overbore cylinder or ? to bring it up to the 400cc "not quite a big bike" cutoff for Japanese licensing regs [do they still do that, or have they changed? The driving test for a bike over 400cc used to be rather insane, something out of a police motor training gymkhana here in the States...]

[dangerous]

so at the end of the day what Im asking is do the 350/400 4v head engines have the bad rep that the 4v head 650 has?

[GuzziMoto]

I don't know. But the wife has a 4 valve head Lario that has not blown up yet (about 10k miles on it). Plus the bad rep seems to be from using springs that are too stiff and if you are worried it should be fairly easy to replace them with softer springs.

[dangerous]

I don't know. But the wife has a 4 valve head Lario that has not blown up yet (about 10k miles on it). Plus the bad rep seems to be from using springs that are too stiff and if you are worried it should be fairly easy to replace them with softer springs.

So just refresh my memory... the issues with the 4v 650 was valves braking or heads braking due to a lack of meat thanks to 4 valves? or was/is it something else?

[GuzziMoto]

Since the one we have has had zero problems, all I can say is what I have heard. And that was that the valve heads can break off the valve stems. This has been blamed on Guzzi using the same valve springs they used for two valve heads on the smaller 4 valve heads. Is that true? I do not know. But it is what I have heard.

As I said, ours has not had any problems yet, although if that is true then when you do have a problem it will be fairly serious and require a good bit of money and time to repair.

I have thought about doing the valve spring swap as a preventative measure but the other factor seems to be people who rev'd the motor out a lot and ours so far lives a relaxed street bike life. It does get rev'd out but not on a regular basis and it certainly does not live there.