Washed the bike yesterday, all was well. Rode it to the shops today, parked up. I at first thought the L/H carb. was leaking again. It was oil, some on the foot board, the plastic frame cover and blown back over the starter motor.I got home, got the torch out, the gasket ( as much of it as I could see is dry) Ran some tissue between the fins. It seems dry near the gasket, wet on the outside of the fins.Confused, I don’t want to replace the head gasket if it’s not at fault.I washed the bike and noticed (remember I just washed it!) a bit of oil on top of the engine under where the top engine breather is located. My L/h rocker arm oil feed pipe is black where it does not seal perfectly. I’ll run it up later and see if anything is obvious.Thoughts anyone?
The feed pipes to the top end doesn’t last for ever. I had a braided one fail a couple of years ago, that gave a fine film of oil over the engine between the barrels.Or it could just be a loose union needing tweaked up a bit.
or it could be a blown roker box gasket. its what hapend to me. I had oil all over me boots and on the brake lever and oil runinig down the fins and around the spark plug.
I’ll start it up again, and see what happens.
I would be very surprised if it is the head gasket.
As has already been said, check the easy obvious places first.
It will only take a few minutes to lift the rocker cover and check the integrity of the gasket and provided you are careful it can be reused again and again without any problem. I always smear a little bit of Blue Hylomar around the gasket first and have never had a drop come out.
Rocker feed pipe The old type ones are obvious the T5 engine has then in between the cyls inside they do leak Best way I found is to use PTFE tape on the threads , when they do just weep they allow oil to come around the cyl head then it gets onto the carbs it does look like rocked gasket or head gasket BUT if a head gasket goes YOU will know believe me the noise is deafening
No extra noise. I’ve looked again at the cylinder head / barrel gasket interface, can’t see anything obvious. Does seem to be damp around the carb. I’ll drain the full tank, remove the tank and have a look at the oil feed pipe.I hope it is an easy fix, I’ve spent too long fiddling around getting these to fit on my FJ1200 yesterday, then today I came back after a ride, and they’d loosened a tad. Just had about four attempts to load a photo of my FJ silencers, I give up.
1150GS2013-07-07 21:24:19
Looks like the leak is coming from the threaded fitting into the barrel, that the oil feed connects up to. As you said Guzzi bear, it then works it’s way along and runs down the side of the inlet manifold. There isn’t a washer fitted? Washer now fitted. Then I stupidly decided the other side should be done, nearly pooh myself as a few thin windings of aluminium came out with the fitting. Got them back on and the oil feed pipes connected to them. God, that was a nightmareI heard a vague tinkling, later realised that it was one of the banjo bolt copper washers. Probably just as well, I had a quick look at getting both oil feed pipes to the banjo bolt, that is going to be a bugger. have to source a copper washer now, bloody tedious.
1150GS2013-07-11 20:55:10
OK, Anorak time. Copper or aluminium? Only difference that I know of, is that long term aluminium ones can corrode.
Would go for copper i find them a lot better
Copper everytime , alloy does break down and leak. Anneal the copper tho’ Available at any car parts placeguzzibear2013-07-11 20:42:42
I was about to post about the annealing bit then. Access to the oil feed pipe and banjo is poor, I can see fun and games getting the banjo bolt in and locating the washer on top of the engine.
or if you can get them doughtey washers (little washers with a rubber crush seal on the ID)
Not sure about the dowty seals, as the contact area of the oil feed pipes is not that good.
if you can get the bolt in the banjo stick the bottom washer on with a dab of thick grease etc
Ta.
Hopefully it’s done and dusted, bought some new copper washers, annealed them. Leaked at first, then I realised that the pipes were touching each other and stopping it from sealing.In full sunlight I can now see a small pool of oil below the cylinder head fitting, and it’s possible to track the oil along the fins to the inlet manifold.As a bonus, I’m now going to put in a longer piece of fuel pipe from tap to the carb’s “T” piece, that will make it much easier to remove the tank in future.Think I’ll wait till the sun drops before putting the tank on, my house faces West. Stand in the sun for a short while and I melt.Didn’t Moto Guzzi fit sealing washers to the fitting that goes into the cylinder barrels? Or has a previous owner bodged it?
1150GS2013-07-12 16:39:17
Be careful with the longer pipe from the tank to the T piece. Make it too long and it will kink, restricting the fuel flow and the bike will stop due to lack of fuel. Don’t ask how I know!
Make it so that you can disconnect the pipe from the tank to the T piece at the T piece and take off the tank with the short length of pipe. It’s much easier than trying to fiddle under the tank to disconnect the fuel pipe there believe me ( and on re-connection).Cali Man2013-07-16 12:27:57
Just to put my oar in, I found with the Spada that the copper washers always leaked. Ergo the kosher ones like what you buy from Motomecca or whoever are aluminium. They have never leaked. I have long believed that this is because copper expands more than aluminium when it heats up, so gets squashed then leaves a slight gap after it’s cooled down, to let oil out. Or it could be all total bollox, but whatever, them’s my personal findings. On the other hand, brake union washers should be copper to minimise a risk of corrosion in that case. As said the other likely source of leaks is where the hoses join the breather box. Think it took me over a year to find and fix all the Spada’s oil leaks. HTH
YES!! Vital! AND the rocker cover ones too!
Or has a previous owner bodged it?
If no washers, then must have.