Not sure about splash back, pretty sure the camshaft has an oilway up the middle and it comes out of two small drillings between each pair of cams? Or has the design been changed for the new models? Or is my memory playing tricks again…
The camshaft’s rear bearing in the crankcase is ‘blind’ and so the oil feed for it can continue up the centre of the camshaft.
Did you know the cam followers are also supposed to slowly rotate to keep the wear even all over, the cam is postioned lightly off centre so that it pushes it round slightly while it lifts it. Unless again the design has since changed…
As for “driving style”, you can’t control the pressure between cam and follower… make sure your oil has ZDDP in it (for ‘classic’ or ‘diesel’ engines). Or you can buy it as an additive in a little bottle.
Aguzzino understand about keeping the 3 original unharmed followers but still keep a regular eye on the valve clearances to make sure everything stays OK.
I meant warm it up, 5-10 miles depending, then run it to the red line.
I’ve done it on every Guzzi I have owned and it works.
My fist, the LM111 purchased new in '84 has only been re ringed in 150,000 miles or so.
you will notice if you look at your rev counter while riding, that your engine will run beter at 3000+rpm big block guzzis don’t like to be luged. thay live to rev, it’s Italian!! not American (Harley) I have had 4 calis including a hydrolica engine thay are billt to rev.
oh if your cali is 2010 reg the recommended oil is fully synthetic. so it is thin on cold start and thickens when hot. thin oil when cold gets to the top of your engine faster.
No memory tricks Mike:
I can confirm there are drillings on the camshaft and the the lobes are not centered with the followers.
In fact one of the things I’ve checked was whether or not there was enough room for the followers to rotate and it seemed OK.
I’m now using AGIP oil, the one recommended by Guzzi.
I’ve also checked the valve clearance already and everything seems stable.
Almost 400 miles done and so far so good, only minor hiccup is the popping when I go slowly and double clutch before dropping a gear. Soon after the restoration, I have to say, it was worse, popping more frequently. Now it happens more rarely but still is annoying because at lower speed is easier to lose balance.Â
I thought it was for old petrol 7 months without riding (luckily there was not so much petrol in the tanks, so I put high octane petrol to compensate, but it seems it may have not been the best of the ideas.Â
I’ll now go back to normal petrol and hopefully everything will be back to normality.
I’m now giving more attention to the rev counter.Â
I think my old riding stile was for settling between 2000/2500 rpm
My “upgraded” riding style is more for 2500/3000 rpm
I can confirm that I can definitely appreciate how the ride is better from 2800 rpm onward: it feels a kind of smoother. Â
On my Bella when I first picked it up it was fine but slower in acceleration than I expected.
In Germany it blew a little black smoke out of the exhaust a couple of times so when I got back to England I gave it an Italian tune up (revved it high through the gears). She now runs far better.
I do not know your bike but anything below 4,000 rpm on the open road is too little.
Guzzi’s really smooth out at 6,000 rpm.
Or my lil’Breva which is the same thing.
I agree but the simple pleasure of rolling along at 60mph in top and then just opening up the tap when a space or dual carriage appears is brilliant on the Bella.
The opposite of working slightly harder to get slightly less speed is also fun which is one of the reasons the lil’Breva is going to Kent on Friday.
