Bonaventure
Cruisin' Guzzisti
From day one with 2 miles on the odometer my Stelvio has randomly emitted a sound upon start-up, usually cold startup or first startup of the day (regardless of ambient air temp), that sort of sounds like electrical short firing to ground, i.e. loud and rapid. But since it's not on every start-up I've concluded it could be the timing chain tensioner for RH cylinder valvetrain bleeding down during off time or whatever, and might be momentary timing chain rattle. The duration of this rapid bap-bap-bap is only a second or two, never longer, then everything sounds fine.
But yesterday I'd stopped at a place during a ride in hot weather, about 93 F (34 C) and started back up maybe six or seven minutes later. Got the two second bap-bap-bap but this time as soon as it went away the RH valvetrain was making an excessive valve clearance tap-tap-tap that sounded like the .006 and .008 I'd set a while back (and firmly tightened the nuts) opened up a whole bunch, since it was sounding fine valve-clearance-wise-speaking all along, beforehand.
I shut down and re-started. Same sound on RH valvetrain, that sounded like very excessive valve clearance. I slowly brought rpm's up to about 2000 and it went away and the valvetrain sounded normal again, no different than the LH side. Rode away and the valves sounded as normal and the bike ran like a Striped Ape as usual (Striped Apes are fast, that's why no one's ever seen one...)
I'm thinking the engine has hydraulic timing chain tensioners and this is something going on along those lines with the RH one?
Motorcycle has approx 3700 miles on the odometer, delivered new August 29th, 2017. Motor oil is the Eni i-ride PG 10W60 factory recommended stuff, oil level shows full on dipstick. Oil filter is the OEM Moto Guzzi bought from Harper Moto Guzzi in Missouri ... the one with eight flute casing (the one that seeps at the gasket...), not the 14 fluted one that's sold under the UFI brand name (that doesn't seep).
But yesterday I'd stopped at a place during a ride in hot weather, about 93 F (34 C) and started back up maybe six or seven minutes later. Got the two second bap-bap-bap but this time as soon as it went away the RH valvetrain was making an excessive valve clearance tap-tap-tap that sounded like the .006 and .008 I'd set a while back (and firmly tightened the nuts) opened up a whole bunch, since it was sounding fine valve-clearance-wise-speaking all along, beforehand.
I shut down and re-started. Same sound on RH valvetrain, that sounded like very excessive valve clearance. I slowly brought rpm's up to about 2000 and it went away and the valvetrain sounded normal again, no different than the LH side. Rode away and the valves sounded as normal and the bike ran like a Striped Ape as usual (Striped Apes are fast, that's why no one's ever seen one...)
I'm thinking the engine has hydraulic timing chain tensioners and this is something going on along those lines with the RH one?
Motorcycle has approx 3700 miles on the odometer, delivered new August 29th, 2017. Motor oil is the Eni i-ride PG 10W60 factory recommended stuff, oil level shows full on dipstick. Oil filter is the OEM Moto Guzzi bought from Harper Moto Guzzi in Missouri ... the one with eight flute casing (the one that seeps at the gasket...), not the 14 fluted one that's sold under the UFI brand name (that doesn't seep).
Last edited: