• Ciao Guest - You’ve landed at the ultimate Guzzi site. NEW FORUM REGISTRATIONS REQUIRE EMAIL ACTIVATION - CHECK YOUR SPAM FOLDER - Use the CONTACT above if you need help. New to the forum? For all new members, we require ONE post in the Introductions section at the bottom, in order to post in most of the other sections. ALWAYS TRY A SEARCH BEFORE STARTING A NEW TOPIC - Most questions you may have, have likely been already answered. DON'T BE A DRIVE-BY POSTER: As a common courtesy, check back in and reply within 24 hours, or your post will be deleted. Note there's decades of heavily experienced Guzzi professionals on this site, all whom happily give endless amounts of their VALUABLE time for free; BE COURTEOUS AND RESPECTFUL!
  • There is ZERO tolerance on personal attacks and ANY HYPERLINKS to PRODUCT(S) or other competing website(s), including personal pages, social media or other Forums. This ALSO INCLUDES ECU DIAGnostic software, questions and mapping. We work very hard to offer commercially supported products and to keep info relevant here. First offense is a note, second is a warning, third time will get you banned from the site. We don't have the time to chase repeat (and ignorant) offenders. This is NOT a social media platform; It's an ad-free, privately funded website, in small help with user donations. Be sure to see the GTM STORE link above; ALL product purchases help support the site, or you can upgrade your Forum profile or DONATE via the link above.
  • Be sure to see the GTM STORE link also above for our 700+ product inventory, including OEM parts and many of our 100% Made-in-SoCal-USA GTM products and engine kits. In SoCal? Click the SERVICE tab above for the best in service, tires, tuning and installation of our products or custom work, and don't miss our GT MotoCycles® (not) art on the BUILDS tab above. WE'RE HERE ONLINE ONLY - NO PHONE CALLS MADE OR RECEIVED - DO NOT EMAIL AND ASK QUESTIONS OR ASK TO CALL YOU.
  • Like the new V100, GuzziTech is full throttle into the future! We're now running on an all-new server and we've updated our Forum software. The visual differences are obvious, but hopefully you'll notice the super-fast speed. If you notice any glitches or have any issues, please post on the Site Support section at the bottom. If you haven't yet, please upgrade your account which is covered in the Site Support section or via the DONATE tab above, which gives you full site access including the DOWNLOADS section. We really appreciate every $ and your support to keep this site ad-free. Create an account, sign in, upgrade your account, and enjoy. See you on the road in 2024.

Valve Tappet Noise

Johnap

Tuned and Synch'ed
Joined
Jul 14, 2018
Messages
40
Location
Vancouver
How would a loose tappet sound. Will it speed up/down and match the revs. Just trying to determine valve or exhaust. Any recommendation on method to determine.
 
Everything about a Guzzi sounds like a loose tappet. If the gap is too large you would hear a loud "clack" with every open/close of the valve and I would expect it to rise and fall with revs. But with no water jacket to deaden the noise, you are always going to hear the valves. Seriously, don't overthink the noises these bikes make as therein madness lies (been there, done that, got the T shirt)
 
Put the metal end of a screwdriver to the valve cover and then your ear to the handle and that should tell you if that is where the noise is coming from. *Warning*, this can lead to nightmares.
 
Tappy tappets are happy tappets:inlove:. If they're silent you're most probably burning valves - expensive:cry:. It's an air-cooled push rod overhead valve engine. John L's warning is timely;).

Obviously valve related noises speed up and slow down with engine revs.
 
I like the noise, makes you think the engine is a mechanical device unlike a lot today. Reminds me of a couple old Ingersol Rand air compressors we had at a factory I worked at. The pistons were loud enough but the valves opening a closing make the Guzzi seem silent. They were so loud at night that the whole (small) town heard them, when we replaced them with screw compressors we got complaints from people who said they couldn't sleep with out the noise. The plant ran those compressors for over 40 years. I had them at another old factory I worked at as well, they really lasted and were totally mechanical just not as efficient as the new types - sort of like Guzzi's.
 
I may be over thinking this but it's louder then before and has more vibration. I think it has an exhaust leak. I also noticed the ticking sound from the left side only. Its quiet at idle then appears as you rev it. At high rpm it seems to disappear. However theres enough noise that its hard to tell. Everything is tight on the exhaust.
 
I may be over thinking this but it's louder then before and has more vibration. I think it has an exhaust leak. I also noticed the ticking sound from the left side only. Its quiet at idle then appears as you rev it. At high rpm it seems to disappear. However theres enough noise that its hard to tell. Everything is tight on the exhaust.

Check to see that one of the ends of the exhaust shield isn't rattling on something. I had to bend a corner on the left side by the kick stand a year or 2 back.
 
Check the valves, its easy enough to do. Careful with the spark plug wires and I reused the gaskets twice.
 
Check to see that one of the ends of the exhaust shield isn't rattling on something. I had to bend a corner on the left side by the kick stand a year or 2 back.

Also check that the exhaust heat shields are correctly mounted and all the bolts are correctly tightened.
 
Also make sure the bolts attaching the exhaust shields haven't bottomed out in their holes, leaving a shield free to vibrate. You can add a washer to cure this.

Stephen
 
Back
Top