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Surprising amount of oil in Norge airbox

ITSec

Cruisin' Guzzisti
GT Contributor
Joined
Jul 30, 2009
Messages
108
Location
Las Vegas
I've searched and read some of the related threads in this forum, but either I'm missing something or my problem is slightly different. I end up with a rather surprising (to me, at least) amount of oil in the discharge tube coming down from the airbox. Even the gang at European Motors in Dahlonega were a bit surprised by what they saw in terms of output when I had them check it. While not necessarily alarming, it seems unusual.

Any thoughts on what I should be checking? Did I miss a clue in those earlier discussions?

The bike is completely stock, has about 12000 miles, and otherwise behaves well...
 
Not sure if this is helpful, can only detail my experience with my 1200 Sport 2v. I had a fair bit of oil in the overflow tube, when I carried out the service at 1000km & 5000km. After spotting this I started emptying the tube more often, however by around 8000km the amount of oil had drastically reduced. I have 21000km on the bike now and between services (every 4000km) it collects about 2cm of oil in the tube.

How much oil collects in the tube over 1000km?
 
A Guzzi will tend to seek it's own level. That is it will push out excess oil and in the CARC bikes it ends up in the air box. Sometimes the owners manual lists too much oil for the unit. Try filling with 3.6 liters instead of the 3.9 listed in the owners manual. As long as the oil level remains between the full and add mark on the dipstick you are OK.
 
Is this a sudden influx of oil that you have never seen before or did you just not notice it previously?

If you just never paid attention before and are just noticing it then all the above suggestions apply, if all of a sudden something has changed then you need to figure out what is going on.
 
How often did you check/empty that tube before? As said, the amount drained should diminish over time (if done on more or less fixed intervals of course), though it's likely to increase if the sump got overfilled.
It's also possible something in the hose prevented the oil from flowing downwards freely. I've seen my dealer shoot a good dose of brake cleaner fluid up the hose to flush it out thoroughly (I'm guessing WD40 would do the trick too).
 
As John Zibell says... I only fill my Breva 1100 to half way up the stick when cold, any more and it ends up down the tube.
 
Thanks all for the suggestions. The issue is not sudden, and the amount is not dramatic - it is just more than I have seen on other bikes and therefore I wanted to see what the collective experience was. I had seen some comments regarding pinched hoses or other issues with these drains, and wanted to get a gauge of how common or unusual this behavior was. I'll keep an eye on it and see if it drops off as describes, along with keeping an eye on whatever turns out to be this bike's 'normal' oil level.
 
When you fill the engine with oil make sure you don't fill the crankcase above the mid point on the dipstick. Any higher than mid point on my Norge and the airbox gets a lot of oil in it. If the oil level is kept at the mid point or below on the dipstick I get very little if any oil in the airbox. When I say mid point I mean halfway between the upper and lower cutouts on the dipstick. I have a 07 Norge but added the newer 08 metal dipstick.
 
I have had zero oil in the drain hose since only filling with 3.0 quarts of oil when doing an oil and filter change - which brings it up to exactly halfway on the dip stick.. :D . Seems to be happier right there.
 
Oil level should be checked when the engine is warm. Mid-way in the dipstick's 'safe range' sems to be best. I have also noticed that my Norge is drawing less oil into the airbox as it breaks in, but some of that may be because I have begun checking the level while the motor is warm.

Also, when you change your oil, do you you drain the oil cooler? Quite a bit of oil stays up in there; I think this contributes to the difference in what the manual lists for oil capacity and what you can actually add when refilling after a change.
 
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