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Oil Leak from Mystery Hole

Cage Free said:
Called dealer today because its been 8 days since they ordered head gasket. According to them there are NO head gaskets for 8v Guzzis in the USA and I must wait for mine to come from Italy,

I'm really worried that this is not a head gasket leaking anyway. Can they show evidence that is actually is that?
 
I certainly hope when they start taking it apart they will find their diagnosis to be accurate, it would really suck if the started taking it apart only to find its something else and again we wait for the gondola to bring parts in from Italy.. The bike is at a BMW dealer that just recently added Guzzi and Aprilla to their stable. They service the CHP bikes in the area, ,my neighbor is a CHP motor officer and says good things about them. One thing that bothers me is why would my bike have this prob lem in the first place? 5k miles and ridden easy, doesn't make me feel secure about the future about this bike. My wife is already asking how much can I get for it on trade for a GS or FJR. Gotta love her, supporting the addiction.
 
Cage Free said:
I certainly hope when they start taking it apart they will find their diagnosis to be accurate, it would really suck if the started taking it apart only to find its something else and again we wait for the gondola to bring parts in from Italy.. The bike is at a BMW dealer that just recently added Guzzi and Aprilla to their stable. They service the CHP bikes in the area, ,my neighbor is a CHP motor officer and says good things about them. One thing that bothers me is why would my bike have this prob lem in the first place? 5k miles and ridden easy, doesn't make me feel secure about the future about this bike. My wife is already asking how much can I get for it on trade for a GS or FJR. Gotta love her, supporting the addiction.


Any bike can have issues. If you really want issues, try a BMW. The key is to have a good dealer while you are under warranty to get any bugs out.
 
I don't mind the issue as much as I really hate that parts aren't available. Ya, not really interested in the GS, but the FJR is another story..
 
Cage Free said:
I certainly hope when they start taking it apart they will find their diagnosis to be accurate, it would really suck if the started taking it apart only to find its something else and again we wait for the gondola to bring parts in from Italy.. The bike is at a BMW dealer that just recently added Guzzi and Aprilla to their stable. They service the CHP bikes in the area, ,my neighbor is a CHP motor officer and says good things about them. One thing that bothers me is why would my bike have this prob lem in the first place? 5k miles and ridden easy, doesn't make me feel secure about the future about this bike. My wife is already asking how much can I get for it on trade for a GS or FJR. Gotta love her, supporting the addiction.

Did they take the tank off and look at the oil cooler connection on the back of the head. There have been some cases of the banjo connection loosing up and oil seeping. It comes around the front of the head and can look like a head gasket leak as it follows the fins to the front. I am sure your dealer did a thorough inspection but may be worth a look just to be sure.
 
WayneOrwig said:
I'm really worried that this is not a head gasket leaking anyway. Can they show evidence that is actually is that?

Well I guess I should have trusted my own eyes and general bike knowledge. I took my bike back to original dealer (where purchased) and they determined that head gasket was fine and that the assembly set screw was indeed leaking again. Mechanic took it apart, resealed it, warmed bike up and took it out and rang its neck to see if it was fixed. No luck, leak not sealed. I thought this was clever, he used spray baby powder over the leak area after repairing to determined where leak was coming from and sure as shit it was coming directly from that damn set screw. Their next step because they say Guzzi won't warranty a new cylinder for a leak like this is to JB weld that mother in there and seal it for good, while a bit of a hillbilly type repair I'm all for it if it stops that friggen leak. On a positive note I got an Aprilla Dosduro as a loaner bike, pretty cool ride.
 
I rode a Stelvio at Brookside last may. It had the leak in fact it was all over my boot when I got back
but I'm not totally turned off by it .I'm doing a ride up the west coast next week and plan on demoing the stelvio again
at as many dealers as possible. I'm calling it the Guzzi Tour
 
Cage Free said:
WayneOrwig said:
Their next step because they say Guzzi won't warranty a new cylinder for a leak like this is to JB weld that mother in there and seal it for good, while a bit of a hillbilly type repair I'm all for it if it stops that friggen leak. On a positive note I got an Aprilla Dosduro as a loaner bike, pretty cool ride.
You may have a hairline crack somewhere on the radius of the threaded hole. The first thing I'd recommed is to escalate the claim to the district service manager. Your dealer can do that for you. If that fails, you might want to reconsider the JB Weld thing. It'll be permanent, whether it works or not. You won't get another shot at it. Instead, try a wicking type thread locker after thoroughly cleaning the set screw and hole with brake cleaner. Put some on the threads before inserting the screw and also on the head after the screw is tightened. There's a good chance the stuff will wick into any hairline cracks you may not have seen and seal the leak. Give it overnight to cure thoroughly.

Stu
 
Thanks for the ideas Stu, the bike is at the dealer and they came up with the JB weld idea so if it screws things up its on them. The mechanic mentioned that it looked like the plug had been put in cross threaded, he cleaned it up and still had it leak that's the reason for the hillbilly fix..If its still is a problem when I get it back and Guzzi won't help me I'll read up what the lemon law is in Ca and go from there. This is the third time in less than four months for the exact same issue.
 
Any ideas where the oil is coming from? I just ordered an oil pressure valve sensor to replace it. Ihave known of valves leaking in car engines. Thanks
 

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This brings up mine (and others) previous point again. A good dealer typically leads to a good ownership experience. A bad dealer (like one that does not keep basic gaskets in stock) can lead to a bad ownership experience. What dealer does not stock head gaskets for a current model of a brand they are supposed to be selling. It is not like there are too many different current models of Guzzi to make keeping head gaskets in stock. They only have a few different motors to stock for.
I would be finding a better dealer.
And, while Guzzi's are fairly simple motors, I still consider them exotics because they are not common. They always draw attention where ever they go. They are Italian. And they are harder to find good dealers that stock parts for them. But in todays day and age a quick call to any of a number of quality Guzzi dealers will result in your required head gasket, or most other parts, being in your hands withing a week. If you chose to wait longer, say wait for your local dealer to find you one, that is up to you. I would call MI, Harpers, MPH, or AF1. I don't like to wait, especially when it is something they should be pulling of the shelve to hand to me.
Either your dealer needs to up their game or you need a new dealer.

Just to clarify, is this a head gasket or a valve cover gasket?
 
the head gasket on the 8v is three piece, two outers and a spacer the spacer is determined on each individual motor by measuring the piston to deck height, I doubt any dealer keeps all the parts these days... Piaggio North America does not even keep them in the US in stock. (there are 3 or 4 different spacers if memory serves)

There are quite a few bad castings that are porous, aprillia is replacing 1200 motors left right and center right now, Guzzi has been afflicted here and there as well
 
There are 3 different thickness head gaskets. But right and left are the same, and I am pretty sure they are the same three for all the 1200/8v motors. So it is not hard to keep them in stock. And if, for some stupid reason, Piaggio NA does not keep them in stock (that is hard to believe but not altogether impossible. Sad really) that would be all the more reason any decent dealer would keep them in stock. Keeping six to twelve gaskets around is not much to ask and if you can't just call Piaggio and get them sent over you truely can't afford to NOT stock them.
But it sounds like the head gasket is not even the issue....
Also back to needing a good dealer.
 
Oh, and leave it to Guzzi to vary the thickness of the HEAD gasket instead of varying the thickness of the BASE gasket.....
Brilliant. Way to go.
 
So I got my bike back from dealer with the JB weld fix for the cross threaded freeze plug (that's what dealer called it) and so far after about 200 miles no leak and everything is completely dry. I went back to new BMW- Guzzi dealer because they called and said head gasket had arrived from Italy. I talked to the mechanic that had diagnosed it as the head gasket and he said that while he had seen that the freeze plug was leaking he also thought because of oil he had seen on the cylinder that the head gasket was also leaking but it could be the air swirling around the cylinder causing the oil to spread making it look like a head gasket leak. I thought it odd that he wouldn't have worked on what was obvious and see if it fixed the problem and go from there if it didn't. Hopefully this is the end of it and I can concentrate on just riding it now.
 
I hate to add fuel to this fire but ....

When your adrenaline settles down from the oil weep incident, pull your tank and check the motor mount bolts and all other fasteners on the bike that the assembly line likes to neglect. Also, tightening the engine guard fasteners can result in a smoother machine.

Also, put some in-line fuses to your auxiliary lamps and/or wrap their internal wires with better friction protection. Left alone, the lamps will eventually short out and blow your main charge circuit fuse behind the right-side plastic cover.

Be very careful with your spark plug wires and caps. NGK replacements are more durable.

When you get to feeling cocky about fixing all that, jack it up and yank the entire rear end and properly grease your swingarm bearings.

By this time, you'll feel like you can open your own Guzzi repair shop.

All of these known items are detailed with postings on GuzziTech and Wild Guzzi.

Forget musing about what new bikes Guzzi should offer, they really need to focus on properly building the ones they ship now.

A customer should not have to be a mechanic to own a Guzzi and riders putting up with this sort of BS will keep Guzzi at its minimal sales volume.

Not trying to be mean. Trying to help.

After 2 years of sorting all this out with my Stelvio, I think, hope, pray that I have the machine to the point where it should have been when I purchased it new.

On the positive side, the Stelvio is the most comfortable and capable motorcycle I've ever owned.
 
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