• 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.

2012 Griso 8V SE oil leak

ChappyBoffins

Just got it firing!
Joined
Jun 28, 2014
Messages
9
Location
Williamson Co, TN
Hello again everyone. So I’ve got another oil leak and I wanted to share some photos in case any of this looked familiar and to see if anyone had some advice.

I took my bike out on a hot day for about a 6 hour ride. It went mostly well but at our first stop I noticed there was some oil leaking out of or onto a connection on the exhaust manifold. We let it cool down for about 20 minutes and the leak slowed and the smoke dissipated. We then decided to ride on. All day the bike did like to want to stall right after I started it. I had to hold the throttle open to about 1500 rpms for about 2 minutes to keep this from happening. After the 2 minutes it was fine. The bike didn’t smoke anymore and I didn’t notice any dripping oil under the bike at any of our other stops.

I went to ride it to work 2 days later and found a small puddle underneath it with a couple more areas with drips of oil hanging off of them. I’m thinking there’s a leak higher up that is spurting out and trickling down to the areas I’ve photographed. My plan is to spend some time observing the engine closely while it idles. Otherwise I’m at a loss.

IMG 3713
IMG 3712
IMG 3719
IMG 3718
IMG 3709
IMG 3717
IMG 3715
IMG 3708

Could the stalling after start be related to the oil leak or are those 2 separate issues?

If oil is leaking out, should I ride it into my service center 40 minutes away or have it towed?

Also a friend said my fuel line probably needs replacing, image should also be in the album, are they correct?

As always, thanks in advanced for any advice anyone can give me.

-Paul
 
The line with the blue device (it's a one way valve) is the breather for the tank. I dismantled mine (heat in hot water) and removed the innards after I suffered tank suck.

The rest of your photos look fairly normal to me after a six hour ride in hot weather. You will need to clean them up to determine whether they need further attention.
 
To expand on what Kiwi Dave said, you need to clean the bike thoroughly as when riding air currents will move oil around. Once clean, then run the bike stationary, but you probably should aim a fan at the cylinders. Hopefully you will be able to find the source.
 
Make sure you are not over filling the engine oil. Check in the airbox for oil. Too much oil in the sump tends to pump oil out the breather an from there it can go to the airbox or elsewhere.
That fancy fitting at the bottom / back of the engine sump is a return line from the oil breather system. Why it is so stout and HD I don't know. The oil could be directly from that fitting if it is leaking. That happens. But it could be running down that line and dripping from there instead. See if the line above is wet. You can use talcum powder to look for wet oil. Or a white rag. Or a clean finger.
 
+1 on what has been said. I'd cut back the 5/16" fuel breather line & drill through or replace blue valve w/fitting. I would just snug up fitting on back of sump, check it once in awhile. I would look over all the breather system hoses for cracked rubber, it happens.
 
Also check the oil breather blow by tubes located to the top rear of each cylinder head behind the injectors. The rubber cracks and causes leaks, they all do this. Part #978765
 
My Breva 1100 had a leak from the oil return line at the back of the sump. It dripped off the fitting. The hose had perished where it joined the fitting. Had it replaced at a hydraulic hose shop.
 
Hi all!
Very much appreciate all the advice. A lot of it does go over my head as I don’t have much of a baseline for this stuff but I wanted to try and keep up here and respond.

Before I start responding I should say that today I finally got an hour to myself to go troubleshoot this problem in the lot behind my apartment where I store my bike. I bought myself a WiFi endoscope from amazon and it worked really well. I will post the footage so you can see what I saw. I did some scope exploration when the engine was cool, having not been ridden since the time when all this started a couple of weeks ago. Then I cleaned off the engine with some paper towels and cranked it up. I sat on the ground and watched the trouble area for about 10 minutes. I had missed 1 drop of oil under the exhaust and that started to smoke but otherwise no active/aggressive dripping.

I had spoken to my pop about these same issues and for the stalling starts, he recommended Sea Foam motor treatment to clear out the injectors. So I poured in about 4-6 ounces then geared up and rode to the nearest gas station about 1.5 miles down the road. By the time I got there and got off the bike, smoke was puffing from under the bike again. Pretty obviously from that same fitting going into the exhaust. It simmered down by the time my tank was full and about that time another motorcyclist came up and asked me what bike it was and complimented the green and brown color scheme. The whole time I was so paranoid he was going to shout “SMOKE, RUN!!!!” because you know fire and fuel stations aren’t a good mix. Luckily the smoking was not noticeable and said thanks and rode back home.

By the time I got back home she was sizzling pretty aggressively. Oil was streaming down the wires onto that exhaust fitting, and streaming down and soaking the black nylon braided cover over the return line of the oil breather system that leads down the the back of the motor to the sump. I let it idle in that desperate state for another 5 minutes while I recorded some iPhone and endoscope video, all the while trying not to burn myself on the exhaust pipes.

Once I turned the motor off the streams of oil seemed to ease and eventually stop, leaving pretty much the same mess I had 2 weeks ago. 2 very district half dollar sized puddles of brown oil on the asphalt. I did a bit more peaking around with the endoscope but the area it seams to be coming from is just too tight for me to actually see much. So I put rolled the poor bike under the cycle shell and buttoned it up for the night. This does seam beyond my skill to heal. I’d still like to hear what you guys think is happening but this is probably going to need to be properly solved by professionals at my local shop.

Which brings me to another point. Razee’s (my MG service center) is about 35-40 minutes ride on the interstate from where I live. For safety sake, would you guys recommend I get it trailer-ed there? The day i first noticed the smoke I continued to ride on it for another 3-4 hours, with a passenger, and we made it home ok. Just want to gauge your feelings on the matter.

So now to the responses, FINALLY…

Kiwi Dave,
Good to know it actually looks fairly normal after a decent ride. I do tend to worry needlessly over insignificant stuff. But what is tank suck? If I had to take a wild guess, that almost sounds like if the 1 way valve gets clogged, as the fuel drains out into the engine the 1 way valve will not actually let any air in to offset the missing volume of fuel, causing a vacuum that wants to hold fuel in the tank instead of allowing it to flow down into the injectors/engine?

John Zibell,
So I’ve always been confused about this, is my 2012 Griso air cooled then? It’s got that small 9” x 5” radiator on the starboard side of the engine just in front of the foot peg, but it doesn’t even face front so it can’t be very efficient at cooling the bike. My FZ6 had an ENORMOUS front facing radiator behind the front wheel just for a 599cc motor. I know the two are completely different but a noobs got to apply some kind of comparison to make sense of the world.

GuzziMoto,
I must admit all my oil changes have been done at a MG service center and it’s totally possible they overfilled it the last time. But I cannot remember the last oil change I had. Probably when they repaired the great flat tappet catastrophe of 2017. Now that I’m in Pawtucket, RI, I work like 80-90 hours a week. Rarely ride the bike except to work maybe 20 days a year for the last 3 years. And it’s only a 7 minute commute, a traffic like for each minute, maximum speed 35 miles per hour. God I miss Tennessee’s roads and being an independent contractor. Sidetracked. I did pop the seat off and unscrew the top of the air intake to reveal the guts of the air filter which looked pretty clean. Pulled the air filter off and looked into the cavity below. All looked clean and dry.

Thanks for the info on the fancy fitting / return line. “Stout and HD” (what is HD?)

V700Steve,
You’re referring to the Blue plastic part Kiwi Dave said was a breather for the fuel tank? I think I’ll understand this mod a bit more when I find out what “tank suck” is. But your saying to cut off the blue fitting? or drill a hole through the blue plastic part to allow air in the line/tank? or replace it with another fitting?

Tightening the sump fitting is an easy one, that I can do!

As far as the hoses, I’ll have a closer look around at all of them. The bike does remain out in the Rhode Island weather albeit under a cycle shell, all year round. Since I bought it in 2014 the poor thing has not had the comfort of a garage to rest in :(

Bob Clark,
You’re not too far from me! So I scoped in around that area (at least I think I know where you’re talking about) and things look dry and tidy, but I keep an eye on it. Thanks!

Mackers,
Glad to hear you got the hose solved. It’s tough to see the hose above the fitting cause it appears to be wrapped in threaded black nylon. I can see that the oil was pouring down above that, so I guess it’s possible the hose is ruptured higher up where I just can’t see.

THANKS EVERYONE FOR ALL YOUR HELP AND ADVICE!!!

Iphone and endoscope videos of engine here…

Scoping engine while cool…


Iphone video at gas station…


Iphone video back home from gas station…


Scope video back home from gas station…


Last scope video back home from gas station…
 
If you have AAA motorcycle coverage they will flat bed the Griso to Razzee. BTW my daily fast ride is down Rt 96 to Harrisville. There is a Sunoco there where I fuel up. On to Rt. 102 for quick 100-115 mph blast down Pascoag to Chapchet, Rt.100 then on to Rt 98 up to Uxbribridge, Rt 146 home. Great quick fun ride. Good place for breakfast in Harrisville called Excellent Breakfast next to Nikos pizza if you want to meet on a Sunday AM.
 
Last edited:
looks like the flexible oil pipe has got a puncture in it and its bubbling out under pressure. It is an air cooled bike, the small radiator is the oil cooler. Saying that, I think your model has oil cooled exhaust valves, although i stand to be corrected. Kevin
 
After watching the video I would agree with Kevin that the braided oil line has failed. Part #8. The two parts #16 are the two breather pipes I mentioned previously that you have to keep a eye on.

Screenshot 20190824 055902
 
Last edited:
Back
Top