Tappets check

Am working through the bike service, today i did tappets, no adjustment needed, 2010 with mileage at 3559, i have changed oil & filter 2 days ago, i suspect this is the first time the rocker covers have been off, i know the oil was changed approx 2 years & 1200 miles ago.
I noticed quite a lot of cream colour & consistency emulsified oil on both covers inner surface, to my mind there was a lot of it, no reasons for worrying, but is this common for Grisos, i havent come across it before.
Many thanks
Stevie

Well, actually it is something to worry about. Its that condition that will kill your flat tappet top end.

See the 'Why you should beat on your flat tappet 8V' thread for an explanation. Really, ride longer and harder and try to avoid wet weather if possible.

Pete

Interesting that the vast majority of these reports originate from the UK. I have personally never seen or heard of this here in Seattle, yet our weather patterns (cold and wet) are nearly identical to that in th UK.

It's very curious.

Yup, it is weird. Spain and Greece are also hot-spots for failure. While I'm sure that the moisture, cool weather and short trips are the major cause of failure poor maintenance is also a factor I'm pretty certain. Over here the majority of failures I know about have occurred in Southern Queensland and Western Australia. Queensland gets very humid but Perth is both dry and generally warmish. In Queensland I know that a lot of the failures were probably the result of a certain long time Guzzi 'Expert' using cheap mineral oil because 'Its a Guzzi and they'll run on anything.'.  

Anyway, its not something to die in a ditch over as the roller tappet top end seems not to be failure prone and in most markets if your flat tappet top end shits itself they'll give you a roller set-up.

Pege

Pete-
Trying not to ride in wet weather in UK!!!!, almost impossible, its always bloody wet, im always amazed when i see bike adverts-never seen the wet-????, must be a fantasy uk they live in.
Regarding long journeys, i got bike at 2500 miles, within 7 days i had done roughly 1000, long journeys & fastish.
Previous owner has many bikes, they are kept in garage, all on optimate chargers & fired up/turned over regularly, this is the only way i could see the emulsification build up occurring, effectively short bursts & no heat build up??, but please advise if im talking rubbish, mild insults only please!!.
Steve

It's bad for any air cooled engine to be fired up but not run hard enough for it to get to working temperature. The only way to get it uniformly hot is use it - on a bike, take it for a ride long enough to get properly hot. It's the same for aircraft engines - the worst thing you can do is start it up but only ground-run it. If you start it, fly it. If you're not going flying (or riding) don't start it.

If you start it but don't 'use' it parts of the engine will get hot (too hot!), other parts won't, and the oil won't get hot enough to boil off any water content (hence the formation of emulsified 'mayonnaise').