Possibly a Dipstick?

[Cdn850T5NT]

Hey folks, I attach a snip from (I believe) Motorcycle Classic (?) magazine.  It is a shot of a California T3, with floorboards, and with what appears to me to be a dipstick?

Can anyone hazard a guess?

Have folks seen this before?



BTW, I hope this image comes up upright.

[bigbikerrick]

There is no way there can be a dipstick on the top of the rocker cover, I believe. It would have to be over a foot long to reach the sump.Maybe its an oil fill cap?
Rick.

[Cdn850T5NT]

There is no way there can be a dipstick on the top of the rocker cover, I believe. It would have to be over a foot long to reach the sump.Maybe its an oil fill cap?
Rick.

Yeah, you're right.  For Police Service, I think the respective forces demanded an easier to top-up arrangement.  You would have thought, though, that we would have seen a few of those types of round-barrel valve covers out there.  I have NEVER seen one before.

[Brian UK]

You might have thought it would have become a standard feature instead of trying to get oil down a tiny dip stick hole.

On most of the present range there is a plastic cover over that area so any filler would be hidden anyway.

[Frenchfrog]

Oil Filler cap...a couple of shops in germany offer it as a mod and very practical it is too...no more weird funnels, no more spillage over the lower engine.

[Old Jock]

It's a fast filler cap

As stated you can get it as a mod.

I believe Guzzi first introduced it on some of the early racers, so it was actually made by the factory at one point but I don't think Guzzi ever sold it

[flower_king001]

[pete roper]

John? A 'Fast filler cap'?

Let's get sensible about this. On a roundfin there is one, tiny, 8mm at most, hole to allow drainage from the rocker area to the sump. While a top end filler sounds easy and may be suggested as 'Easier' than the 'Tiny' fill hole that needs a funnel. On a squarefin there are two similarly sized holes but even so pouring cold oil, even into a hot engine, will be an excercise in boredom and a recipe for inaccuracy compared to just pulling the bloody stick out and putting some oil in! You're going to have to pull the poxy stick anyway to check the level anyway!

I don't deny that a rocker cover filler doesn't look cool. It's the sort of hipster mega wet dream! All very Steam Punk! But as an actual practical addition to your motorbike that will save time or contribute ease of maintenance it is a huge, raging, clusterf*ck of arrant stupidity!

Pete

[bmc5733946]

I have modified the right valve cover on my Mille GT with a filler cap and love it. ymmv  I think it is absolutley nuts that Guzzi never provided some method other than the check hole for putting oil in these engines. jmo On my hands and knees in a motel or gas station parking lot is not a dignified position for this old man! Again ymmv.

Brian

[Frenchfrog]

Surely the oil will also go down the pushrod tunnel as long as the filler is on the right hand cylinder and the bike is on the sidestand.....the thing i have against the cap is that some gimp either nicks it or puts something in whilst you are parked up somewhere.

[guzzisteve]

I had a customer w/one on an 97 Cali,  Made no sense cept to put oil in slowly. WTF   you still had to check it down below. Looked cool, something to talk about.
Like Pete exclaimed.

[Cdn850T5NT]

Can't say Guzzisti are opinionless! Me, i have a nice offset funnel...

[Old Jock]

I really know bugger all about them Pete and of course defer to your knowledge

I just remember Joe Caruso doing a project and getting some castings made to replicate what Guzzi had done on some round fin racers.

I hear you though as it always seemed a strange idea to me to feed oil to the head when the best place to pour it would be into the sump

Perhaps access was limited due to fairings, but yes it does beg the question how do you know when the oil level requires topping up anyway

Got enough on my plate without searching through old mails from Joe to see what he told me about them, as I'm pretty soon ready to start the Hi Cam to test it to see if I've done anything to improve the oil pressure, but I doubt it

[bmc5733946]

I failed to mention that I also have an easy pull dipstick from Harper's that was on the bike when I got it. I am fat and arthritic anything that eases my time with the bike is a benefit to me. As I've said before one man's meat may be another man's poison.

Brian

[moto-uno]

  As was mentioned earlier , the oil returns in the head are barely 1/4" in circumference and the push rod tunnels end up in the cam followers, which should have
only a thou or two of clearance for the oil to drain through . My first thought though was what a great idea ! Peter

[bmc5733946]

I can actually pour oil out of a bottle into the valve cover faster than I can pour it into the crankcase hole using a funnel the is sized to fit the hole in the crankcase. I am happy that so many think that putting oil in their engine should be a pita. I rarely need to top up the oil but oil changes on the road are much easier especially since I also have a G&G external oil filter oil pan. Adding oil is now a tool less job, no funnel, no wrench, I don't even need my tool pouch to come out. With the easy pull dipstick I don't need a wrench to check the oil level.

Brian

[Testarossa]

I've seen a photo (or photos) of Guzzi endurance racers with valve-cover oil fillers. Can't find such a picture right now but I don't think I hallucinated it.

[jacksonracingcomau]

As some have said, was common mod back in the day, along with aluminium quick pull dipstick. I used to sell those dipsticks but without rocker fill was proper slow getting oil in there.
We used small aero fillers from Newton Equipment, still making them, I recently put one in my tank to make room for fixed tank bag.
No issues I remember filling, all 3 litres go in, one at a time, drain down before you get next jug filled.
What I always intended but never did was window in sump extension, that with rocker fill, ideal imho
But not so hard using funnel either

On this point, every oil bottle you buy in Europe has hose fitting like all gearbox oils everywhere else, nfi why Aussies aren’t sold this, makes top ups a doddle, worst part is euro thread is different to ours, so top I bought back doesn’t work.
But cleaned top of gearbox oil container is same thread as engine oil ones, so I carry one of them in case of needing top up, which is very rare. Smaller than funnel, squirt it in

[s1120]

Being a first year Guzzi owner its nice to hear that Im not the only one that hates the stock fill/dipstick. My cali has the plastic stick, that has been cross threaded more then a few times by a PO, and while Ive cleaned the threads, it is still a pain to get that soft plastic threaded into the block.. As for the fill, I got a spout that screws on the bottle, and that seems to help filling....  Still a PITA though..

[Kiwi_Roy]

I don't deny that a rocker cover filler doesn't look cool. It's the sort of hipster mega wet dream! All very Steam Punk! But as an actual practical addition to your motorbike that will save time or contribute ease of maintenance it is a huge, raging, clusterf*ck of arrant stupidity!

Pete

Sheesh and I was just going to ask where I could get one for my Eldorado lol