How tough is a V700

[Don G]

Check out the chrome bores on my barn find V700 engine, there must be .060-.080 wear in the top section, note the condition of the rod bearings. this engine has 19,000 ish miles on the speedo, could be 119, 219? This old boy ran a long time in pain!






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baby name of goose

[rocker59]

Yeow!   

[Kiwi_Roy]

 How tough?

Guzzi tough

[JoeW]

How are the crank journals and camshaft bores?

[Chuck in Indiana]

They'll run long after they *should* have given up..

[Roebling3]

Someone teach me the history, please. I was expecting a Heron head. Instead there's a domed piston.  R3~

[Antietam Classic Cycle]

Someone teach me the history, please. I was expecting a Heron head. Instead there's a domed piston.  R3~

Heron head was a small block thing, never a big block thing. Big blocks were "hemis". 

That V700 looks worse than mine which had the crank pulley incorrectly installed, so the crank end play was nearly 1/4". Messed up the crank, rods, pistons and on and on... All better now.

[Don G]

Actually the crank looked better than I expected due to the amount of chrome it had ingested, will need the throws and mains ground though, the oil pump was pretty well  NFG. The cam journals in the case seem to look fine, cant really see any material embedded in the aluminium. This is a V700 Big Block engine not a V7 Small Block.  DonG

[TOMB]

Don G

 that might be a Canadian version of the V 700,  the reason I say that is the American version at least the ones that I've  been able to interface with the 700 had four piston rings , which apparently you do also , but one of them was below the wrist pin, the Ambassador has Pistons like you have, in reality you may have a 700 model bike but with Ambassador Pistons which would make it a 750 cc

Oops. I took a closer look. Those are 700 pistons.


TOMB

[Chuck in Indiana]

The "Monte Carlo" Guzzi that I saved had been running so long on failed chrome that I had to *drill* out the sludge trap. 
Tech tip:
If it's smoking a little, a heater hose ran from the breather box aft of the license plate will keep it from covering the back of the bike with oil.

[larrys]

Wow! that gives new meaning to the phrase 'internal wear'. I'm surprised that the rod bearings didn't spin.
Larry

[mtiberio]

I have seen guzzis run with the timing out on one cylinder by 45 degrees. I have seen them run with a broken crankshaft (in 2). Yes they will run to within an inch of their life. The toughest motors? Probably flat head harleys. They will suck an intake valve open and push it shut with a broken intake valve spring.

[Don G]

Yup Harley Flat Head has got to be the toughest, they also figured out how to clamp a Generator to the engine as well! Guzzi should have taken notes.....   DonG

[John A]

Any body know Stanley Miller from Texas?  I met him at Italy TX or one of the OK rallies in the 80's. he was on a Guzzi.  I went to the antique motorcycle rally/swap meet at the fairgrounds in Farmington, MN about 15 years ago and sat down at a picnic table, across from me a guy said "hello John"  it was Stan, he had rode his '48 Flathead from Texas.  I had not seen him in at least a decade and was impressed he remembered my name. That is one tough motorcycle, I think one of the bikes that like a Guzzi will run down the road with so much wrong with them its incredible.  On a Guzzi generator, if they had put the two mount bolts 90 degrees from what they are, they never would have broke.

[Don G]

Well if they employed proper engineering practices they would have ended up with a triangulated 3 point bolt pattern, or just copied what HD did, a saddle cast in with a simple strap clamping it down.  DonG

[Huzo]

Any tougher they’d rust..
(Actually a stolen line from a ‘70s jeans commercial..)

[azguzzirep]

Mine has been upgraded to 750cc after a cylinder sleeve came loose. Dumb me, i put the original heads back on instead of using the 750cc heads, too!!