Early v11 Sport Heads and pistons swap onto Cali 1100

[guzzista]

Considering a V11 Sport pistons and heads ( B10 cam already installed) onto my Cali 1100 top end. Any fitment problems?. From everything I gather should be a straight swap. or is it?.. Any comments from our Guzzi Mavens?

[Cam3512]

Just swap out the ECU's.  Ran a V11 Sport's (15M?) in my Calvin for 5K miles (as recommended by Greg Field).  Transformed it's personality.  Switched back to stock with a re-flash.  Dual plugs on Calvin vs single on V11 Sport = pinging under heavy throttle.  Try it?

[rocker59]

Just swap out the ECU's.  Ran a V11 Sport's (15M?) in my Calvin for 5K miles (as recommended by Greg Field).  Transformed it's personality.  Switched back to stock with a re-flash.  Dual plugs on Calvin vs single on V11 Sport = pinging under heavy throttle.  Try it?

I'm pretty sure he'll be doing the swap on a 1990s vintage Cal 1100.  Not on a Breva-powered Cal Vintage.

[rocker59]

Considering a V11 Sport pistons and heads ( B10 cam already installed) onto my Cali 1100 top end. Any fitment problems?. From everything I gather should be a straight swap. or is it?.. Any comments from our Guzzi Mavens?

Have you checked connecting rod length?  That's the only thing left to consider.

The pistons and heads will bolt on.

You'll need to think about more carburetion, if you haven't already. 

[Cam3512]

I'm pretty sure he'll be doing the swap on a 1990s vintage Cal 1100.  Not on a Breva-powered Cal Vintage.

Who knows? Cali 1100 covers a large range of models up to 2004 (before the Calvin).

EDIT:  I see 1994 Cali in his signature line..,

[guzzista]

Still trying to figure out  if conrod length is any different.  And, yes I am swapping  onto a early Cali1100 . Carburetion is currently PHM 40 and it is well sorted for the motor as  is but additional jetting/ slides atomizers may very well need to be addressed due to valves size and compression.

[arveno]

Do you have only V11 engine parts you mentioned or the whole engine?

If you have the whole engine just swap it .

[guzzista]

Do you have only V11 engine parts you mentioned or the whole engine?

If you have the whole engine just swap it .

The Cali crankcase is recessed,( machined), drilled and tapped for the Digiplex Sensor, The V11 is not, The V11 heads are not drilled and tapped for oil Vapor return, so they will have to come off to do that, so its eenie meenie... the conrods, however , default all to the same part number so no worries there. Will post some pics when everything is apart

[guzzista]

After installed the top end from the V11 Sport ( cylinders, pistons, heads and rocker sets ), the bike runs quite well. So far I am still running it on the jetting as before ( 60/5 slide, 266AB atomizer, K4 needle, 60 idle and 152 Main).  After a bit more riding, plug chopping, heads retorque, I may be visiting carbs again. The most time consuming bit was opening up the Cali intakes  to 40mm as the Digiplex  specific vacuum  tubes and  the synch vacuum threaded holes are needed. V11 Sport manifolds needed mods to fins to allow for both. Venting the heads via some lovely early valve covers, but running the hoses to the drain line instead of the frame as the mayo was still getting trapped in the U bends. Catch can coming up and no more frame venting. It's been a gradual process on the Cali. B10 Cam , 40 PHM's and finally V11 Sport combustion chambers.  Cheers

[rocker59]

 

[Chuck in Indiana]

Nice work. Attaboy..  

[s1120]

Interesting concept..  Are the heads that much better then the stock Cali heads??  Later EV heads?? 

[guzzista]

Interesting concept..  Are the heads that much better then the stock Cali heads??  Later EV heads?

Valve /port sizes and squish band area/ chamber depth are the major differences from the stock Cali heads. To my knowledge valve size stayed the same into the Cali Vintage. Possible squish band changes  on later Calis I am not aware of. Maybe one of our Guzzi gurus could shed some light on that

[rocker59]

Interesting concept..  Are the heads that much better then the stock Cali heads??  Later EV heads??

Yes.  The Sport 1100 and V11 Sport are "that much better" than Californias.  Only one close is a CalVin, as it has got Breva 1100 internals.

[John Croucher]

Here is what I know from my mixing of parts.

The combustion chamber on the sport head is a larger sphere.  The valves are larger with shorter stems because the combustion chamber is deeper from having the larger size sphere.

If you put a sport piston in a California head, the squish band is very wide because of the smaller combustion chamber.  The sport piston crown will contact the edge of the head combustion chamber.  If you put a stock flat head/slightly raised California piston with a sport head, you will have a very thin squish band. 

Putting a sport piston in a stock California head combination requires the top of the piston squish band between the edge of the piston and the piston dome to be machined wider.  The valve pockets need to have a couple of mm removed for valve clearance.  There is not a problem with overlap though.  There is 4-5 mm of valve clearance even thought the combustion chamber is smaller. 

The stock cam closes earlier than the sport cam.  This allow less blow back on the compression stroke.  The compression ratio goes up.  The combustion chamber with the stock head and sport piston combination causes the compression ration to go up.  When I put the stock head/sport piston with machined squish band and machined valve pockets, I got 223 psi cranking pressure in the cylinder with no intake manifold or exhaust headers.  Extremely high.

This was in a Hydro motor. 

I started and rode the bike with the very high compression.  The performance was significantly improve.  The spark knock sounded like taking to s.s. spoons and tapping them together under w.o.t. at low r.p.ms.  Outside of that throttle/rpm range,  the engine ran fine.  I only rode a few miles to test.  I took the top end apart, worked on the squish band area of the head.  Re assembled and gave it another go.  Still knocked badly.  Took the engine apart and put the stock pistons back in and have been riding.

I have since machined the squish band on the piston to get better clearance.  I have a set of heads with new valve guides cut for valve guide seals sitting on the work bench.  I am going to send them out for duel plugging.  I have a set of Breva duel outlet coils and shorter oil lines for the rocker boxes. 

When I reassemble, I will add additional base gaskets to reduce the high compression if needed.

I have a complete stock hydro motor on the work bench that has been rebuilt and read to go into the bike if the experiment goes badly. 

The only different's in the stock 1100 engine and the sport engine I have found is the piston and the head combustion chamber, valve seat and valve diameter/length.  Everything else is the same as it relates to this area of the engine. 

Putting the sport heads and piston combination should work out fine.  I have tried to find a set of stock sport heads, but have missed out a couple of times when they came up for sell. 

Biggest performance update I have done to the engine is changing out the clutch to a RAM.  I like the way it works and the faster acceleration it allows.  Putting my 2003 California Special Sport Aluminium on a diet made a huge difference.