Stupid Stupid Stupid

[newguzzian569]

I am so upset for my stupid forgetfulness that I come to you, ever wise Guzzi experts, for advice.

So as the thread subject line says: I did something really stupid x3!

I do not ride often the bike. maybe once a week sometimes month. So in between I like to run the bike a little so the battery doesn't die and the fluids move a little.

One Monday night, I went to warm up my 2015 V7 that was sitting in the garage. It started just fine. I let it run and left the bike, I Was thinking I would be back in 3-5 minutes. But I forgot! That is not the stupid part yet. I actually took a shower and got dressed had some tea and realised then, 30min later, that there is some popping noise coming out of the garage. I realised then that I forgot the bike running. I rushed out and realised my stupidity! I saw the bike popping and I shut it down.

So here is the problem I was hoping some of you could help me out with.

After I shut it down, I tried to restart the bike but it wouldn't start, instead the ticking noise would come. After a while I thought maybe the battery is out. I charged the batter for a day and it started the bike. Luckily, the bike did start with a little difficulty and using the gas handle. However, now the left piston is only pushing cold air and is not burning any fuel. I rode it a little but noticed that it was definitely not pulling much power and concluded that the left piston was not producing any power. I assume its the spark plug.

Basically, after all my stupidity, leaving the bike sitting and running for 30min in the garage with door open and no flowing air, what is my priority to look at and fix?

Should I replace spark plugs, change oil, change the battery, change physical pieces (piston, etc)? I am very scared that the overheating deformed any vital metal parts.

Anything is appreciated. 

Kind Regards,
Alex

[Guzzi Gal]

Welcome to WG, newguzzian569!  Sorry to hear about your trouble and I'm sure someone will be along in a few to help you out.

[oldbike54]

 Check the spark plug caps .

 Dusty

[n3303j]

Running a bike stationary for 5 or 10 minutes to warm it up and charge the battery is one of the worst things you can do to it. Idling isn't charging enough to replenish what the start took out of the battery. The oil never gets hot enough to boil out moisture. The mufflers get filled with corrosive combustion products that will not be heated enough to burn or boil away.

Pull the plugs and see that you have equal and sufficient compression on both sides. Then investigate loss of spark on both sides.

Best luck & welcome to the group.

[guzzi4me]

Check the spark plug caps .

 Dusty

Along the same thought check the spark plug wire for contact on metal (hot) fins. Could be shorting out.

You stated you had power from the right side. Look at items specific to the left side.

Guzzi's are very robust....let's hope for the best!

Jeff

[newguzzian569]

All, Thank you so far. Spark plugs seem to be the focus and I will investigate first thing tomorrow. It might be a while though for me to update, but I update regardless.

After the warm-up ordeal, I started to learn about warm up techniques and how what I thought was good was not so recommended and certainly the 30min mistake is definitely not recommended.  Thank you for the explanation, that definitely clarified a few things.

Also, thanks for the encouragement. more to come or cry, depending on how my stupidity has affected my beautiful Guzzi.

[guzzi4me]

By the way it would be nice to know your location. Might be a local Guzzi rider that could help.

Jeff

[guzzisteve]

The ticking would be the relay or solenoid not having enough power to start the bike, no biggie. The dead side not running is likely like Dusty says spark plug cap on the wire, it's the rubber part that plugs on to the spark plug. Just idling for that time probably didn't do any damage to the engine, may have overheated the rubber cap on spark plug. It could have heated the oil a bit too, I'd change it.
It does more damage to the motor starting it and running it a short time and not riding it than just letting the bike sit. I'd get a trickle charger and plug it up once a week for a day to keep battery good. I would also have the battery checked and get a new one if it's not up to the task.
Don't worry, we were all newbies at one time!!

[pehayes]

Pull the spark plugs and check the compression for each cylinder.  Idling for a long time with no air circulation is a good recipe for burning a valve face.  It will show up in a very unbalanced compression.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA

[pete roper]

While not a direct comparison I had a knob with a Griso who cooked it in a similar way, nearly burnt his house down. When he told me the tale of cretinous imbecility that led to him leaving it idling for ages in his under roof garage, apart from wanting to punch him repeatedly, I was expecting it to be ruined.

It wasn't running, its oil was so cooked the workshop stank for a week and I fancied the worst.

On stripping the motor everything, apart from the phase sensor, (Not the issue with the OP's bike.) was great! The rings hadn't even lost their tension! I was gobsmacked! Basically it went back together with new front and rear mainseals and he then said it ran better than ever!

Different engine but they are well finned and built tough. I reckon it will be something stupid like a plug cap. Change the oil and filter, check the valves, find out why it has stopped running on one and fix it and then just glue a huge dunces cap onto the top of your helmet next time you go out so everyone can point at you and laugh.

And just in case people think I'm being 'Nasty' I've done a colossal tsunami of much stupider in my life so there is no need for him to feel alone!

Pete

[wirespokes]

The old school of thought is to warm up an engine before driving (riding) off. That may have had something to do with choke mechanisms not working very well back then and the consequent poor running when cold. But these days, it's considered wise to start it up, wait a few moments, then ride away. Take it easy for the first several miles - don't lug the engine, but don't rev it very high either. Not only the engine, but everything else - transmission, final drive, suspension - it all needs to warm up and get the fluids circulating.

I'm curious where you're located. If it's somewhere up north and temps were around freezing, that would be much easier on the engine than if you're in Texas with temps in the 60s or 70s.

[chuck peterson]

The exact same story from the BMW world ended with a new motor after idling for 24 hrs...

[Lannis]

A slightly different world, but back in 1978 Fay and I finally got rid of the 1965 Ford Falcon with a brazillion miles on it that she had driven in college, and threw $1500 on a low-mileage, lovely Plymouth Satellite Sebring with a 318 V8 and A/C; the lap of luxury for us.   The "new" car was so quiet compared to the rattly old Falcon that we were amazed.

So amazed that when I came out one day to the apartment parking lot to get in the car and go, I realized that the key was still in it, and the car was still idling from last night!   About 10 hours, we figured, and it had burned most of the gas in the tank, but it wasn't overheated, the battery was still charging, still had good oil pressure, and appeared to be none the worse for its experience.   

Big watercooled V8s aren't 750 cc air-cooled twins, though ... !!

Lannis

[John A]

I think that one thing that saves an air cooled engine when it has been left idleing too long is if a load is not put on the engine when it is overheated. The alloy commonly used in the cylinder head has lost almost half of its strength over 350 degrees F. When a heavy load is put on the engine at those temps, things like exhaust valve guides start moving around, cylinders distort. This comes from some research done on air cooled aircraft engines originally done by Pratt when figuring out why they had so many exhaust valve guide problems.

[lrutt]

This is interesting. An idling motor doesn't generate much heat so I guess it would depend on ambient temp to know just how hot things got. Likely the enrichening circuit might have just loaded the plug. Best change the oil that's for sure.

Not Guzzi related but when I worked on the family farm, my Grandpa had a 1970 Honda Ct90....Trail 90. Every morning we would take off on the 90 and check irrigation wells. One morning we went north of the house to check on the Minnie up there and change gates on the pipe. My Grandpa parked the bike on the center stand next to the well, left it idling as we would be right back. Well...my Uncle picked us up in the pickup and we went on to check other wells. One thing led to another and we were working rest of the day. Next morning we went to get the bike to go and check wells again and it was nowhere to be found so we took the pickup. Sure enough the 90 was sitting next to the well, idling away just as he had left it the previous morning. 24 hours in a hot Nebraska corn field, idling for 24 hours. He hopped on, put it in gear and took off. That bike never smoked or anything after that. As a matter of fact, I got that bike when my Grandpa passed away and restored it. Never did touch the motor, didn't need to.

[Kev m]

This is interesting. An idling motor doesn't generate much heat so I guess it would depend on ambient temp to know just how hot things got. Likely the enrichening circuit might have just loaded the plug. Best change the oil that's for sure.

This is a potentially misleading statement. Yes, an idling motor tends to generate less heat than one run at higher rpm (especially under load).

But an air-cooled idling motor doesn't SHED heat as efficiently so even if it is generating it slower it's also getting rid of it much slower so....

But yes, worse in a hot ambient than in a cold.

[PJPR01]

How much gas is left in the tank...sounds like you might have just run out of gas perhaps.

[Chuck in Indiana]

How much gas is left in the tank...sounds like you might have just run out of gas perhaps.

It's a thought. Guzzis are overbuilt, though.. and I would be *very* surprised if idling for 30 minutes would kill one. As mentioned, it's probably ignition on that side. New plugs are cheap, as are plug caps. If that doesn't fix it, then start looking a little deeper.
I never have done nothin dum.. 

[Wayne Orwig]

Check the plugs.
Maybe an intake manifold distorted from the heat and is leaking.
Maybe the catalytic converter melted and is plugged.
Maybe the head warped and is leaking.

Lots and lots of maybes.

Never start a motorcycle if you aren't on it to ride it.

[Wayne Orwig]

How much gas is left in the tank...sounds like you might have just run out of gas perhaps.

Since it if injected, that would kill both cylinders.

[Groover]

I typically take the bike in the shower with me, but that's just me.

I'm guessing an ignition coil burned out.

[normzone]

I typically take the bike in the shower with me, but that's just me.

Oh good - I'm glad to know that I'm not the only one.

[Testarossa]

Assuming the garage door was open, in which case there was probably enough air circulating to keep the idling engine from cooking.

An idling motorcycle won't charge its battery. You need at least 13 volts to charge the battery and most alternators won't push that much until revs go over 3000 rpm. With a headlight drawing 4 amps and the ignition system pulling another 4 or 5 amps you're using around 100 watts just idling and your alternator does at best 270 watts at cruising speed, maybe 60 watts at idle. So there's no excess power to charge the battery. Your battery will drain down steadily if the bike simply idles. Then no juice left for restart.

[oldbike54]

 To the OP , please check the simple stuff first . Oh , and there is no need to ever start the bike unless you are going to ride it . Just charge the battery every so often .

 Dusty

[Devildog]

Wayne's wisdom:
Never start a motorcycle if you aren't on it to ride it.

Older bikes need attention during warm up, adjusting choke and blipping throttle so you are always sitting on it. My son starts his Ducati Scrambler and wanders off looking for his gloves........

[Chuck in Indiana]

I got tired of the stupid flip chokes (all or nothing) on the AeroLario, and did this mod: (some assembly still required)
2017-06-22_02-44-39 by Charles Stottlemyer, on Flickr
Pull the choke as far as necessary, start it, set idle with the choke, ride off. Start backing the choke off as the engine warms up the long intake runners. About half to three quarters of a mile.. continue on.
Starting a bike and letting it idle is not a particularly good idea.

[canuck750]

Hardly rates as stupid compared to the serious screw ups I have done over the years!!

[fotoguzzi]

It takes a pretty smart guy to recognize his stupidity..



If you look at what wiki says about the word stupid... I don't think you qualify.

[pete roper]

Back in the day, when disc valve two strokes were the thing, there were a lot of kids my age with missing fingertips. I would probably of been one of them if I could of afforded a disc valve two stroke!

Pete

[Texas Turnip]

OK. Fess up that someone is watching you work when you do something dumb. You say to the person, "you didn't see that." Many mechanics/technicians don't like someone watching them for this reason.

Tex