Engine oil change

Sat, 27 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Oil change

The v85tt is an air-cooled bike, and as such, regular oil and filter changes are imperative. The factory manual calls for an oil change every 6,000mi (10,000km) or yearly. if you’re using the bike particularly aggressively (racing, serious offroad/adventuring) then they recommend halving the mileage requirement.

requirements

tools

10mm, 13mm, and 17mm spanner/sockets
oil catch tray (i use one with an inbuilt reservoir but anything will do)
some pipe and a funnel to refill the oil (not strictly necessary but helps a lot)

parts

at least 2 litres of 10w-60 oil. i buy 4l bottles of Castrol EDGE Titanium. the spec calls for 1.76l, but you’ll probably end up spilling a little
a new filter, these are specific to the newer small block guzzi engines - just buy from a piaggio group dealer or equivalent. i use a UFI 2553100.
a new filter O-ring. these usually (always?) come with the filter, but in case you can’t get them, i believe it’s 46x3.5mm.
a copper crush washer 10x14x1.5mm (you can bulk buy multipacks of copper crush washers on amazon - gutsibits are always out of them)
optionally, some oil change kits come with a new washer for the filter, but it’s not copper so i don’t believe it’s single use, and i don’t bother to replace it.

Procedure

remove the 4x 10mm bolts for the sump guard, exposing the bottom of the bike. whilst you’re here, check that your 17 and 13mm spanners fit on the oil drain and filter bolts.
go for a long ride. at least 30 minutes. the bike is air-cooled and takes forever to get to its full operating temperature
pull the bike back onto your driveway and leave it idling until the last second. kill it and immediately open the 17mm drain bolt.
let the oil drain for a few minutes, and give everything time to cool off before continuing.
clean the drain bolt, inspecting the magnetic tip to see if there is much metal on it. a small amount is fine, big pieces are not.
swap the copper crush washer on the drain bolt and replace, tightening to 50Nm.
undo the oil filter bolt and remove the oil filter and o-ring from the filter cover
dip the new o-ring into the old oil and fit it on the filter cover, then apply the filter spring-side down
tighten the oil filter cover back to 25Nm.
refill the engine so that the level is MAX when the bike is upright (not leaning to the left on the sidestand)
crank the engine and let it run, making sure the oil pressure light goes out within ~5 seconds.
let it run for a minute or two, kill it, wait a minute or two, and then top up if it’s sunk below the MAX mark
replace the sump guard

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