Thanks for all the advice on my previous thread about my camshaft cover oil leak. After receiving a new gasket and re-fitting with sealant I still have a leak! Not looked into it again yet but if my mechanical skills are that bad and it’s still leaking from the cam cover then my bad. My worst fear is that the leak is coming from the camshaft seals. Has anyone replaced these? Has anyone had a leak from here?
Where is the oil appearing to come from? Had an oil leak on my 1260 Mutley, I suspected that it was the front cylinder cam seals, either that or the oil lines. The trouble is that it was something of a persistent mist of oil. Turns out in the end it was the lower cam belt pulley seal. The wind and belts were just taking the stuff all over the place. Obviously fixed under warranty by my dealer but their availability and then lock-down #1 got in the way so it took quite a while to get fixed with 2 visits to the workshop and a wait for a response/authorisation by Ducati along with the parts.
It’s definitely coming from around the camshaft area. I’m going to have a look in a bit. Will put up a pic.
That was my, and the dealers, first suspicion too. Although that was before the belt covers came off and the tech closely inspected the source. You've obviously done that last bit.
So I have decided to remove the cam seals. Does anyone know the best way to hold the camshaft pulleys steady when removing and refitting them?
So have replaced the camshaft seal that I believed to be at fault. Guess what? I still have a leak!!! I have done what I should have done and carefully run the bike without the cam belt cover. I can see the oil coming from the cam cover like I first thought. Is there something I don’t know on sealing these cam covers? The manual says to put sealant over the cam lobes. The old gasket had sealant either side of the gasket. Is this how I should do it?
I had a leak from the Cam belt cover on my DVT just after it had been serviced about 4 years ago, turned out that the technician had used the wrong sealant. IIRC he used a grey one and Ducati had updated the info on sealing the cover to use a black sealant. Sorry no idea what brand / type it was but I do know it didn't leak after he used the right sealant.
As I said in my first reply to your first post I'm not a fan of sealant. Why not try removing the gasket and all traces of sealant and refit? Then run the engine. It may not improve the situation but it's worth a try. If it's no better (or worse) then applying an even bead of sealant over the whole gasket face makes more sense than having it unevenly distributed in odd locations. Despite that using sealant with a rubber gasket makes no sense to me other than to tack it to a cover for easy removal/refitting and I think I've done that once in 30 years or so. Ducati seem to have gone down a sealant rabbit hole in recent years. Three Bond with everything. You either completely replace the gasket and use sealant only or you use a gasket (generally dry) but not both. The Three Bond thing is just a commercial tie up like Shell. It doesn't mean it's the best or only sealant you can use, much like Shell isn't the only engine oil.
Update. This oil leak has been driving me mad but I have now finally found out the cause. Looks like I had two leaks the first being the badly fitted cam cover, after resolving this I then had another smaller leak coming from a different area. I decided to remove and reinstall what I think is called the baring cap that fixes the camshafts. I now have no more leaks! So can now finally start enjoying this bike. Thanks for everyone’s help and advice.
