A bit overdue, but I thought I'd post up how my 1098R spent her winter in rehab! My R had done about 7500 miles (mostly all by me), and the majority of that has been road use (I did over 2,000 miles on a single Pyrenean road trip last year alone). She gets pampered every year with at least a full cambelt and valve service, as I like to keep it in tip top condition, and after MotoRapido did a custom map on her last year, she was running sweet as a nut. However, the numbers produced were still lower than some of their box fresh 1098Rs that had been done before. No biggie, I thought, but decided I'd like her to be 'the best she could be' by giving her a full blueprinted rebuild this past winter. Lo and behold, when MotoRapido stripped her down, they confirmed wear beyond what I had expected: the rockers were worn, selector fork slightly worn, and surprisingly, the barrels had been scored - testament to why she was running lower numbers than expected. So the rebuild spec was agreed, and a very complete blueprinted rebuild with brand new parts throughout including new rockers, new barrels, new pistons, new shells, new clutch, new selector fork, etc etc etc - in fact, they were building what is effectively a brand new and fully optimised (ie, balance all components) 1098R engine. And the plan was to bring her back to brand new with some subtle improvements towards reliability and ensuring the performance. I also decided to get the gearbox fully stripped and superfinished in the ceramic rumbler 'whilst there' - I can attest that the results are absolutely superb! Shifts are silky smooth and better than any of my previous bikes. So after being on the doctors table for over a month in rehab, what happened?! I'll let the pictures do the talking, but the results are nothing short of staggering. Wilf and the team delivered back a brand new bike, and I'm very happy. Before/after? +20hp, +10ftlbs. Immediately after the rebuild, she posted a reliable 184rwhp and 98lbft - I suspect on other well known dynos she would likely be well over 190 and 100. But it's the way she delivers it - uber smooth perfect fueling, early and hits unbelievably hard... the 1098R is back to her full glory! Engine getting stripped... After 7,500 miles, the big twin gets gunked up! Let's have a look inside... Oh dear, scored barrels sapping the power Stronger than many make out to be! Gearbox before the ceramic rumbler... Loaded! After phase 1 After a Superfinished polish! Better than new! Titanium loveliness Lots of new bits New Pistals New selector fork and shells
Balancing the crank New Main bearings Setting it right New rockers Putting her back together again, looking like new! Looking like an engine again! Lightweight! Golden New hoses all round (she's now running about 10C cooler!) Getting there! Better than new, Tada! Before and after: +20rwhp, +10ftlbs Kudos to Wilf and the team, but MR did a superb job. The R is simply feral and totally transformed!
Looks good. Were you compensated for the fact the engine wasn't as it should've been? Worn rockers, bent selector and scored bores/pistons due to dirty assy. After all, the engine wanted for nothing during it's serviced life. Why no lightened flywheel?
I agree that the wear is unusual given how low mileage she is and that she spends the vast majority of her life on the road, not track. Poor assembly by Ducati? Quite possibly. But to get comp on a 6 year old highly strung homologation superbike that pushes 190ps from just 2 cylinders would have been a miracle! It was agreed with MR that a lightened flywheel would have made her far too unfriendly on the road.
Mmmm this is quite interesting really. It would be good to know a rough ball park figure to do this kind of work. As it begs the question as to whether I should look at doing the same to my 1098R at some point in the near future. Happy for you to PM if you prefer.
Good post and pics. Some alarming posts re R's recently...:Jawdrop: Those hoses really 10 degrees cooler? Tempting....My bikes gets hot fast when stopped!
Samieb, Over time all engines will demonstrate a gradual deterioration in performance through internal wear - and this tends to be imperceptible to the owner unless you do a side-by-side benchmark comparison on a dyno or similar. The R was running beautifully before the rebuild, but the numbers didn't lie. After the rebuild, the changes are noticeable from the moment you set off from idle - not just the top end - consistent with the curves that show more, everywhere. It's not a cheap exercise, but it's also a good opportunity to improve her reliability by improving oil ways/flow to her heads etc - things that return the engine back to the state of tune the R was designed for instead of the slightly neutered pure road form. Every R engine used in superstock/SBK would have had the similar adjustments made, albeit 'to the max', with less consideration of reliability. Superstock R engines are lifed for 750m rebuilds... But then they are producing c.220rwhp on the same components. Nelson, If you consider how highly strung the R engine is, it's natural for there to be wear. Producing bigger numbers than even the vaunted S1000RR from half the number if cylinders is no mean feat! I suppose it's what makes these so special, compared to anything else. Biased opinion of course, but I've yet to find a bigger hitting or charismatic motor than the '98R And yes, the cooler temps are very noticeable!
A gentleman never says but needless to say there were a lot of manhours effort plus specialist services! In for a penny, in for a pound... LOL but a nice shiny fast uber broom!
Do it! There will never be another thumping beast like the '98R. The Panigale is a limp wet pussycat in comparison! It's not by luck that the '98R won 2xWSBK championships in its 1st and last year
Nice work to get it back to how it should be. But ffs whats with a complete strip and lots of replacement parts on a 7500 mile engine.People on here are forever banging on about how desmoquattro motors can cost a bit in service charges and rockers.So has nothing improved with ducati reliability.I feel for you as you have looked after it perfectly and not skimped on servicing.Cant ducati at least stump up for the parts and some labour. I take my hat off to you for the effort to get it right and even improved over standard.If that was my bike id have wheeled it down a country lane and set fire to it after reporting it stolen.
@Phill, wash yer mouth out! In 2008, people moaned. But in 2011 though against the mighty S1K, with a soon-to-retire aging Spaniard?! @Matt, I could have done that, but I'm glad I didn't. It's not a surprise that a homologation engine is just more highly strung compared to the production 1x98s, and therefore parts would be lifed accordingly - maybe Ducati built them knowing that teams would be rebuilding them before their first ever race? Looking at the evolution of the Testastretta engine, even the last of the line 1198SP had its engine 'detuned' compared to the '98R. I mean, looking at the photo of the crank with balance report: you would have thought Ducati would balance the crank of an R engine to begin with, without it needing to be balanced to get it spinning/rotating perfectly. That being said, whilst planning the rebuild, a number of parts could have been reused as they were OK, but it was decided to just replace them for all brand new items 'whilst there' and get the engine to be as healthy as it could be. I certainly don't have plans to repeat this exercise anytime soon - hopefully never!
The race bikes engines would've had totally different internals to that of a production bike. Thus, negating the need to rebuild road bike engines at regular intervals.
The '98R engine has the same core internals as the race bikes, although some items were changed. Hence why the R engine is different from the other 1198 road engines including using parts specifically for homologation: the titanium/magnesium R-specific-parts in particular. Arguably, the 98R is not a road engine, but a 'pre-race' race engine that was expected to be rebuilt with higher compressions, hc pistons, ported heads/etc. etc. The 98R was rushed to market and only just made it in time for the 2008 race season - my bike was first registered at Bologna with a letter from Ducati acknowledging they needed to pre-register the bike for SBK homologation purposes (at least 500 bikes had to be pre-registered to be eligible). In this process, it is clear (at least based on my experience) that their engines were not the last word in minimised tolerances! Hopefully the 1198/S/SP improved in this regard, despite their reduced power outputs, as fully productionised road engines.
Yeah guys at Ducati I talked to stated without a doubt the 1098R is the nearest thing to WSB of any ducati special.Guess this makes them a bit less reliable too.Stilll all that work to rectify probs on a 7500 miles full ducati dealer service history bike.You would have thought ducati would be prepared to do something. Guess that's why im still loving my old sps.My friends at ducati know I like to put the miles on so have told me in no uncertain terms to stay well away from 999R and 1098R.They said if mine shits itself it will be a big job but a lot cheaper as lots of parts around and not that expensive bar the crank cases and titanium con rods.They told me if a later R shits itself I better get a bank loan or more likely rob the bank to pay for it. Shame as I really fancied a 1098R in the near future but put right off now. These problems/ failures just after warranty on low miles bikes really are shite though as a number of my friends have been tempted by ducatis.After they have checked this forum out and all the probs with ohlins fork legs,multi engines going bang they have said fuck that.Im even put off and im a big ducati fan.
The race bikes ran with different cases and rods. A lot of the homologation, is to ratify the sizes of components that are to be used, eg valve lift, valve stem size piston sizes, crank throw etc. The road bikes have poorer spec ti rods etc but are replaced with quality race items throughout.
@Matt, I guess that's ultimately the price we are paying for higher performance out of approximately the same capacity. I mean the 98R is quoted as 186hp out of 1198cc vs the 996SPS at 124hp/996cc. This equates to 25% more output per cc in the later engine. Increase the output of the 98R to 200hp (engine, not wheel), and that figure jumps to 35% more output per cc. That's a phenomenal increase considering the basics of the rest of engine design is the same. Also no wonder Ducati had to change up to the Superquadro - the Testastretta was at its limit. I'm hoping that the rebuild restores not just power, but also increases reliability to what you'd expect of a properly balanced and blueprinted engine - a rebuild should not be required again except in the event of user error.
