Got mine back from Cornerspeed today and thankfully not the cylinder head problem. Did get them to cost up for me if it had been wrong as Ducati said as its 4 years old they would not do a good will fix (I would of argued). It came to around £1300 for the 2 new heads, gaskets, swapping bits over and of course 13 hours labour! Less than I thought it would be but very glad its nothing.
I'm rather surprised on two fronts: firstly, that looked EXACTLY like mine did before my heads were replaced. Secondly, I've never heard of anyone being told it would not be covered by Ducati UK. It was a problem caused in manufacture by the incorrect coolant being used. They have to honour replacements when they fail in my book. So what did they say was the problem they fixed?
After various tests they could not find anything! I will be keeping an eye on it though. I also agree about Ducati fixing it out of warranty and I would have taken legal action if it went that far. My bike may be a 10 reg but its only done 1300 miles! Bike starts fine, rides fine and temp rises a little quicker than I would like but also falls just as quickly. I will be recording every time a start it up after a break just in case. From my point of view a bit of a head scratcher.
I think it is a case of the length of time the coolant is in the engine, rather than the mileage covered, so just a corrosion issue? Most on here have gone at around the 3 year mark, if I have been reading this forum correctly? Mine was about 3 months inside the extended (3rd year warranty period) but incidentally at 15k miles. I would keep a very keen eye on this one Richard - has yours had the conversion to the new coolant? Header tank should show pink, not blue.
I recall also initially being told that after inspection there was not a problem. I had asked them to do a compression check and when I requested the results (I had researched beforehand what the acceptable results were - sorry don't have the info. now) after a few minutes checking, they changed their minds and said they'd request authority from Ducati UK to replace both heads. Suggest that if you spot the smoke again, that you call them back and say you need to have the problem taken seriously and properly inspected, a compression check, etc. If you don't have full confidence in them, maybe try a highly rated dealership in your area. You may need to start making noises with Ducati UK if they start suggesting any problems will be at your cost.
A compression check most likely won't show anything. In my case and I understand in most failures the fault has been a porosity in the casting leaking into the exhaust port. The head gasket is still intact, the hole is beyond the valves, so compression isn't affected. Nor would a test of the coolant for combustion gases necessarily show anything either but the coolant level will go down and there will be a pronounced smell of coolant (curry like) at start up.
As I understand it (correct me if I'm wrong), the principal issue with the problem heads is that the castings have been wrongly made with too thin a section between the coolant passages and the exhaust port. When the engine is new, or has only done a few thousand miles, this is not a problem and it runs perfectly. Eventually though fine cracks begin to appear in the casting at this point. The cracks gradually worsen with usage, and allow coolant to get into the exhaust. These cracks are sometime described, rather misleadingly, as "porosity". Coolant of unsuitable specification might cause the cracks to worsen slightly through corrosion, but this is not the fundamental source of the problem. A compression test could never reveal this problem, since coolant leakage into the exhaust port, or exhaust gas leakage into the coolant, has negligible effect on compression. The principal symptom of the problem is steam or smoke appearing around one of the cylinder heads on starting from cold, or in the exhaust gas. At first it soon disappears as the engine warms up, but as the problem worsens the steam or smoke persists longer. There might be visible water. The level of coolant drops, and the header tank needs to be topped up. If the engine happens to stop with the exhaust valves in one cylinder open, liquid can seep into the combustion chamber so that on next starting the engine it will only run on one cylinder at first. Eventually the engine will not start or run at all, and the only possible cure is replacement cylinder heads.
Started my Multi today after 4 days without action. Neal at Cornerspeed had told me the problem bike he had dealt with was pluming smoke from the exhaust. Here's a video and I would be glad of any feedback. OK having trouble uploading the video from my iphone and ipad as it keeps saying It wont work! Snookered! If anyone can let me know how to get the video from my ipad to here it would be very well recieved.
Here is a link to two vids of the same thing Video5_zps2fb12b5f.mp4 Video by woowoohair | Photobucket Ducati Problem? Video by woowoohair | Photobucket
That certainly looks like steam from the exhaust. If it's coolant you should also smell it. It looks just like mine did when it developed a crack/porosity into the exhaust port of the horizontal head.
Mine did that as well as steaming from the cam belt covers - smelt almost fishy if I remember right, certainly an odd whiff?
