CD Another view point. After listening to the piston slap on my 600ss progress froma tap to a knock over 25,000ks I got to a stage of selling it or fixing it. Thehorizontal cylinder was the worst. The noise undermined my enjoyment of theride, together with the comments from others on club rides. The piston slap comes from forged pistons that have too muchskirt clearance. No performance issues just unwanted noise. In 1998 Ducatifixed the problem with cast pistons. The advice I got was to put up with it, which I rejected.The easy fix is to find 1998 cast piston for the horizontal cylinder. I decidedthe bike was a keeper and to fix it. I ended up installing a big bore, re-jettingand cutting down the air-box. Not a cheap exercise but I’ve ridded myself ofthe piston slap, ended up with more torque, and now have a lovely inductionnoise. Steve
Yes fully compatible, but unlike the previous poster, I would want to install a pair of pistons due to weight matching.
Never had a piston out on a Ducati, but looking at the manual drawings, the skirt around the gudgeon pin wouldn't allow it. That's the trouble with short stroke, short pistons..... AL
Strange thing is the early 600ss engines are the quickest, Most sought after by DD lads is the 1.83-1 primary model which was the very first 600ss. Shame ducati fitted 400ss heads to the 600 motors.
It's running so I can't be a*sed to start pulling the engine apart..........but I have had plenty of pistons out of other engines including some that came out on their own accord (admittedly I was running nitrous at the time)... AL
Two of the four in an Essex engine......through the side of the block......never figured out if it was rod failure or seizure, but there they were, dangling on the end of bent rods, gudgeon pin bosses shattered on one side of both pistons.
A bit of a knock seems quite normal. And as Imola says a big end letting go is an awful noise, and gut wrenching I'm about to rebuild my 600 when the crank and rods arrive, and I'm sure it'll slap nicely still lol.
Thought that myself, so I asked my mechanic. We ended up comparing my old pulled piston with a 1998 used cast piston and a new piston and, within the limits of the scales, found very little difference in weight. Also, he claimed that he had replaced a number of single pistons with no customer complaints. Cannot speak about a 2001 part. Still, I like your idea, why only do half a job. Steve
Some ramblings from me after my first valve clearance adjustment. Any queries just ask. View attachment 900 Barry
