I use Motul 300 v 15/50 in my 853 I think it is the most common viscosity used in these engines. Steve
Right............ the 10W40 is what was sold to me by Millsport. Another re-think required...........
OK, bookmarked the Mahle filter in Opie Oil at £3.47 each. The Motul 15W50 300V is eye-wateringly expensive compared with the rest, like £20 less for Silkolene Comp 4 15W50..... is it worth the extra? Being in NI, I also get hit with an extra £11 for carriage from Opie so any discount is lost............ The main Silkolene NI distributor is only 5 miles away from me so could get it at the right money.
Somebody on here with a racing pedigree quoted a saying among the racing fraternity some time ago. "Fuchs Silkolene fooks engines" that's maybe why Motul is £20 dearer
I suppose the age old saying "you get what you pay for"... applies. Will see if I can get it here at the right money. I actually use Motul Transoil 10W30 and Motul 710 2-stroke in the RD.
OK, finally got a window to have a look at the heads and have found some disturbing side play in the valves..... now, not being familiar with these, how much is acceptable? Not striped down, just turned over on the cams by hand to full open and rocked the valves side to side, not huge but movement visible............ Also, had a proper look into the ports, all inlets nice and clean, horizontal (front) exhaust port slightly coked up, vertical (rear) showing very visible oil escaping from both of the valve guides, port well coked and wet, valve faces in the cylinder black with a good layer of carbon (other front pot white on faces which would be more normal IMO)............. Definitely more carbon in the head on the vertical chamber. Valve seats look good on all pots except vertical exhaust, seats fairly black and valve itself showing a bit of pitting so all issues seem to surround the vertical exhaust valves. Still to check the bores and rings, that's next up now............
OK, here are the results from the NI jury: My metric gauges did not go down small enough so have had to do the gaps in thou. Vertical cylinder: Ring float in groove: Top 0.0015" Middle 0.0015" Bottom 0.002" End gap: Top 0.013" Middle 0.008" Bottom 0.028" Piston skirt diameter: 93.92mm Skirt to bore clearance: 0.0015" Piston has 3 light scores on the exhaust side and corresponding mark in the barrel but they are light and only one of them you can just about feel with your nail, it would rub out no problem. Horizontal cylinder: Ring float in groove: Top 0.001" Middle 0.001" Bottom 0.0015" End gap: Top 0.010" Middle 0.010" Bottom 0.025" Piston skirt diameter: 93.91mm Skirt to bore clearance: 0.0015" Piston has 3 light scores on the inlet side and corresponding mark in the barrel but they are light and two of them you can just about feel with your nail, they would rub out no problem, and not as bad as the horizontal cylinder. All rings and grooves inspected with a jewellers loupe (eye magnifer) and no visible wear steps. No wear step at the top of the barrel and hone marks still visible. So, over to the experts for verdict..................?
Looking at those measurements, they are close to brand new, some would say even too close for the end gap if working on 4thou per inch of bore, good that you say crosshatch is still visible, is this the case at the point of maximum thrust? (halfway down in line with the bike). As for the earlier quotes regards oil I do agree with most that is posted, Mr R 's comments about the main brands all being good is on the nose, I still stick with what I said about the later "bike" spec oils not being as good as some of the "race" spec oils, particularly where these oils are for wet clutch and cat applications, the best for stopping the rocker wear is lots of ZDDP which kills catalytic converters, most SL and onward spec oils have had the dose of this reduced, as also mentioned a thicker oil will hold on to components better for winter startups, but is not as good for power. the latter I think that you would not notice on the road. Again, as already mentioned Opie Oils do supply some of the more hard to get oils, these are my supplier. Back to daisy duke, try new seals on the valves and try new rings (I may have some), its all down to how much to spend. Incidentally I did get to ask a Ducati dealer about oil consumption figures and the answer was 1cc per mile! so 3500miles and you could be empty! that's from the horses mouth.
Thanks for that Spike, so, it might be just replace the seals and nail it all back together again. The hone is visible all the way down, obviously much better at the bottom but yes, all still there. As for spend, I have a lot of stuff demanding my bank balance so want to keep things to an absolute minimum if possible. If rings are still good I would use them again unless it is recommended they are replaced when I am down this far? I have a little bit of scoring which I will rub out (regularly done on a 2-stroke) with some 800 wet&dry. I thought the gaps on some of them were really good (especially the front cylinder) but some I wasn't too sure of being "in spec", especially the top and bottom rings of the vertical pot, but, I am applying RD values that I am familiar with so might be barking up the wrong tree here. What about the side play in the valves? Is a bit acceptable or should they be play free? It's fairly obvious where my oil has been going, down the vertical head exhaust guides, really wet and cruddy in there. I will have to lap in the vertical exhaust valves for sure, they don't look great so will have to do the clearances on that one. Ducati say you have to replace everything after a valve clearance check as you have to pull everything out, this was all done a year ago when it had a Desmo service by Millsport. What is the shopping list for a head strip and stem seal replacement? I was thinking I possibly won't have to touch the front head as Millsport checked everything when it started to burn oil in a big way, that was only 100 miles ago. I stopped them going any further at £400 when they quoted me £1200 to complete the job. Unfortunately, that would be stupid not to replace the stem seals when I'm here. A bit of a surprise there on the oil consumption............ I might not have been using as much as I thought due to the seals, I'm used to having engines that have the same amount of oil in them when you change it every year... well, except for the missus elderly 406. I put good stuff in it at the change and then just get some "drinking oil" for the remainder of the year.
Have you spoken to Mototech Brian in Lisburn or even Mototechnic Robbie in Dublin? They have always been very helpfull. Have you placed an order for the Mahle filters via opie? I want to get about 8filters for 2 bikes,we could split postage maybe?
Do you know the Lisburn contact? Have been talking to a few people who have used him..... PM me.......... Not familiar with Dublin one, I'm County Armagh. Sure could go in with a group buy, they will probably sting your arse for delivery to ROI. I'm in Dublin regularly but I see you are "West"............
I'm in Graph Engineering in Finglas 2 or 3 times a month leaving off/picking up anodising, could do a drop.....?
Going by the amounts of filters you are talking of buying have you thought of using the washable screen type? i use these and find it helpful to quickly check what is in the filter to give warning to problems etc. not cheap but buy it once.
apologies for the late reply..not been on the forum for over a month. How did you get on? Pm on the way
