Morning all, I have just landed myself a 2001 748 S. Only 10k on the clock and a full ducati service history. It's awesome. However, following my last few rides I have noticed small build up of oil behind the rear cylinder on the top of the crank casing. I think it maybe coming from the rear cylinder base gasket. I can live with it for now just have to clean it after each ride. Anyone else experience the same thing?
Do you mean from the top of the cyclinder head? If so is either overtightened bolts on the cylinder head deforming the gasket....or a knackered gasket.
Bottom of rear cylinder area accumulating on the top of the crank housing. Going to look at crank pressure valve and connecting pipe, also the additional oil channels in the crank housing that can be blanked off apparently.
I would check around the crankcase breather first, where it screws into the case and the hose and clips, I have sealed mine a couple of times and after a while I get a small amount of oil appearing. Steve
Hi, I had exactly the same problem on my 748R. Suspected possibly the crank case breather at first so cleaned off and ran it but had no result. Took the bike for a 100 mile blast and guess what! The oil had started to fill the casting recesses in the crankcase behind the rear cylinder (same place as yours?). There was no visible residue from the breather or anywhere above the recesses such as head gasket or cam cover gasket etc so I then suspected base gasket failure. The bike went into the dealer and they confirmed the base gasket was leaking so its being sorted now under warranty. Good luck with yours! Tom
Issue seems identical to mine. Lucky you have warranty! Mine was a private sale so the old "was alright when I owned it" I'm sure will would pop up if I questioned it. But, oil leak and all, for me it adds to the joy of being a ducati owner. All is forgotten once she's started up (much to the annoyance of my neighbours) and out on the road. I wouldn't swap it for anything else. (Although I might be tempted by a desmosedici RR)
It's not a unique problem and I know of at least one person who has suffered the same. If you are in no hurry and all else is well it might be worth getting in done when a belt change comes up if it's not too far in the future.
Circled here; Mine leaked after changing the head gaskets due to having the wrong 'O' ring (Newer gaskets are different thickness and so requires thicker 'O' ring) but on the 4v engines this oil feed is not used as it is on the 2v (SS & Monster use same crankcases). I tapped the hole and loctited a grubscrew in there, easy enough permanent fix but obviously the cylinder needs to come off to do it.
