I am going to start this thread as a bit of a record for myself. I purchased a Ducati 848 Evo Corse from a well known auction house. It was listed as CAT N and had obvious evidence of sliding down the road on RHS. Other than light damage it seemed fine, so i put a bid on and won it. It was worth noting i have purchased many non-runners over the years and often they are down to flat batteries, damaged wiring from attempted theft etc. The pics showed cables running from headlight area back into fairing so looked like a bodger had been in there or similar. The dash all lit up with no EMS. Anyway, long story short(er), picked up in van; had a quick look round on collection and looked filthy, but on the whole looked ok. Loaded her into back of van, drove home... On getting home, left the bike in the van whilst sorting out kids etc. Went out later and evidence of oil over van floor... Mmmmm. Looked under bike, which is a lot easier when bike is up high and not great news. Where the bike has slid down the road i assume it hit a kerb and ripped off the sump. Now, on a GSXR (my go to bikes!) its a horizonal split and the sump can be easily replaced. Not so on a Ducati. Engine crankcases are totaled meaning new cases or engine required. Not panning out well this. Contacted the auction house and as expected they pointed to certain clauses and stuff and basically tough luck. So what to do... Its a 2012 Evo Corse with FSH 7100 miles on clocks and to be honest looks well cared for. The dirt is now obviously where the bike has a fine coating of oil covering it along with anything that would stick to it. Lot of cleaning to do, but underneath its pretty good. It had full service along with belts 6 months ago and less than 500 miles. Tyres are brand new but will be skipped as oil soaked. Brakes etc are excellent and Brembo monoblock being the Evo. New air filter etc. So after swearing a bit, i thought about options: Break for parts Buy replacement engine Sell as is Buy replacement cases I started looking about for the engine replacement options and cases. I found some in UK at high prices and Netherlands at reasonable prices but then there is the import sting thanks to Boris and his fellow party goers. Not looking good. I thought i'd try the typical places and lo and behold a bloke stripping a 848 Evo Corse on FB. Contact him and yep had an engine and some other bits. His belt pulley had snapped (12 miles are being serviced...), so no crash damage. Met up with him following day and got quite a haul: Engine with spare head Tank Subframe Exhausts (no silencers) Quickshifter Loom, ECM and dash (some muppet has cut bits off loom though? why?) and loads of fixings, tank plastics, Swingarm, rear wheel Std rearsets with carbon heel plates Some of the above will be up for sale to try and recoup some funds, as need loads of consumables So, at least this means I can make a good engine out of the 2, with any luck... So that's where i am currently. Wish me luck. Never done a Ducati engine before, so steep learning curve ahead, but hey ho, beats TV. I'll post up some pics when i suss it out. Garage floor currently covered in Evo parts. No bad thing i guess, but id rather a working bike My aim was to have a 848 that i can use all weathers and not worry too much, hence not being worried about accident damaged, as takes the worry away. But also i like working on bikes and these are pretty cool to look at! I also recently missed, through my own hesitation a mint 996s in my village (FFS). This smarted somewhat, so i was in the mood to buy a Ducati. Some may say, poor choice, but that's life Anyway, work has begun. My bike stripped and just waiting to drop engine. Other engine to have heads removed and confirm condition, and then possible complete strip and make one engine out of the 2. The replacement engine is quite dirty and had apparently done 12k (not sure of this as no evidence). Couple of decisions to be made as i start to get the engines apart and confirm condition. Hopefully this will be of interest
I should also mention, i got the service book, all stamped up, owners manual, key code card and 1 key. That is rare with accident damaged bikes so i consider that a small win, i think
Reading around it appears that the exhaust valve can be removed without any issues, losing weight, potential issues etc. If you keep the standard pipes, can you remove the whole valve assembly/cut it off and weld over? Has anyone done this? I assume there is no better solution than getting a plug in box thing to deal with the potential EML fault light? Is there a wiring loop you can do, in preference to having a box hanging off the loom? I see on the full system replacements it does away with the O2 sensors too. Can you do this on std pipes? Any other work that needs doing to support this option? Where can i find any details on the tricks that the race lot did when Ducati ran the 848 series?! Did anyone here race that series and get involved in tweaking their bikes, as there must be loads of easy quick wins with these bikes, both weight reduction, HP gains etc? I may as well try and improve whilst at this stage. Thoughts welcome I managed to find a good Youtube channel - DesmoWerk who explains rebuilding the engines. Anyone got any other good tips/links? Any advice on specialist tools required - - i have already bought the cam locking tools. Need to get a crank turning tool
Nice project. I was looking engines for you yesterday from your other thread but glad you found one. Keep the updates coming.
Doesn't seem easy to find spare engine bits so was a bit lucky there. Got to break down the 'new' one to confirm condition and if any work required. Def needs new belts, but I have a new set on the other engine, which were fitted 500 miles ago and less than a year old. Certainly good enough to test everything. Need plugs and all normal consumables. It also seems that the 848 suffers from failing crank bearings and big end shell float, so may have to break things down further to confirm condition, as I don't know the history of the 'new' engine and can't confirm mileage either. The original engine is low mileage and looks well maintained so should be able to use a lot of those parts with any luck (but not the cases!)
Hopefully you’ve got lucky. Good luck with it. I’m certainly no mechanic. Tyre inflation and putting in petrol is almost my limit
Still a great looking bike despite its obvious damage. Loads of plans for the bike once i get an engine working and fitted. Started investigating the 'new' engine. Firstly gave it a deep clean, as somehow it was covered in grime. Came up a gem and looks in good condition. Removed the horizontal/front head to verify condition given missing belt. Head in good condition, piston and bore also good. Will bolt the head back on with new pulleys, tensioners and belts. Plus i'll put on new oil filter, new oil strainer, new sump plug (was missing?!) and check clearances. All parts ordered, just awaiting parts to land, along with new cam holding tool Couple of pre-cleaning photos, from as collected
Cheapest option is the delete plug from Healtech unless you are going to have the bike remapped anyway - in which case you can usually have it disabled in the ECU.
If you remap, then can you lose/remove the whole valve assembly? Would that include an o2 sensor delete too, as i note full systems delete it? Any recommended mappers in the Bristol area?
If you disconnect the cable to the valve you get a check engine light and the valve stays closed. You can wire it open but you will still get the check engine light. It makes no difference if you remove the actuator motor at this point because you already have the check light. So the normal route is to just remove the motor and cable. Either wire the valve open or cut it out - Dremel is good for this. Weld up the holes. Then fit a delete plug to the motor connector or get a tuner to disable it in the ECU. Yes O2 sensors on a stock exhaust can be removed and blanked off if you are getting a remap but with a stock exhaust then benefits are limited. A Sprint air filter is always a good upgrade regardless of remap. http://www.cjsracing.co.uk/ In Bristol and recommended by people on here. Don’t go down the route of de-coring a stock exhaust - it just sounds loud and shit rather than loud and with a nice note like a proper aftermarket system does. Much of the weight saving options that don’t cost anything are only relevant to track bikes - basically you take stuff off! For a road bike it generally requires the replacing of stock items with expensive parts made of carbon or titanium. If you are focused on releasing a bit more power then a full termi system is the best option if you can find a used one at the right price. Bear in mind you are still only likely to get about a 5hp increase but it will have a better midrange as a bonus. You are going to get a weight saving too. There was a Ducati Performance kit that included an air filter, and race ECU with the full system that also disabled the valve and O2. It’s potentially a lot of money for very little gain though.
Re the exhaust valve. On my 1098 I wanted to stop it working to improve running at low speeds and revs, wasn't interested in the few grammes it might save. it's normal position is open. Initially I removed the cables and then the pulley. In place of the pulley I fitted a bar this stopped the eml I eventually found a Ducee secondhand as you couldn't get them new and removed the servo. Left the cables in place
I got the info for it from Ducati MS the American site. Was a long time ago. The servo goes open closed open when you first turn the ignition on. The servo has to do a set number of degrees or it throws a fault. Without the cables connected it just spins and again throws a fault Took a lot of filing to get it to the exact length needed
Genius! Got any measurements or is it long gone?! Its weird as on my GSXR when i removed this, i had no EML and ran it without for 7 years!
I'd use the @West Cork Paul method of a compression spring (like in a ballpoint pen or similar) put between the cable outer and the nipple at the valve end. This gives enough resistance to let the servo motor 'feel' enough load and not throw up an error (apparently ).
The Leo Vince, decat full system for the Multistrada came supplied with an offset, circular, heavy, metal, bob weight that screwed to the motor in place of the cable quadrant. Been working on my Multistrada without issue for 10 years. Andy
I'm suprised no-one has sussed a wiring loop/splice, if thats at all possible. But i guess that is just the plug in box
