J.Caesar would be proud of you. On a more serious note i wish you well and hopefully it's straight forward cheap fix.
Just run another guess how much game and buy yourself some beer with my winnings!! Now back on thread.
talking of Sherlock, (you) did you not get my p.m. S? no worries, happy to leave to the real experts now.
Could it not just be the valve oil seals? I agree it's a little weird just coming out of one cylinder. With that Mileage it's surely not the guides?
agree re: valve stem seals, and was why I was interested in recent work as "dodgy" ones are out there, and sometimes don't last as long as o.e.m.
Before doing anything else, I'd be very tempted to take it for a proper long ride (not off a short pier). If then it hasn't cleared that'd be the time to look further into it IMHO.
Standard exhaust is fitted just different end cans. I’d imagine the central cross over section would create some form of resistance and each outlet would favour one or the other with the least resistance to that specific exhaust gas flow. The smoke is only present at the right hand side exhaust. Starting the engine from cold and feeling the temperature rise as the do at slightly different rates from each other throughout the exhaust system should answer which cylinder is at fault It is however a fair point
Did a 70/80 mile jaunt yesterday got the engine thoroughly hot, good idle speed, ran well, started well etc. When I got home it was exactly the same, no worse no better, blue smoke from the r/h silencer when you blipped the throttle.
Not at all a stupid question and I’m sure one that’s slipped many by Oil level is as it should and regularly checked, although saying that it’s probably down some now!
My M900 recently needed a new gearbox due to the 6th gear primary losing some teeth. Whilst apart I discovered the exhaust valve guides were quite badly worn, they had only done 15k miles since the engine was built with new guides. It was running fine and wasn't burning any oil but I have got 'proper' valve guide seals fitted rather than the 'condom-tip' Ducati seals. I would advise you check the guides, particularly the exhausts. I discovered it is a fairly common thing on these air-cooled engines, incidentally the intake valve guides were fine but then they get cooled by the intake charge.
it could be very relevant and you've reminded me that oil level was a big reveal on my first M900 Monster, also smoking but cured with little work needed.
we've probably all got a different idea on what a 'proper' valve stem seal is, certainly not much wrong with the o.e.m. type around that era (imo). I'm sure people thought they were retro-fitting 'proper' valve stem seals to some early Ferraris 25 years ago - state of the art Viton with springs, which caused excessive and premature valve stem and guide wear because they were over-effective for that environment.
I got them from AV-V in Canada, bit of a mare to deal with as, like many US/Canada based businesses they seem to struggle with putting things in an envelope and posting them, but a top quality product. http://av-v.com/