Hi... Your thought on blue printing please.. My 796 project has admittedly already cost a lot of £££ and I'm now almost ready to send My 2 valve away for crank balancing, porting etc to somewhere like cjs Ducati.. But I'm in two minds if, blue printing is worthwhile for a road bike or better off spending the cash elsewhere.. Then of course there's mapping, power commanders etc.. Where to go and when to stop.. ?
id love to be in a position to spend a lot of money on my 1000ds engine,they have so much character and produce their power so addictively. if I could afford id blueprint,and big bore etc......for road use ,yes. its yours and if you cant spend time and money on yourself then whats the point. where to go ? the skys the limit,your never finished .
Blue printing was a yester year thing . All parts were fitted to a better tollerance . Nowadays , with modern machining being so good, all parts are to a tight tollerance anyway . So yes you would be wasting your money .
I'm kinda keen to give it ago myself.. Ex mech ( many years ago mind ) also got a Ducati technician who's said I can build it back up under his watchful eye in his workshop.. I'm very good ( OCD) at polishing.. I know where to send the crank and rods etc for balancing etc.. Any one know what David Vizards book on porting is like.. Any Muchly good or not? I've already a race ecu with straight through pipes and twin termis so a re map would prob be advised after rebuild etc..
Well I had my 1098 SF done and I though it was well worthwhile. But it depends why your doing it and which engine you're contemplating doing it to. If you just want the biggest short-term bang for your buck and sod the consequences because you'll probably flog the thing in a year, don't bother. Its not a bolt-on go-faster goodie you're talking about, its a new engine. I wanted a sweet running, smooth, reliable engine which would by itself make for a more satisfying and enjoyable road bike and provide a sound base for other tuning work on a bike I hope to keep for a lot of years and a lot of miles. The fact that I could expect at least a 10% power and torque increase from a Testastretta engine simply from having it screwed together properly was another reason to do it, but not the reason. I've got an engine I can trust now. Its smoother, more powerful and brand new with an unconditional warranty from the best independent Ducati specialist in the country. And now I've got that sound base to work on I may add to it in the future with induction and exhaust improvements and possibly some 1098R cams if I can get my hands on them. But it really doesn't need it. Its a fabulous road bike now as it is which I couldn't have produced simply from bolt-ons. And there are substantial improvements to be made over the mass produced stock engine, especially in the heads where tolerances are not that tight at all. I don't regret it and for me it wasn't a waste of money. If I thought it was, trust me, I'd be sounding off abut it. I've got a different bike altogether now that's substantially punchier, more refined and hugely satisfying to ride and unlike anything you can buy out of the crate or off a dealer's floor. If/when I buy another Ducati I'll do it again before considering any other engine work.
Mines a keeper ... She won't be going anywhere.. If you've seen any of my earlier posts you will have noticed the effort that's gone in this far... I'm very fussy about everything to do with my bike.. Where did you go then for your engine work?
Louigi-Moto and CJS. Louigi Moto // Ducati Specialists CJS RACING Ducati Cylinder Heads Tuning Gas Flow Dyno ECU Custom Mapping Bristol Bath If you're not familiar with them they're two Ducati specialist businesses operating out of the same premises. Very handy. I wouldn't go anywhere else. Rich Lewellyn has raced just about every Ducati engine going, ancient and modern, and he knows them inside out, all their strengths and weaknesses and exactly how to set them up. However good you are with the spanners, its impossible to beat the combined knowledge they've got in that workshop. With a full blue print you get dynamic balancing and head porting. With mine they skimmed the heads, lightened the flywheel and advanced the inlet cam timing as well but by just the right amount so that combined, it produced the effect I was looking for. What I've basically got is a stock internal, race prepared 1098 engine set up to deliver maximum punch for road riding. If it had been a track or a road race bike they'd have set it up for that. The engine work cost £2800. But that was ride in/ride out, removing and refitting the engine to the bike. Its a lot cheaper if they're only working on the engine. If you were to have them do it don't be tempted to strip the engine down first to save money. Let them do it. They can tell a lot about the the engine and what they need to do to it by the way it come apart. If you're serious give Rich a ring. But be warned, he isn't keen or time wasters or people dragging him away from the workshop just to pick his brains.
No, unless the motor is already apart or needs a rebuild. Very little gains for a high cost, more as Gimlet has to give much more surety on longevity IMO
Thanks for all that mate.. Mine is completely stripped already, but, I've already spoken to Chris at cjs Ducati and he's fine with it.. Am I correct in saying they would be able to dyno It etc via a bench, eg no frame etc.. ?
I'm not sure about that. You'd have to ask him. Its a rolling-road dyno so I would say the engine has to be refitted to the bike. Plus you'd want to be dyno testing the entire finished set up, including induction, exhaust and electronic systems.
From what I understand blueprinting is the most expensive power gains you can buy. I thought the reason to do it was to allow race teams to get that (minimal) extra horsepower from an engine and remain within the "rules" If your racing at the front of the pack and you need a little extra it may be the only way to go and remain legal. Total and utter waste of time and money for the road....in my opinion. But hey if you want it, go for it.
I had a long chat a while ago with an engone builder, and view was if you had an older bike it could be of real benefit (996 and older) but later bikes are so much better now and only worth doing if you are rebuilding anyway. Rumours have been heard that the challenge cup bikes that expire tend to be blueprinted within a very tight tolerance which gives the gains but comes at a risk Bearing in mind he could have probably taken some money off me, I trust what he said
