[Ducati] 50% Less Maintenance.............

Tue Apr 17 23:17:50 EDT 2007

How well broken in?  I have almost 30K on my 03 ST4s and am planning to increase the maintenance intervals to 8K or so, 10 would be great.  I "Get Down" for the odd burst of "run it to the red line" insanity but as I do not ride on the track it is usually a short burst before I run out of space.  Also, anyone have any idea how long I can hope to run this beast without having to do any major engine work?  Later, Moonbeam

Ducati5555 at aol.com wrote:   I was also curious about the claims for less maintenance and began to do 
some investigation to see if/what has changed to substantiate that claim. I 
thought I would investigate the 1098 since it is the new kid on the block. I 
went to the Ducati website and pulled up the parts list for the 1098. I 
thought I would focus just on the valve train, since I have an interest in that 
part of the bike, and the valve adjustment is the most laborious of all the 
maintenance. 

I found the half rings (retainers) and opener shims to be the same exact 
part number as the ones used on the older 4V bikes. The closer shim part # was 
similar but off by one number. So since the half rings are the same and the 
opener shim is the same then one can conclude that 7 mm dia valve stems are 
used. A few months ago I ordered 3 different size 1098 closer shims from 
Italy. After I received them, I inspected them and found the ID (inner 
diameter profile) to be the same as the old 4V shims, but the outer diameter profile 
was a bit different. The start of the chamfer on the outside of the shim 
was moved down on the smaller sizes. I have talked to some dealers about 
this and they said the extra clearance is so the cam adjacent to the valve will 
not interfere as it rotates around. Apparently there is not much room as 
the head has become really narrow. 

So there is really no change in the basic design of the closer shim 
retention mechanism as compared to the 916/996/998/999 design (excluding the later R 
versions of course). But, I have inspected many a closer shim and can say 
that the new 1098 closer shims are the best (in terms of quality) I have seen 
from Ducati. By good quality I mean the finish and tight tolerance of the 
bore through the shim. I didn't get a chance to measure the hardness of the 
shim. 

How does all this relate to maintenance intervals? Well first of all there 
are a few areas of wear that cause the valves to need adjustment. The first 
area is the where the body of the valve seats inside the head. As this 
junction wears in the valve moves upward and can change the clearances. Another 
area is the cam/rocker/shim/valve stem surfaces. Any wear in these areas will 
also alter the clearances. And lastly, and I think most importantly, is 
the valve groove-retainer-closer shim junction. The tighter the retainer can 
hold the closer shim on the valve stem, the less wear will occur. If the 
closer shim is loose, it will bang around and the wear will be seen in the valve 
clearance increasing. That is why the MBP retainers work better than the 
half rings, cause they tend to fixate the closer shim to the valve stem. 

So, all that being said, what has changed in the new design. Well it is 
possible that the tolerances on all the parts have been reduced to minimize the 
movement of the shim on the valve stem. Also, I have noticed the older 
Ducati shims to wear out where the half ring makes contact with the groove in the 
closer shim. A harder shim will reduce the deformation in this area. It is 
possible that the shims are harder. Maybe the half rings are also harder, as 
I have seen them flatten out over time. All this is speculation but 
could be partly the reason ducati increased the maintenance intervals. 

As someone has previously mentioned, many of us have found that after an 
initial break in period, the valves tend to bed in and it seems the need for 
adjustments decreases over time. I think Ducati has responded to the gripes 
about the high maintenance of their bikes and extended the intervals based on 
the same info some of us owners have seen. 

So it may be one or both reasons why the intervals were increased. One 
thing that is important is that not all the parts fit exactly the same in every 
bike. Because there are tolerances on all the parts, you will get some parts 
that fit really tight and so wear is a minimum and some bikes where the parts 
are on the other end of the tolerance and the parts wear out much quicker. 
Throw in how the bike is operated (track bike versus street bike) and you can 
have two bikes respond much differently in their need for valve adjustments. 

>From all this information I think increasing the valve adjustment intervals 
from 6,000 miles was justified for bikes operated on the street. I 
personally go 10,000 miles on my ST4 between valve adjustments now that it is well 
broken in.

Mike
94 M944
97,98 916
99 ST4

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