12 Aug, what broke the Ducati?

Today Dave Lillard and I tore into the Ducati to see what caused my problem in Canada, my $3,000 problem. The Multistrada is actually pretty simple but for anything but the most basic service you have to pull lots of stuff off. Having done this a few times it was old hat. Soon the bike stood there naked like a....well you get the idea.

The first sign of trouble was the timing belt that was shredded.


Not good. Then we noticed that the vertical cam would not turn.

After pulling the rocker arm pins we were able to beat the cam out of the head. Yes, this should come out like a knife in butter but it ain't that way when the cam has welded itself to the head.



Take a look at the journal where the cam lives! You can see more of the problem by looking at the cam itself.



We were like two CSI detectives as we tore deeper and deeper into the engine,



finally splitting the cases to see the most private parts of my beloved 1000DS.






The good news is that the inside looks great.



I maintain that my good looks and clean living are the reason but Dave thinks that maybe the Rotella T full synthetic oil had something to do with this. Everything looks fine, pistons, jugs, gears, oil pump, crank, rods, and so on.

There was a tiny bit of swarf in the oil bypass valve (really just a metal reed) that could have diminished oil flow....maybe.




We were flummoxed!

Much later in the day Dave called. He thinks he knows what happened. When were taking the engine apart he pulled the oil screen and commented that it sure was loose, that it was not torqued in place. Now he thinks that the strainer backed out just enough to block the oil passage between the oil pump and the rest of the engine. Dave called DNA to consult and they agree, this will slowly block off the oil passage and starve the engine. Damn, all this because some idiot (me) did not properly torque down the stupid strainer. I guess I thought that the external plug blocking the strainer was there to keep the strainer in place. Man, that's an expensive lesson.
There is one other item that caused some question in my mind, the Amsoil oil filter did not look like it was passing oil correctly. Tomorrow I intend to cut the filter open to verify that the pressure relief valve was working correctly. That's a long shot but I want to look at the entire lubrication system to see if I had a series of problems or just two.

In the meantime, anyone with a spare vertical head for a 1000DS engine, please call me so we can talk!