Ducati 748R Resto (DONE!)

Re: Ducati 748R Resto

Very cool! That cover and gasket...hmmmm. That poor bike deserves to be in your care Dale. Can't wait to see how she turns out.
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto

I had a 99 748, came with all sorts of extra stuff and it was a great bike to ride. But the fun had to end one day and the bike decided when that was. One of the rear cylinder intake valves broke in the guide and wrecked the head and piston. So it got an 853 big bore kit and 6 months later I sold it because I was tired of the cost of valve adjustment and timing belt replacements. The big bore kit makes a huge difference in the feel of the bike.
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto

cafePete, that's great. Cool project...looking forward to seeing what you do!

Thanks for the interest guys! :) Comments appreciated.


Well the good news is the engineering shop has finished up gas flowing and modifying the standard head to match the RS head. Last I heard they were changing the valve guides. Will be chasing that up this week.

Head gaskets and seals FINALLY arrived.

Spent some hours cleaning up the exhaust system. The anniversary edition 748R came with the larger diameter Termi exhaust system used in the 2000 World Supersport Championship.

Here's a before and after...

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You may find this info useful. Silicone sprayed onto rubber and plastics, really revitalize these materials. What I do is, after cleaning, I spray a few coats until its nicely saturated. I then place the part into a plastic packet and tie it up to seal it. Leave for a week. Then buff off with soft cloth. You will add years to your plastic and rubber components.

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The carbon fibre parts shine up nicely as well with silicone..

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Re: Ducati 748R Resto

Wow, that's some serious eye candy there! These kinds of threads make me want to find another Ducati even though I know they'll always break my heart ;D
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto

Worst cb650 ever said:
...even though I know they'll always break my heart ;D

How'd you mean? :)

Well, its breaking my wallet HA! Heads back from the engineering shop. Skimmed, gasflowed, new valve guides.

Problem is:
The standard head has different cams. The 748RS cams are specific high lift cam and super rare.

I'm not going to be able to get another set... so I'm going to sell the set I have, and replace with a matching set from a 916SPS. Theoretically this should work pretty well, they're similar to the standard 748R cams... thoughts?

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Re: Ducati 748R Resto

Dale said:
Problem is:[/b] The standard head has different cams. The 748RS cams are specific high lift cam and super rare.

I'm not going to be able to get another set... so I'm going to sell the set I have, and replace with a matching set from a 916SPS. Theoretically this should work pretty well, they're similar to the standard 748R cams... thoughts?

Is it possible to regrind the 916SPS or some stock 748 or 748R cams to 748RS spec?

As for Ducati breaking my heart, I've had bad main relays, leaky fuel pump assemblies (aka "why is my leg wet?"), dying fuel pumps, magically expanding fuel tanks, low fuel lights that don't work below 60 deg F because they are a temperature sensor, race spec DiD chains seize links, factory %CO set to "WTF?", and throttle bodies balanced, but not to each other. The motorcycle gods know I love Ducatis though...
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto

Well that makes me feel better about any bike I've ever owned! Sounds like you had a real lemon there. Can happily say my experience with Ducatis have been good so far.
Interesting idea regarding machining the cams, but RS cams are very rare, and gold to anyone who needs them, so I'm gonna put it on ebay and see what happens.

After cleaning up the body panels, I realized that the paint wasn't as good as I originally thought. The tank is bad, and has had a mediocre respray, and the bottom V is very stone chipped, as is to be expected. Top fairing is ok'ish. So having the top fairing, bottom V and tank resprayed. The side fairing panels a new clear coat, as damage is only on the clear coat at the bottom. Also the tail has a chip, which we are going to see if we can touch up.
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto

Yea, my bike had some "deferred" maintenance issues in addition to typical Ducati idiosyncrasies.

I was thinking you could keep the stock RS cams on the one cylinder and re-grind the cams on the standard head to match the RS cams. You would still get to keep the RS cam profile, but not be messing up a rare RS cam, just regrinding a stock cam. I have a feeling that the power gains aren't worth all that work and the matching set from the 916 are a better idea :)
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto

Very nice! That's a sexy motor right there.
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto

Once I had inspected the tank, it was apparent that it had a tough life on the race track.
The lower V piece was also badly stone chipped.
The top fairing was passable.
The lower side fairings at the base had the usual chips and scratched from road debris.
The seat cowel had an inch scrape that went right through to the white paint.

So decided to repaint everything, and get it looking perfect.


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Re: Ducati 748R Resto (Motor Done + New Paint)

Its guna be almost too nice to ride once yer done! Keep up the good work, that is guna be one heluva fun bike once she's all done.
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto (Motor Done + New Paint)

Thanks dudes.

Assembly.

My buddy Mile' from Moto Uno Racing set up the valve timings and belt tensioning.


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Re: Ducati 748R Resto (Final Assembly)

Thanks Sinbad.



First test runs.

Motorcycle is still at Mile' while he does some fine tuning. Hoping to have it by next weekend.
Its looking and sounding pretty good. :)
It was such a POS 6 months ago, really cool seeing it this way.

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Re: Ducati 748R Resto (RUNNING)

I'm astonished by how buggered the motor was when you got it. I've heard of some shadetree mickey-mousing but different heads? Different CAMS? Wrong head gaskets? Also those 916 gaskets are fibre items that are about TWICE the thickness of a correct R item.

Keep your eyes on Ducati.ms and put up a WTB ad for the cams you want. Someone just sold a set of Vee-Two SPS cam copies a few weeks ago. I was looking at them myself but funds are tight.

I'll bet the PO was always complaining about how bad Ducs are and that his ran like shit all the time, too.

You should have gotten a set of MBP collets to install during the valve job, helps extend the adjustment interval big time.
 
Re: Ducati 748R Resto (RUNNING)

If your gonna do a job do it propper !!! you the man,
Very nice job mate very nice.
 
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