[Photon]

Originally Posted by acruhl

Then again, the Ducati spec for crank preload is stupidly high, in my opinion (if you do the math on metal expansion). Apparently others agree. I set my 996 around .008".

My factory manual says .15mm(.006") for pre-load

I had to change the steel case inserts for the main bearings on mine. Putting in the bearings was a total snap though. Set the oven for around 300.

The initial time I heated the cases up to 100C(212F) per the manual, no problems. When I pulled the SKF's out, I just used a heat gun and a non-contact thermometer, as I had all the other bearings in and didn't want any grease in the oven. This worked fine.

Are copper base gaskets really a good idea? Seems like they could deform slowly over time? Head gaskets seem like a decent idea, although I still used stock ones.

From what I understand, copper doesn't really have a problem with compressing too much, it will conform to the gasket surfaces, but it's thickness stays the same. I used copper for the base gaskets to get my squish where I wanted it, as I could get them in different thicknesses same as the head gaskets, plus they're reusable a couple of times at least. I plan on pulling the heads off this winter to check on things, and most likely have the cylinders re-plated. I'll measure the gaskets then and see if they have compressed.