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Old 11-14-2006, 04:32 AM
cakake cakake is offline
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Default Reliability of motor in a race bike

I'm racing an '03 Supersport (1000 DS). I've raced it for the past 2 seasons, neither of which was a full year.

I had heard from 1 person that the rods were only good for a season or 2 before they need to be replaced.

Does anyone know how reliable these motors are? In stock form it's making plenty of power, so I don't need or want to spend money on the motor. However, if the rods really need replacing, I'd rather do it pre-emptively than have them fail.
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Old 11-16-2006, 02:53 PM
mark1305 mark1305 is offline
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I ran my 95 M900 for about 2500 track miles and it spun a rod bearing on the H cylinder in July. I'm pretty sure the combo of extended high rpm while holding off upshifts and the occasional lugging through hairpins to avoid an extra downshift helped kill it.

I spoke with Ben Fox at Fox Performance recently about reworking the damaged crank, and we discussed stock Ducati rods vs Carillo. His recommendation was go with Carillo and eliminate a weak link in the motor.

I'm seriously considering a set of Carillo rods for the motor that ends up in the track bike over the winter. Anyone need a kidney?
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Old 11-16-2006, 06:06 PM
xseal xseal is offline
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I think the key to reliability is better rods (Carillor or Ti rods) and balancing the track/rods/pistons.
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Old 11-16-2006, 10:12 PM
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I agree with Xseal!

When you reduce the reciprocating weight the stress lessen to a certain extent.
Sure you will be running the motor harder, but the lighter components will stay in place better and won't force the bearing shells out from between the rods and the crank journals. Just like your bike tried to do.

The Carrillo's steel rods are quite a bit lighter than the OEM rods. The small end of the Carrillo rod's reciprocating weights is the same as a Ti rod small end. It's only the big end of the Carrillo rod that is much heaver than the Ti rod. If you remove the big end weight difference between the two rods from the flywheel you can have a reciprocating mass equal to a set of Ti rods! Also unless your running Forged Ti rods the cast Ti versions will stretch over time. So you can set the squish much tighter with steel rods like Carrillo's and sleep much better at night.

I used to run a big block Ford at the Drags, and keeping the bearings alive was quite a chore. When I started to lighten things up, I found the motor ran better and parts like bearing lasted longer, as well as the Rod's big ends staying round much longer!

Here's some pictures of a Carrillo rod next to an OEM Ducati rod out of my 900SSie. As you can see there is quite a difference.








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Old 11-17-2006, 03:54 AM
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Good reply and pictures for the comparison. A few questions:
1) can you use a lighter pin?
2) how much are the Carrillo's?
3) how much lighter(if at all) are aftermarket pistons?
4) can you get a longer than stock rod and piston combo to work?
5) what would you consider a safe piston to valve clearance with a stock rod, with a carrillo, with a TI?
6) How much does a lighter combination allow you to increase the rev's too?

Sorry for the questions, I just don't have any experience with the Duc's internals YET! Stock has been fine for my abilities but that could be changing next season I hope .
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Old 11-17-2006, 07:49 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brewmaster
Good reply and pictures for the comparison. A few questions:
1) can you use a lighter pin?
2) how much are the Carrillo's?
3) how much lighter(if at all) are aftermarket pistons?
4) can you get a longer than stock rod and piston combo to work?
5) what would you consider a safe piston to valve clearance with a stock rod, with a carrillo, with a TI?
6) How much does a lighter combination allow you to increase the rev's too?

Sorry for the questions, I just don't have any experience with the Duc's internals YET! Stock has been fine for my abilities but that could be changing next season I hope .
1. Most aftermarket pistons come with a lighter pin as part of the piston overall design.

2. You can call Carrillo directly for a price, but if your having a shop doing the work purchase them through your engine builder. Support your builder! Don't cut the throat of the engine builder who is making your dream come true.

3. It depends, if you stick with the stock bore size and bump compression you can save some weight with a quality aftermarket piston. If you bore the barrels out to 95mm with MBP HC pistons it's a push. Remember your still saving weight on the rods and reworking the crank makes the assembly much more efficient, as well as getting a huge increase in bore and cylinder volume. Bigger slug means more mass!

4. Sure you can. Plan on reinventing the wheel though, and where do you get spares for your one off motor? Especially if your going racing. You better know what you are doing and be sure that in the end it will develop the power you are expecting from all of the work being done. We are talking engine designer here. If you have the bucks and the knowledge I'd say go for it!

5. The norm has been 1mm or .040 of an inch with stock rods on squish. It's really more than just the rods. Main bearings have a lot to do with the assembly process. The OEM bearings wear and get sloppy so you loose the ability to maintain the tolerances required for safe operation. Steel rods will hold up better to abuse over time. Cast Ti rods will stretch over time while forged Ti rods are the ticket. $$$$$ Ti makes a great light weight spring on my rear shock! I have one on my 996. Done right you can shrink that 1mm number even much tighter. Also valve to piston clearance needs to be taken in to consideration when swapping to a more aggressive profile. Then there is always valve timing to consider as well and how it effects valve to piston clearance.
Larger valves diameters will effect all of the above as well. Still game?

6. Lighter parts will help in keeping things together at high rpm, as well as allowing the motor to spin up faster due to reduced inertia. Port work, larger valves, more aggressive cam profiles, will do more for increasing the RPM of a motor. A motor is an air pump, the faster it gets air into and out the head, the more power and performance gains you will realize.

My advice is to find an builder chat him up then talk to others. See what folks are doing with their motors and who they are sending them to. Most important is to find someone who thinks like you. Learn from them and heed their advice. More than likely they been down this road many times before and their experience is valuable in ways I can't even begin to describe!
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Old 11-17-2006, 05:54 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hyperpasta
My advice is to find an builder chat him up then talk to others. See what folks are doing with their motors and who they are sending them to. Most important is to find someone who thinks like you. Learn from them and heed their advice. More than likely they been down this road many times before and their experience is valuable in ways I can't even begin to describe!
I could not agree more with Art's statement. I'm a pretty decent wrench and have rebuilt plenty of engines in my life, but when it comes to really extracting the maxium potential and reliability of an engine, there's a lot to be said for utilizing the experience of someone who rebuilds more engines in a week than I do in a year. As Rob Muzzy likes to say, "The reason some tuners stand head and shoulders above others is because they're standing on a pile of broken parts."
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Old 11-17-2006, 06:40 PM
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Thanks for the reply and advice! Nice rides you have there as well. I too am an ex drag racer (from quite a few years ago...) and have worked in a machine shop for a bit (plus a M.E. degree). I totally agree with letting the guys most familliar with the specifics to do the job. Buce Meyers is not too far from me (well at least during racing season) and has a good reputation for the 2V's.

I'm more looking to keep my bike reliable for now as I learn to go faster racing. The $$$ spent on engine mod's would be less beneficial until my abilities are outweighting the bikes abilities (i.e. more $$ for track time,tires,etc.). For now if I could prevent any unwanted failures that would be the best thing. My race bike is a 99' SS750ie. Stock engine except for slip-ons, airbox mod, K&N and a remap from Bruce. Until my times drop a few more seconds HP won't really do me much good. But knowing that the bike won't be "letting go" out there is one less thing to cloud my brain while tring to drop those times. She is regularly at redline and only see's the track, anything you recommend to look at this winter before next season?

Thanks again, Cheers
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Old 11-17-2006, 09:04 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Brewmaster
Buce Meyers is not too far from me (well at least during racing season) and has a good reputation for the 2V's.
You'd be hard-pressed to find anyone better.
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