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Well things were just going too well in my Ducati world to last! Saturday I brought my '93 in to have my suspension guy tweak it for me. Just as we started the whole measuring, get on/get off routine, I noticed a little oil behind the vertical cylinder. In the span of a half-hour there was more oil, and when I checked the head bolts one of them just pulled right out. I guess it let go sometime in the morning on my ride to his shop. He has a full machine shop and performance engine tuning business with dyno, etc, so I know this isn't a big deal, and at least it happened there and saved me a trip rather than a hundred miles from home.
I was thinking about doing high-comp pistons while everything is apart, but the bike is plenty fast for what it is, and I've got other bikes to satisfy my need for speed, so I think I'm just going replace all the head studs and be done with it.
I know Nichols Engineering makes replacement studs, and CA-Cycleworks also has the AP studs, and of course there are the newer style Ducati OEM studs. The Nichols studs are $240 a set, vs. $99 for the AP studs, and I haven't priced the Ducati replacements, but I assume they're probably pretty close to the AP's. For a bike running stock compression, will any of these be perfectly adequate? I don't mind spending more if there's good reason to, but I hate to throw it away.
If the bike ran very strong before the failure, and didn't burn any oil, is there any reason to proactively do anything with the valve guides?
What is the typical labor cost to remove the motor and change the studs on both cylinder?
I was thinking about doing high-comp pistons while everything is apart, but the bike is plenty fast for what it is, and I've got other bikes to satisfy my need for speed, so I think I'm just going replace all the head studs and be done with it.
I know Nichols Engineering makes replacement studs, and CA-Cycleworks also has the AP studs, and of course there are the newer style Ducati OEM studs. The Nichols studs are $240 a set, vs. $99 for the AP studs, and I haven't priced the Ducati replacements, but I assume they're probably pretty close to the AP's. For a bike running stock compression, will any of these be perfectly adequate? I don't mind spending more if there's good reason to, but I hate to throw it away.
If the bike ran very strong before the failure, and didn't burn any oil, is there any reason to proactively do anything with the valve guides?
What is the typical labor cost to remove the motor and change the studs on both cylinder?