[redpato]

Recently a friend (@SoCalDuc) and I were discussing his 01 750 not running correctly, has some kind of fueling issue where it dies at speed. One thing he found that might be a contributing issue while searching the interwebs is to remove the charcoal canister system. He asked me about mine, what I removed, how did I route the remaining hoses. One of the things to remove is the hose that come from the intake manifolds to the charcoal canister and plug the nipples on the manifolds. When I had removed mine I found they had a small screw plugging the intake manifold nipple hidden by the hose. He found his to be the same. That got us to wondering, did Ducati fool the EPA with a system that appeared to be compliant but in reality it was non-functioning? Anyone else find this? Probably only on California based bikes.

 

[ncgt1000]

The canister fell off my GT within the 1st month. I never thought about looking for a plug. Maybe I should check some time.

 

[duc96cr]

I would expect it wouldn’t run too well with that screw removed.

 

[Chuckracer]

With a 23 year old bike anything's possible...including Ducati putting non-functioning canister systems on bikes.

 

[redpato]

I would expect it wouldn’t run too well with that screw removed.

You are correct, it would allow additional air into the cylinder. It was designed to draw fuel vapors from the tank going through the charcoal canister, burning the vapors. But being plugged from the factory defeats the purpose of that smog device.

 

[Jetta03]

Are you the original owner? I can’t see Ducati doing this, but a previous owner who wanted the bike to appear stock definitely might have.


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[ducvet]

Lol.... I very HIGHLY doubt Ducati did that. Back in the day when we sold California and NON-California bikes the non-cali bikes had no charcoal cans and plugged manifolds but nothing like that. When they all became California bikes (no more free state bikes) there were plenty of "repairs" done to charcoal cans on bikes where they were not required such as race bikes. I have never seen a bike come from the factory with a plugged adapter and a hose covering it.

My guess is someone who did not want a working charcoal canister system but was forced by law to have one for vehicle inspection modified them to pass a visual test but have no functioning system. That"s a bit of work for little gain.

 

[redpato]

Are you the original owner? I can’t see Ducati doing this, but a previous owner who wanted the bike to appear stock definitely might have.

My brother bought the bike new, his son had it for a couple of years then I got it about 13 years ago. When I took the system off and found those plugs I asked both if they’d done that and each said no. Can’t believe a dealer would have done that either at delivery or at any service. That leads me to believe it came from the factory like that. And then, by chance, to find another bike five years newer to be the same way adds more to the line of thought. And he is the original owner.

 

[ZADSS]

Cheating the EPA, now that is a thing the new owners of Ducati is more inclined to do, actually, it is just about a certainty, who cares.......

 

[ducvet]

The adapters are not tapped from the factory so they would need to have someone spend time doing this mod. I just don't see a benefit from the factory in doing this.

A dealer/shop afterwards certainly would have seen a potential benefit if the bike was having running problems tied to the california emissions. This was most likely someones fix to make the bike run better or be more trouble free.

It could have been one mechanic that has seen both bikes and depending on the size of the shop that person may have been the only one to know. A shop is NOT going to run around telling everyone they are breaking federal law so don't expect much out of them either.

The only benefits to plugging those adapters is that liquid fuel does not get poured into the manifold in the case of a tip over or simply overfilling the tank with gas at a fill up. It is common that a bike runs rich after this happens so it may have been done by a shop to "prevent" this possibility based on other bikes they saw come through their shop.

Another possibility would have been a air leak at the can or a plugged charcoal can. A leaking can is a vacuum leak and will cause running problems and a plugged can will cause the steel tank to implode, usually sucking in the top of the tank like someone was standing on it.

This may mean some well meaning mechanic was trying to prevent the possible problems listed above. There is NO performance benefits in removing the cans /plugging adapters that I know of certainly nothing that a manufacturer would risk. I can not even think of a reason the factory would use plugged adapters as special tools and forgot to swap them out though that has happened on other bikes where tools arrived still bolted to the bike in the crate.

Any services (6500 mile services)done to the bikes the shop would have seen those plugged adaptors because thats what you sync the throttle bodies with.