[Attevne]

I have an oil leak here, could this be fixed by applying rtv or loctite around the base gasket?

I can't pinpoint the exact spot, this was a problem even before I rebuilt the engine but now seems worse. There is no place around the oil passage for an o-ring and the parts list doesnt show it should have one there. That seemed a bit weird considering the pressure would likely just wash any rtv away.

 

[ducvet]

Did you install the base gasket dry?
It should have had a type of RTV on the base gasket . There was a period where ducati had stopped putting a o-ring on the vertical base, it did not work well. these motors had a thin/hard/brittle almost red loctite look to it. we did many repairs on these. When I have one come in the shop I always cut a countersunk hole in the cylinder to create a pocket for a o-ring. I then use a earlier base gasket and o-ring. Never had one leak afterwards.

That bump is high pressure oil feed to the head/cams. plan 2 is to plug the oil feed and feed the cam through a external oil line to the top end. I would add the o-ring and pocket and be done.

Hard to tell from the picture also but before you ever tear it down be sure to rule out a leaking breather, oil feed leak fills/leaks fast and will be worse under rpms.

 

[Attevne]

Did you install the base gasket dry?
It should have had a type of RTV on the base gasket . There was a period where ducati had stopped putting a o-ring on the vertical base, it did not work well. these motors had a thin/hard/brittle almost red loctite look to it. we did many repairs on these. When I have one come in the shop I always cut a countersunk hole in the cylinder to create a pocket for a o-ring. I then use a earlier base gasket and o-ring. Never had one leak afterwards.

That bump is high pressure oil feed to the head/cams. plan 2 is to plug the oil feed and feed the cam through a external oil line to the top end. I would add the o-ring and pocket and be done.

Hard to tell from the picture also but before you ever tear it down be sure to rule out a leaking breather, oil feed leak fills/leaks fast and will be worse under rpms.

Thank you, I thought there is no way this is going to seal properly when I assembled the engine and my haynes manual had the different engine type. The breather hose was dry so I guess it's time to test my new drill. Do you use a normal drillbit? Mine are not very flat around the tip but would (excuse my crude english) a slightly "coned in" surface be ok to hold an o-ring?

 

[ducvet]

No I use a end mill that cuts a flat. Do not cut the groove too deep it is more about locating the o-ring and remember the thickness of the base gasket if you use one.

 

[duc96cr]

If the o ring doesn’t get compressed evenly it could leak or escape into the oil passage .

 

[Attevne]

is this ok? the o ring doesnt sink all the way in

 

[duc96cr]

Looks good to me. Make sure the o ring thickness causes compression for a good seal.

 

[GoHamInHogHeaven]

I thought this was happening on my 800 but it ended up being the breather. Good work! :0

 

[belter]

it's primarily a 2001 model year issue, maybe 2002 as well? they'd fixed it by the 800.

 

[Attevne]

I've only ran it for 200km but all seems good and no oil anywhere outside the engine. I also had a problem with spark plug oil fouling on the vertical and that problem went away too. I dont know how that is possible, is there a way to check that the head is still getting oil? It might just be my paranoia but it seems weird that the oil fouling stopped.

 

[duc96cr]

200 km would have been about 198 km more than you’d have gotten with no oil flow to the rear head, and it would have gotten noisy first. Pull a valve cover, start it up and look.