Gold in my Oil

JHTmcrider · Apr 10, 2023

All, this 2020 is my 4th Ducati and 2nd V4. Lot's of oil changes and consistent one as well changing oil and filter at 2500 miles. Bike has 9100 miles. Last weekend I drained oil and filter and took a look for deposits. Nothing on the magnetic drain plug but lot's of gold colored sprinkles in my oil. I would imagine this is either bearing/ rod end material or what? Maybe some brass copper looking part I am not aware of? Thoughts?

JHTmcrider · Apr 10, 2023

My initial observations is this is not a "healthy" sign for sure.

JHTmcrider · Apr 10, 2023

Backing out the camera a bit for reference:

Alkhater · Apr 10, 2023

JHTmcrider said:
My initial observations is this is not a "healthy" sign for sure.

To say the least!

Did it run/sound normal before the oil change?

I would send a sample of that oil and debris to an oil tester or jump straight on bottom end tear down to be honest.

Sorry to hear about this... good luck with process.

SBK-SP · Apr 10, 2023

Looks like just sand to me. There’s sand/dirt around the edge of the pan too. Could be from the bottom of the bike too. Was it a bit windy?

JHTmcrider · Apr 10, 2023

^ Yea, bike runs and purrs great. No weird noises or sounds like I had with my 848, which had notoriously bad cranks. I am wondering if its clutch disc and or pressure pate material. I'll guess I should find a shop in Scottsdale/ Phoenix that can test my oil out.

JHTmcrider · Apr 10, 2023

^ Yea, track day on the 11th of March was quite windy. I've ran great oil in the bike and had no issues. I'll take a peek at the cotton gauze air filter and see if there were/ are gaps around it and see what kind of crap is stuck in the filter media.

Alkhater · Apr 10, 2023

JHTmcrider said:
^ Yea, bike runs and purrs great. No weird noises or sounds like I had with my 848, which had notoriously bad cranks. I am wondering if its clutch disc and or pressure pate material. I'll guess I should find a shop in Scottsdale/ Phoenix that can test my oil out.

+1 hadn't thought about clutch material, which is likely.

Hopefully that's all it is.

JHTmcrider · Apr 10, 2023

^Thanks for the great inputs! I will keep an eye on it and I am running Castrol Synthetic in the bike now. I'll do another oil change in 1000 miles and see if there is anything different.

SuperDomestique · Apr 10, 2023

What did it feel like? Gritty like sand or more metallic. From the photos it looks like sand.

I think SBK was thinking if you’re doing the oil change on a windy day that sand from the ground could blow into the pan. And you live in the desert. But also, maybe it came from the plug/oil pan/exhaust area if it wasn’t clean and the fact you were doing trackdays which kicks up lots of detritus and leaves it everywhere. If you’re not careful when removing the oil plug the oil can spill on and into the exhaust shielding. And then it drips into the pan

craig bush · Apr 10, 2023

This was my oil after my built gsxr 750 spun a bearing:

But it was making crazy noises too (I’d attach a video but not sure how to).

FWIW, I talked to Mark Sutton at Duc Works recently because I lost a motor at COTA last year and was considering having one built. He said he hasn’t seen many v4 failures, but we might be on the verge of seeing them more frequently due to the bikes aging into the failure range. He said ~5k track miles is about all he’d expect before failure or rebuild, even for a built motor, and that building one probably wasn’t worth it.

JHTmcrider · Apr 10, 2023

^ Yea, I sincerely appreciate the inputs. I have saved the oil in the pan so I can hopefully conduct further analysis or comparison when I drain the oil in a few weeks of riding. I tend to concur with the sand and or debris theory as I don't recall sterilizing or wiping the pan down with a shop cloth.

Craig, I was re-reading your posts about the engine failure and I went directly onto Ebay looking at used V4 engines. Problem is that damn Pierobon engine stand is expensive as well as the used engine at 4K.

I will keep this post updated as the situation and information progresses.

Paul G · Apr 10, 2023

Get it analysed, its cheap and well worth it. Id be very cautious about riding until I knew what it was.

Vbreeze · Apr 11, 2023

Gold AND oil! You're rich! just kidding.
I can't tell from the photos what it is, but that's a lot of it. The V2's used to have chromed surfaces on the Desmo parts. Some batches of chrome would come off in the oil looked a bit like that and in abundant quantity. It was a recall item. Bikes ran fine, but surfaces would start wearing a lot faster of course without the polished chrome.
I really don't know what surface treatments they do for the V4s if any. Just throwing that in to the What-if batch. Good luck.

Gold in my Oil

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