Mysterious? Oil Leak

Hi all, I noticed a slow leak on the bottom of my engine the other day and I haven’t been able to track down where it’s coming from.

Curious what you all think it might be. It’s not the oil cooler or the head gaskets and I’ve done the one-way breather mod to reduce blow back into the air box, however, there is still be a decent bit of film/blowback in the air box - wondering if maybe it’s just slowly forming at the bottom of the block.

Am I missing another area the oil could be coming from that would send it to this location? Here are a couple of photos. The dirty one was when I noticed it. As you can see, I’ve since cleaned it up a bit to hopefully spot it better. The bolt pictured is tight, but maybe oil is still seeping through? I recently did a three day track weekend and there was a small drip forming when I got home, but as far as I can tell the issue hasn’t been big enough to cause any dripping. Want to get ahead of it, though.

No oil pools up during storage. Just after use.

well...i had oil there, exact same spot on my 1299...traced it up to the horizontal head cover. resolved after liquid gasket during the desmo at 15K miles....

but you said your head cover is good...so i'm sorry mate i cant help much

JAG

SirJAG said:

well...i had oil there, exact same spot on my 1299...traced it up to the horizontal head cover. resolved after liquid gasket during the desmo at 15K miles....

but you said your head cover is good...so i'm sorry mate i cant help much

JAG

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Great to know what your experience was, though. Good for future reference.

You said it is not head gasket which is GOOD, did you check valve cover gasket?
Valve cover gaskets are known source of oil leaks on these bikes, check top of your bottom radiator, if you see any oil residue it is very good possibility it is valve cover.
If that is the case, when done repairing leak drill cover bolts, torque them and safety wire!

Bo13R said:

You said it is not head gasket which is GOOD, did you check valve cover gasket?
Valve cover gaskets are known source of oil leaks on these bikes, check top of your bottom radiator, if you see any oil residue it is very good possibility it is valve cover.
If that is the case, when done repairing leak drill cover bolts, torque them and safety wire!

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Great point about safety wiring the bolts. I never thought of doing that.

These are always fun to figure out. I like to remember fluids always flow down with gravity so look above. The most likely culprit is head gasket of cover gasket seal, but you said it's not those. Valve cover bolts have a habit of loosening so double check those. Often you will only see it occurring at temperatures so clean it all up and bring it up to temp and look everywhere above to see if you can catch it occurring?

had a few extra hot temp days at the track, mine pooled oil in a bad way from where it only leaked the last two hot track days. Oil has not pooled up since then.

So mystery oil leaks seem to be normal. Your best bet is the complete cleaning, and then investigating after an hours use. I suspect my horz head cover as well, did not like the extra hot days

It's a factory Ducati leak option. I would pay it no mind. Happy riding.

Noticed a typo in my original post. Meant to say I don't believe it's the "head cover gasket" aka valve cover gasket. As it was recently changed and cover bolts are tight.

Since posting originally, I haven't had a chance to look at the bike until tonight. I'm hoping someone can convince me it's not the head gasket. haha Below is a photo I've highlighted that I'm hoping to get some feedback on. Head cover gasket in red, head gasket in green and area of leak (from photos in original post) in blue. Note the photos in my original post are looking from the back of the bike.

Need to check the torque on the head bolts, I guess, but that seems like an unlikely problem given that they're tight. Anyone have experience with leaking head gaskets on Panigales? And anything I'm missing or do we agree it's likely head gasket?

As an FYI for anyone who might have this issue in the future, a friend of mine who works on Ducs mentioned that the head bolt nuts (like the disgusting one in my original post's photos) are somewhat known for being a source of oil seepage. Recommended removing the nut, using sealant on the threads and retorquing. Mentioned he's only done a handful of head gasket changes and those were neglected bikes, so it's worth me trying the simple fix since it's far from obvious if the head gasket is the source. Will update in a few months, maybe