Smoke (again) - but hear me out...

Well said, PaddockStand!

My vin is in the 1900s. I broke my bike in properly - no revs under load past 6k RPM for the first 621 miles (although I did have 2 false neutrals between 5th and 6th which sent the revs to the limiter around 300 or 400 miles). After the first service the dealer told me to drive it hard or the valves wouldn't seat properly, which I've done (by no means have I been abusive, though).

Had a little smoke on startup for the first few starts, but nothing like what we saw in the first videos. Only time I noticed a moderate amount of smoke was when the bike was cold and I blipped the throttle. I've probably gone through 200ml of oil at 1200 miles now. Oil consumption seems very normal for a new engine and by no means has been excessive.

JONAH said:

May be true for you Gunny, but i broke mine in by the book for the first 600 odd miles, and ive had no problems with smoke since the 1st service, in fact after about 200 mile or so it kinda just went away, it used oil also for the first 200 odd mile but again after this it wasnt an issue.

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Outstanding!

I have had zero smoke at all. I store mine in my garage and start it in there each time I leave home so I would notice smoke if it was generating it. Haven't had to add oil either.

I was very concerned about this prior to taking delivery of my bike as I saw one of the first S's get started and it generated a significant amount of smoke.

Gunny Fitz said:

This is something I've said in these forums since the day I picked up my tri color! I broke this bike in as hard as humanly possible for the last 650 miles and have not had any smoke issues whatsoever since the first start up when I got it home! I also did not have to add a drop
Of oil during this entire period! Checking the oil is easy as hell just by holding the front brake lever while you lean down and peer thru the ridiculous space between the fairing.
Now I don't know if my fortune is due to the hard way of breaking this bike in or not, but no smoke and perfect oil levels are not just pure luck my friends! The Tri was the first line to start selling in US and must be up there on production times. I tried my best to tell people to break the dam thing in hard as .... but people have their own way if doing things. I just hope those nay sayers don't have further issues down the road. And why would anyone waste money changing the initial oil after the first 100-200 miles before their first service too? Another individual choice but there is no reason for this method either.. have heard some say its to get "metal shavings" out of the engine and put fresh oil in during break in. Where in the manual does it state this or did your dealer suggest this radical procedure? Oh well, once again- to each his own. Enjoy your smoke show!

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Fair enough Gunny, I agree with you almost 100%, but what do you say to those worried about engine warranty?
j.

Personally, I say why worry over something you have zero control over. As a for.er motorcycle service director warranty repairs are very seldom denied unless there is totally a sign that negligence and excessive abuse occurred. This would not be considered either of those if you rode a superbike like it was meant to be. Hell, race teams take these bikes straight out onto the track without babying them thru some ridiculously lax break in procedure.
If one was to worry about everything involving their bike it may as well sit in the garage or better yet living room on display!

Disclaimer - these are simply the opinions of a licensed road racer, 5 time Ducati owner, and realist who has never had any issue whatsoever with an engine regardless of my methods. They should not be construed as the CORRECT way nor attempted by anyone unsupervised at home.
roflmao

No smoke here.Mine was built in April around 2400 in production. In manual it says numbers are sequential.

Strangely enough, I thought my smoking issue was done until I got the bike out of the shop last week after a 7 day stint for the starter replacement. I started the bike at the shop and like you said thick fog machine type of smoke appeared and remained for 15-20 seconds. Each blip of the throttle produced some visible level of smoke. It sure acts like valve seals more than rings as seals will leak, producing oil on the top of the piston that will remain until combusted off the piston surface. A good way to tell would be to run a flexible illuminated camera into the spark plug hole and look for oil on the piston surface. I guess it could still be the rings but I would not have thought that would have gotten worse after it had nearly disappeared when I was riding more frequently.

My bike is 2856

I agree with most of the posts and this shouldn't be blown out of proportion, unless the oil consumption becomes unworkable. I also have broad shoulders and can take the sniggering from other motorcyclists when I can barely be seen though a blue smoke haze.

How about this for a theory...

Assume the valve stems don't seal very well in the guides until they've warmed up. Maybe because of differing expansion rates between Titanium and alloy head? When the engine is started from cold, oil is going to be circulated to the top end where small amounts would seep past the value seat/stem into the chamber or inlet/exhaust. This probably wouldn't happen for very long because as the engine warmed up the seal would improve. You probably wouldn't notice the small amounts oil involved as it burning off in the running engine. However, if you were to stop the engine while it was still cold, the oil that had been circulated to the top end would have time to seep past the guides until such time as it drained back into the sump and the process stopped. This would happen relatively quickly after the engine was stopped. Then when you start the bike next time, smoke occurs as this oil burns off. Conversely, when you stop a hot engine all the oil would drain back to the sump before everything contracted enough for oil seepage to occur and no smoke on the next start. This fits with what I see.

Feel free to shoot me down in flames (and smoke) I'm no engine guru.

Mine looked like a 2 stroke on start up. 2 sessions coaching intermediate group at a trackday, riding hard, and no more smoke.

PaddockStand said:

I agree with most of the posts and this shouldn't be blown out of proportion, unless the oil consumption becomes unworkable. I also have broad shoulders and can take the sniggering from other motorcyclists when I can barely be seen though a blue smoke haze.

How about this for a theory...

Assume the valve stems don't seal very well in the guides until they've warmed up. Maybe because of differing expansion rates between Titanium and alloy head? When the engine is started from cold, oil is going to be circulated to the top end where small amounts would seep past the value seat/stem into the chamber or inlet/exhaust. This probably wouldn't happen for very long because as the engine warmed up the seal would improve. You probably wouldn't notice the small amounts oil involved as it burning off in the running engine. However, if you were to stop the engine while it was still cold, the oil that had been circulated to the top end would have time to seep past the guides until such time as it drained back into the sump and the process stopped. This would happen relatively quickly after the engine was stopped. Then when you start the bike next time, smoke occurs as this oil burns off. Conversely, when you stop a hot engine all the oil would drain back to the sump before everything contracted enough for oil seepage to occur and no smoke on the next start. This fits with what I see..

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+1 for this problem model. Now the question is, how long does this linger or does it never go away.

Gunny Fitz said:

This is something I've said in these forums since the day I picked up my tri color! I broke this bike in as hard as humanly possible for the last 650 miles and have not had any smoke issues whatsoever since the first start up when I got it home! I also did not have to add a drop
Of oil during this entire period! Checking the oil is easy as hell just by holding the front brake lever while you lean down and peer thru the ridiculous space between the fairing.
Now I don't know if my fortune is due to the hard way of breaking this bike in or not, but no smoke and perfect oil levels are not just pure luck my friends! The Tri was the first line to start selling in US and must be up there on production times. I tried my best to tell people to break the dam thing in hard as .... but people have their own way if doing things. I just hope those nay sayers don't have further issues down the road. And why would anyone waste money changing the initial oil after the first 100-200 miles before their first service too? Another individual choice but there is no reason for this method either.. have heard some say its to get "metal shavings" out of the engine and put fresh oil in during break in. Where in the manual does it state this or did your dealer suggest this radical procedure? Oh well, once again- to each his own. Enjoy your smoke show!

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Gunny its early days, but go take a look at the poll I created:

http://ducati1199.com/mechanical-technical/1258-smoke-start-up-run-whats-your-experience.html

If the trend continues, it looks like hard running in makes no difference to smoke production and that about 20% of bikes smoke no matter how they are run in. Need more results to call it conclusively though.

Mine only smokes when its started after a cold shut off. Smoked when new on all cold starts, but that stopped at 200 miles.

Today mine smoked for the first time since taking delivery.

800 miles, and this morning she smoked at start up bad.

However there was something different from any other time I had started her in the past. I live in Florida, and it's been in the 90's. Today she was under cover, but it 60 degrees out (I'm in the mountains).

After running a few minutes she was fine.

SOULRIDER said:

Today mine smoked for the first time since taking delivery.

800 miles, and this morning she smoked at start up bad.

However there was something different from any other time I had started her in the past. I live in Florida, and it's been in the 90's. Today she was under cover, but it 60 degrees out (I'm in the mountains).

After running a few minutes she was fine.

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Wait - Florida! Mountains?

And, is that 60 C or 60 F?

I haven't experienced any smoke problem. There is the usual cold start smoke which is no different from my 998 or indeed any bike. Once at operating temperature its fine.

Engine break procedure in wasn't too much science. I had two 300 mile plus motorway journeys mostly at 5K to 5.5K rpm. I'm not sure what category of break in regime that qualifies as.

iiiofiv said:

Wait - Florida! Mountains?

And, is that 60 C or 60 F?

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Mountains in Florida I wish!

I'm in North Carolina at Deals Gap.

Noticed smoke this morning when i started up the bike..Just over 1K miles..
Didn't notice it before its 1st service at 930 miles....
Will keep an eye on the oil level but not too worried just now..

As I mentioned earlier, mine recently smoked but it was after I shut the engine down after just a couple minutes, ie not fully warmed up. Then restarted a few minutes, never smoked before or since.

DBD1199 said:

Noticed smoke this morning when i started up the bike..Just over 1K miles..
Didn't notice it before its 1st service at 930 miles....
Will keep an eye on the oil level but not too worried just now..

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Mine was after the first service as well. Yesterday ran the piss out of it on Deals Gap as per recommendation from my dealer. It's under warranty so no big deal. Just annoying as hell.

Don't mean to dig up the past but I haz a question.

My bike smokes once in a while but today it smoked in a different fashion, smoke came from behind the mufflers. Only came out when I blipped the throttle too, not a constant thing. Any clues?

Another thing...that oil pressure thing that comes up on start up, is everyone as steady 6600 or it fluctuates?