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

Castor Troy said:

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?

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That's mileage until your next service lol. Ride it harder and hope it finishes sealing. I only get water vapor when it's very cold starting it up, never smoked on me passed a couple hundred miles; I broke it in like I stole it.

Can you define "behind the mufflers"?

I talked to several Ducati Mechanics and also to the one Mechanic that works personally on all Ducati Motorcycles belonging to the CEO of Ducati North America, luckily he has also worked on my Panigale Tricolore (amazing work he does, with every aftermarket parts installation etc)... so - our Panigales smoking is not bad, its the way its supposed to be and they will smoke up until 2000 to 3000 miles, thats their understanding but I will have to wait until then to find out myself.... My Tricolore only has about 200 miles and smokes as well, if your bike doesn't smoke then thats an issue, and its supposed to be that way... so don't be too alarmed guys if your bike smokes... after talking to them I wanted mine to smoke (really) ... and I'm glad it does

PaddockStand said:

So my bike has going on 1200 miles and I'm getting intermittent (disco fog machine) smokey starts. However, a pattern has emerged"¦

The bike only smokes on start-up if, on the previous start, it was stopped before the engine fully warmed up, i.e. when you just start the bike from cold to move it into a garage and then stop it again. Furthermore, it doesn't seem to matter how long the bike was off between the two starts: ten minutes or two weeks, either way it will belch smoke when it next starts. Clearly this has is something to do with oil getting past a seal which is only good once the components have expanded because the engine has reached normal operating temperature. I guess the only candidates are rings or value stems. However, whatever causes it happens very quickly after the bike is stopped and is not therefore oil oozing past the rings over a long period while the bike is parked.

While this isn't the end of the world, it's going be a pain having to monitor the oil window every 150 miles for the life of the bike. My bike was one of the very first off the production line and I'm now going to keep a log of this and oil consumption so I can raise it with Ducati. I don't think that this behaviour is going to cease after run-in.

If you have a more recently delivered bike, are you seeing this same behaviour? I'm sure I saw a post that said Ducati had done something (unknown) to correct this behaviour. If they did change something, I wonder how radical it was and if it can be retrofitted?

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Mine smoked at startup for a while (probably 2-3,000 miles) but doesn't smoke anymore.

Mine is a 2013 - Last 4 of vin is 9469...

These things obviously smoke from new.
I had a chuckle to my self when i took delivery of mine out of the second shipment.
From what we had seen previously on the forums i knew to expect some smoke
During the hand over, the dealer started it up the first time for me, and he made comment about the amount of smoke it was puffing out. I said yes it's commonly reported. He was surprised to hear of it. (mine was the first he had sold)
Anyway he switched it off for a while and showed some of the dash functions, He started it up again and it was blowing more smoke than before
I said quit while there is still some oil left in it i want to be able to get home

At the first 1000 Km service i estimate that it used 100-150ML of oil. With no top ups. This is not unrealistic with the factory fill 10w-40.
It now has about 5000 Kms on it now (4000 Kms more) and i would say it's used about another 100-125ML of oil so far. With no top ups and running with 20w-50.
Seeing as it's trending down it's all good One can't ask for more than that.
It will still smoke more if i shut it off after it hasn't warmed up then restart it.
After it's warmed up, there's hardly anything to see.

Just out of curiosity i have made a few enquiries about what DUCATI would tolerate regarding an acceptable level of oil consumption before they deem it to be at problem levels. Naturally all manufacturers have a tolerance.
The consensus is it may be in the order of 250 ML or more per 1000 Kms.

The key thing is that after you achieve oil control and oil consumption has stabilized, it should not change all that much until the engine is warn out.
It must be accepted that all engines use some oil, the important thing is that they are not "using too much". And no 2 engines are exactly the same.
I look forward to finding out what mine settles down to.

It must be remembered this engine has an extra oil scavenging pump to help with control of the oil that gets thrown around/displaced in the crankcase.
It is an indication of how extreme the conditions are in the crankcase, and it would not be unrealistic to expect this engine design to use more oil than one would normally be accustomed to as a natural characteristic.
Anyway DUCATI are addressing the issue by issuing a different/modified oil ring, so they're on to it.
I'm currently happy with the way mine is

It seems that is the way of it with the 1199, if you shut it off after a brief time running before it's fully warmed up, it will blow more smoke out.
It's just a characteristic.
Get used to it.

Regards,
Brad

TransNone13 said:

That's mileage until your next service lol. Ride it harder and hope it finishes sealing. I only get water vapor when it's very cold starting it up, never smoked on me passed a couple hundred miles; I broke it in like I stole it.

Can you define "behind the mufflers"?

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When I blipped the throttle, smoke came from the header area not out of the mufflers. Smoke only came out when I blipped the throttle and went away once temps reached 129 or higher. I am ....... calmly freaking out over here.

Castor Troy said:

When I blipped the throttle, smoke came from the header area not out of the mufflers. Smoke only came out when I blipped the throttle and went away once temps reached 129 or higher. I am ....... calmly freaking out over here.

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That's kind of weird... I noticed on my stock exhaust, one of my weld seams was leaking. Could also be oil burn off or loose headers and/or bad header seals. I would just inspect your bike.

Head bolts loose maybe?
I'd get that checked pronto..