Hey guys I’ve had a look and can’t find quite what am looking for, Am looking at buying a 996s engine for my 996. However my question is, how can I prove the engine is an s without stripping it on the spot, I have the engine number but it doesn’t seem to identify if it’s an s. Are the any other features that can identify it? Cheers
I don't have direct experience with 996 engines but 748R's have a B in them, 998Ss which use the 'old' 996R engine have a B in them, both of which were race homologated engines. 2001 onwards 996Ss used the engine from the 996SPS which was also race homologated (iirc) so I was thinking it too might have had a B in it, but maybe not. Don't take my word for it. Someone with more knowledge will undoubtedly be along shortly.
The R engines are different an I know the have a different code, as you said they are homologated for racing, but the have a sand cast block, the s/sps doesn’t. Just looked at my 996biposta an that is ZDM996W4*will have a look at my 749s an see if that has anything else
Just checked my 749s and that has the Prefix ZDM749W4B* Looks like it may not be an s engine, unless anyone else knows differently
Start a thread asking other 749/999 owners to check their engine numbers. It'd be useful info. That's how the B came to light when @Expat Jack started a thread attempting to find out how many 748R owners there were on here. It came out that 748R engines all have the B in their numbering.
Yeah ZDN is Ducati Bologna 996etc is cc W is water cooled 4 is number of valves Just trying to diagnose this B
I know, it would seem to make more sense if it was R for Racing, although it's probably an Italian word and Racing in Italian as we all know is Corse It also appears on the 998S which uses the 996R engine, but doesn't afaik appear on the standard 998
What's the difference between a base 996 and a 996S? Is it the camshaft profile? If so you can easily take off a cam cover and check the letters/code stamped into the camshaft. I thought the 996S had the standard A1 cams
Yeah I was talking to my mate who’s got a few Ducati’s, he said there a pain in the arse, even the factory can’t trace the engine everything is on the frame number, ales life so easy
Cams, crank con rods gearbox, it’s quite different but all internal, when the cams are in place it’s near impossible to see any numbers on them
Iirc, the S ran the T1 cams from the SPS. It wasn’t spec’d with Ti rods, but some of the earlier ones were fitted with them from the SPS leftovers bin. You can’t tell unless you have a look. They didn’t have the sand cast cases and ran the 1.6m ecu, not the P8 from the SPS so only a single crank sensor is used. There was a lot of chat about it all back in the day.
