Monster 695 - Rich One Cylinder, Smoke Exhaust And Very Hot!

Thanks, and thanks to all for the continued help.
Bore washing isn’t a term I’ve heard before but I’ve done some googling and understand that it could be another sign of over fuelling. Thanks.

I haven’t had the head off yet as the exhaust studs are thoroughly corroded and for reasons I won’t bore you with, that’s a job I’d rather have done by a garage (past bad experience on another 695)

So I think at this stage I’m going to have to hand over to the professionals and get it looked at. I’ll report back on the outcome as it might be useful for someone in the future.
Thanks again.

 

Thanks Chris, I’ll give that a go although I have some nervousness because I’ve had issues trying to get injectors off a 695 TB before. On my partner’s I ended up mashing one of her injectors with maul grips because they were so stuck in by (presumably) a swollen o ring. The rotated but wouldn’t come out!

 

So, unfortunately (mostly for the team there) my Ducati garage has had to shut for the time being but they’re very kindly returning the bike to me first. I’ve ordered a used cylinder head from the bay and remain hopeful that shipping companies will continue to do their thing. Also ordered o rings, dowell, collets and valve seals as well as the cylinder head nut torquing tools. If the world keeps spinning and they get here, I’ll be replacing the cylinder head. The service manual, Haynes book and YouTube make it look relatively easy but I’m sure to benefit from some tips if anyone has any. The main thing that worries me is exhaust studs so I may resort to cutting them off at the flange time save the risk of snapping them off in the head.

One thing the manuals seem silent on is where to position the piston for the job. Maybe it doesn’t matter but I’d like to have it a TDC so that I can clean the face up and inspect it for any damage from the valve contact. if there is any dinting, which I imagine will be very light due to the limited overlap, can I just sand it down a bit? I imagine that may reduce compression ratios on a minute scale but that will presumably be better than hot spots.

If I do that, am I at risk of piston rings popping out or does it not travel that far. I’m assuming the latter??

 

That’s a fair point. Two reasons, preliminary feedback from the dealer was that they thought a valve had hit the piston and whilst replacing a head looks fairly straightforward, rebuilding the internals doesn’t! (Not for me anyway) also, the opportunity presented itself for a relatively cheap pair of heads with only 2000mi on them so I jumped at the opportunity. We’ve got two 695s so it’s reasonably foreseeable that sooner or later the heads or the bits inside them could come in handy! Especially as the other one has covered 17000 miles without ever having its valve clearances checked!!

 

Dudes and dudettes, I need some interim assistance from anyone with experience of removing the cylinder heads on a 2v.

I’m prepping to take them off and I’ve tried to slacken off the 12pt cylinder head nuts. I’m waiting for my C shaped wrench adapter to arrive and had a go with a 14mm spanner. Not a very long one so not much torque applied. I’ve already hit them with penetrant yesterday to ease the job.

Here’s the problem, the nuts rotate about 1 or 2 degrees before feeling stuck again, almost like they’re sprung and want to go back to their original place. If I look very carefully I can see the the nut rotates on its washer so isn’t seized there but on close inspection I can see the top of the stud rotating within the nut, as in moving relative to the head but not moving relative to the nut. It seemed prudent to stop and seek advice because my concern is that the stud is stuck at both ends and I’m twisting it and risking a snap mid way, or it’ll snap in the crank case or it’ll unscrew out the case. The latter isn’t the end of the world but I’d prefer to avoid removing the barrel if possible.


Has anyone experienced this? As I said, I’m not applying much torque due to spanner length but I could just go for it and find that with some more torque it will just come free or I could end up having a really bad day.


Incidentally, this is all for nuts/studs behaving the same way. Are they reverse threaded at the crank case end by any chance?

 

Thanks Chris. I was just reading the service manual and noticed that the stud into case torque is much lower than the nut onto stud torque which makes me think unwinding the studs out the case is actually quite likely! I’m hoping if that happens I’ll be able to extract them without the barrel gasket being compromised.

Unfortunately, running the engine isn’t much of an option any more but I can blowtorch the nuts?? I guess shocking them with a hammer is a bad plan!

so I’ve ordered some extra long 12 pt spanner’s which may arrive over the weekend so I can have a go with those. That will give the penetrating oil a couple more days to soften up any rust.

 

Thanks again to all of you for your continued support!
Head is off. With the proper tool and a long bar, the nuts came off the studs with relative ease. Getting the head off the bike was a whole other story! That thing did not want to budge. Off now.

here’s some pics. Very apparent that the piston and intake valve got intimate. I’ve cleaned the piston face with some carb cleaner and a toothbrush. The deposits came off easily but at only 1100 miles, not surprising I guess.

Here’s the thing, I’ve popped el-valvo out and gently clamped it in a drill and hit go, and it seemed to spin fairly cleanly. Whilst it was in the head, it didn’t seem to bind anywhere as I rotated it however I did note that as I rotated the pulley and each valve went in and out, they both twisted ever so slightly as they travelled. Maybe that’s normal? The pic here is looking in the exhaust port and there’s clearly some sticky goop in there. Not wet, sticky. Should I be investigating the exhaust side then despite the contact clearly being on the intake side.

Finally, the piston clearly has some marks from the valve and if I run my finger over them there is a ripple, but no obvious cracks or major gouges. I’m guessing therefore that replacing the piston would be a bit excessive. What should I do about this? I’ve heard that some emery cloth could be used but I wonder give the small amount of damage if it’s worth doing? Introducing scratches etc...

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