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jcge jcge is offline
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Join Date: Sep 2007
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Ducati Desmo

Ducati's nominal desmo valve clearance specifications, applicable to all desmo engines:

Check clearances with the piston at TDC Compression.

Intake:
opener - .1mm (.004 inch)
closer - NIL to .02mm (NIL to .0008 inch)

Exhaust:
opener - .1mm (.004 inch)
closer - NIL to .02mm (NIL to .0008 inch)

Experience has shown that it's better to leave a little more clearance on the Exhaust opener. And trying to set a zero clearance on the closers is generally hopeless and *always* leads to some binding somewhere. It is much safer to run loose than tight. So the specs I've used for Ducati desmo valve adjustments for the past 25 years are:

Intake:
opener - .1mm (.004 inch)
closer - .025mm to .06mm (.001 inch to .0025 inch)

Exhaust:
opener - .15mm (.006 inch)
closer - .025mm to .06mm (.001 inch to .0025 inch)

Openers are simple: they're like any rocker arm opener setup but you set the clearance with a shim.

Closers take a little more thought. The critical situation for the closing rocker is that it should never be so tight as to try to pull the valve any closer to the valve seat than fully closed. Ideally, you should check closer clearance all the way around the closer cam's circumference (pretty easy to do on a belt drive machine, harder on a bevel driver) to ensure that machining irregularities never allow the closer to attempt a negative clearance around the full cam run.

TAKEN FROM HERE http://www.ducatimeccanica.com/desmo_valves.html

Last edited by jcge; 01-07-2010 at 04:01 PM.. Reason: reference
Old 01-07-2010, 03:54 PM
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