Smoke signals
 

Yesterday on my way out to meet the guys my T8 started to puff white smoke out from under the fairing. I had a little look around and it seemed to be coming from the join on the vertical cylinder head downpipe, so I put it down to a leaky zorst joint. Anyway, by the time the bike had warmed up the smoke had gone.

At the end of yesterday's ride I thought there was a bit of vibration that I hadn't noticed before (about 4K) and when the bike was idling at traffic lights I thought that I could hear a little extra clonking noise. It was one of those things that I couldn't be certain about and might have been imagining.

Anyway, it played on my mind so I've just started the bike from cold again to see if I could track down this mysterious knocking - couldn't hear it at all today so maybe it's just me.

But, today there was a repeat performance of the white smoke trick, a little denser today than yesterday. I was unencumbered with wearing a lid and stuff and I had a bit more time to poke about. The smoke is actually coming from the oil breather and wafts a fair bit about (you might even think that a new pope had been chosen) and disappears once the bike is warm - although I know there's a bit of oil haze because there's a fine misting of oil on the vertical cylinder and the crankcase around the breather.

The bike has just turned a few miles over 3000 since I've had it and is just about to get an oil change and new filter - anything to look for or worry about or is a minute of white smoke just one of those Ducati things?

It.s not the white smoke you have to worry about it's the red mist.lol

White smoke?
Could be the head gasket!?:o

breathing
 

it could be that the crankcase breather pipe has split and is venting around that area leaving a film that burns off after a while.

Yep,or it could just be the vent has come loose.Those vents have a short threaded section which screws into the crankcases.I seem to remember mine was forever leaking.You could check the breather and the pipe mentioned above first.I think I used a little ptfe tape on mine to help seal the joint.Be carefull tho,those threads are pretty fine.

Jools

If I was you I would up my credit card limit now......just in case!

Ouch, Phil, I really hope not.... :eek:

I think that MonstaTom and Keefy's explanation is the most likely. The smoke doesn't start immediately (as I guess it would if it was a gasket), but starts as the engine gets a bit hotter, after 30 seconds or so. The smoke is definitely puffing out of the top of the oil breather and also from the area around the breather that has got a fine misting of oil around it. The smell is definitely hot oil rather than that watery blown gasket smell and it stops once all the oil mist has burned off.

So I'm reckoning (hoping) for a split hose and a tiny drop or two of oil pooling in and around the breather. It's not affecting the oil level at all, the total amount of oil we're talking about is probably just the tip of a teaspoon - but enough to cause a minute or so's smoking.

I haven't touched the oil (apart from checking the level) since I got the bike 3000 miles ago and if anything the bike is probably very slightly overfilled - so that could be contributing a little as well. I'll have a bit more time to look at it in the next couple of days.