Ducati 4V tuning and maintainence   


Go here for MBP Collet installation
mbp installation.


It was a sunny day and I was happy as any guy could be riding his 996. Then one day I realized that as much fun as a stock 996 was, it was a maintainence nightmare and could benefit from tuning. To throw salt into the wound I also realized how sucky my 996 was compared to my friends 996 which had been built by Nichols. For some strange reason, the seat of the butt dyno indicated to me that his bike responded better and probably put out more power throughout the range. I was pissed. But before I dive into it let me list out what mods are already on the bike.

1. Termigoni Full exhaust system (not sure the exact size)
2. FIM UM222 single injector chip
3. Evoluzione Ignition Amp
4. mbp collets
5. megacycle rocker arms
6. ITG air filter with stock filters removed
7. Carbon air runners
8. 15/38 Sprocket combo (520 chain with quick change sprocket)

Let me just say a little about the mbp collets. The collets were installed on Oct 22, 2002. Openers were set at 0.004" INtake and 0.006" exhaust. After doing a full service on my bike a week ago, April 23, 2005 all valves were still within spec and has not changed since I set them. The time since I put the collets in represented about 15k miles of hard riding (wheelies and such every once in a while and mostly freeway the rest of the time.) If you hate doing valve adjustments give it a try and check out my page on installation: mbp installation.

So now that I'm no longer satisfied with my 996 i embarked on a road to gain horsepower at the lowest cost possible. I didn't want to do high comp pistons cuz that was expensive. I checked compression of both cylinders and it read 135psi on both cylinders. I was worried at first but was informed by Rich Roberts from the ducati list that its not a big deal on ducati's. So I continued on my quest. I've heard stories from Brad Black and Doug Lofgren that changing CAM centers could magically make the bike run better then stock and bump up numbers in the mid to high end. After some discussions and email it seemed the ideal numbers were 112-108 on the INTAKE and 108 on the Exhaust.

To degree your cams on a 4V you really need the right tools.

Tools needed
1. degree wheel
2. dial indicator
3. special jig to mount dial indicator to valve cover opening
4. belt tensioner
5. cam pulley removal tool

I'm not going to get into the actually HOWTO on dialing in the cams unless I get a lot of request. Plus this stuff's in the ducati manual. But what I will give you is the spreadsheet I used to calculate lobe centers. This spreadsheet allowed me to find the right offset keys to get to where I want to be.. You have to know how four stroke engines work and what BTDC,ATDC,BBDC,ABDC means. If you don't I'd suggest you start reading some books on basic four stroke theory. The spreadsheet is here: cams.xls

So with the above mod's and with the CAM timing of 111 INtake and 110 Exhaust here are my Dyno readings. Now I took the liberty of having a power commander installed while I was doing this so I could get a proper map setup (the facility I was using was a dyno jet dealer so I figured why not.) So in addition to the above mods, the second dyno charts represent the CAM changes + power commander to clean the power curve.



With the cam set for 111/110 the bike was running lean in many places. Also notice the power dip at 5k. Thats just aweful loosing 10+ HP. But overall I'm happy. The bike has only decent compression, the engine has 31k miles on it and I'm getting 117.5 MAX HP at the rear wheel with 73.2 ft-lb of torque. I suppose a guy can't for much more. Here is a copy of my map from my power commander.. In case you have the same setup and would like to give it a shot. 996-termi-UM222-CAM-111IN-110EXH.DJM

Just for comparision, heres a dyno run of my MV Agusta 750 F4S 2003 model with the EVO3 engine (RG3 exhaust + WCT chip).



Copyright 2001
All rights are reserved by me.. Feel free to throw some money my way if you want to reproduce anything here.