AMMO Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 An English friend who has been working for various Ducati race teams in the States called me from the Isle of Man yesterday. He is over for the TT races. He's managed to get a Ducati "Testastretta" head he wants to graft on to a Supermono racer. Last time I worked with this guy the result was a win in the singles race at Daytona. Guess what size the intake valves are on this head? 44.5 mm! Gulp! That's two 44.5 mm valves in one head. The biggest I'd seen before were on a Suzuki 1000 TL. They were only a puny 40 mm. The Ducati exhaust valves are about the same as Duratec inlets. Some quick back of an envelope calculations revealed that it should be possible to get around 100 bhp out of it. This will be 600 cc on a 104 mm bore x 70 mm stroke. The World Superbike Ducati twins are making around 190 bhp at the rear wheel so the 100 bhp at the crank figure for the single should be acheivable. As far as I know that would be a world first. A friend in Germany has dynoed a Rotax single at 92 bhp at the crank. I've not heard of anything else more powerful. My mate's coming over after the TT so I can sort him out an induction system. The factory throttle bodies are only available in pairs and cost a whopping £15,000.00. I'm sure we can do something a bit cheaper than that! I've worked out that we probably need a 65 mm throttle body. Luckily there are Touring Car bodies that are fitted to plenums available in this size. I'm such a lucky bugger to get these projects offered to me from time to time. Can't wait to get stuck in. 😬 😬 😬 AMMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Septimus Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Is it desmodromic? If so, is it tricky to set up the clearances? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMMO Posted May 30, 2003 Author Share Posted May 30, 2003 Yes it is a desmo. Not tricky at all to set the clearances, just time consuming. The cams have opening and closing lobes. The valves are operated by a conventional looking opening rocker with a shim on top of the valve stem. The closing rocker is forked and locates under a kind of top hat shim that is retained by split collets. All you need is a big box of shims and some patience. AMMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Septimus Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Thanks for the info. There's a very nice Cafe Racer 916 gleaming in the sun outside the office with lots of goodies. Belongs to one of the techies upstairs. Could almost be better than a 7 on a day like this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dino ferrana Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Mmmm how much would an LA Caterham weigh with that in the engine bay? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdg Posted May 30, 2003 Share Posted May 30, 2003 Ammo, Even more off topic. I was recently flicking through Mick Walker's excellent book on Moto Guzzi V-Twins when.... You can guess what I'm about to say! Respect. Chris. Edited by - cdg on 30 May 2003 23:59:32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMMO Posted May 31, 2003 Author Share Posted May 31, 2003 Thanks. AMMO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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