Monster M900 1999 - UKMOC Gen 2

[Darren69]

Yep, V2 would indicate 900SS heads but they may have changed the marking system when they changed the oil feeds around but that was certainly true for the earlier 900ss engines. with the external oil feeds.

[Darren69]

Darkness is right to mention it because it looks like your bike has at least been upgraded to some extent with 916 style remote masters at some point too. Which were shown in the promotional specs from Ducati at the time but never appeared until a few years later.

Darkness, you are correct, sadly I have the W heads... those will have to do for the time being.
Flywheel is already a lighter one and next with be the clutch set-up before getting the primary done. I am also keeping my eyes out for some 900ss / V2 heads!

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by Darren69

Yep, V2 would indicate 900SS heads but they may have changed the marking system when they changed the oil feeds around but that was certainly true for the earlier 900ss engines. with the external oil feeds.

V2 was earlier m900 too.

They seem to have changed to the smaller valved W heads when the m750 was launched.

At least the head bolts should be good on a W.

[Mr Gazza]

M900ie uses V2 heads too, but I have been told by someone who should know, that the late ie V2 heads are different to the early carb V2 heads.
I forget the specific difference. It's either slightly smaller valves in the ie or maybe less cam lift... What he actually said was that the valves on the later V2 heads miss each other by a lot more than on the early ones.
I don't know if the above is true, but I can tell you that my 2000 M900ie has an awful lot more poke than my '98 M900, which presumably had the "W" heads?

If you're going to tune it, my advice would be to stick an ie lump in it.

I did consider it but there is fun in getting the most out of carbs!!!

[Darren69]

Fun? You mean as ok about 80% pf the time and hit and miss the other 20%. Wet finger and stick in the air? There really isn't a lot you can do with the standard Mikunis besides fit a dynojet kit, filter and **** about with the jetting until its roughly about right. They are the weak link but I imagine that FCRs still require a lot of messing with and are less rider friendly to boot. Change something and start again ad nausea?

[Mr Gazza]

Yeah, carbs have a special character. I remember the intoxicating intake roar of my 750SS... Just begged to be spanked...

On the heads; you will find a rev-counter drive on the horizontal head from an SS, which can be blanked off.
No such on Monster heads or SSie.

[Darkness]

Originally Posted by Mr Gazza

....On the heads; you will find a rev-counter drive on the horizontal head from an SS, which can be blanked off.

Or keep it and fit a mechanical rev counter too?

Darren, indeed the OE Mikuni is far from perfect, but it has been completely overhauled (US cleaned and all wearable items replaced a couple of years ago) and to date it is working surprisingly well, the only thing it does not like is long periods of inactivity! A good reason to use the bike.
The plan is to still go Mikuni but with TDMR, tried those on a 900ss and I was impressed, they do match Keihins but with the benefits of firing the air box (if required) and they do have a choke/fast idle.
Still as you said carbs are not as good (precise) as injection, but I am lucky enough to also have one of those “digital” bike in the garage, hence the fun element of the monster.
Obviously no point in spending money (lots) on the carbs when I still have W heads, so heads swap would be the first step.

Thanks for the advice on the heads, And the differences with the 900ss. Anything else that will need to be changed for the head transplant? (Apart for readjusting carbs...)?

[Darren69]

They changed the valve seat material a couple of times too over the years, so the latest heads will have the best seats for modern unleaded, ethanol fuel. The early ones may need upgrading. I can probab'y find out when if needed.

Thanks Darren, that would be useful! Or if the info isn’t available I might try to find a late version before they moved to the small valves!
Silly idea from Ducati, do we know what pushed them to do that?

[Darren69]

If I get time over the weekend I will look through the Monster Bible. If you've not got one its a good reference book, but stuff like that is in the text and not tabulated so you have to read through it for the model year details. As with anything Ducati I would say as a rule of thumb just get the latest ones you can afford. Happy hunting!

[Darren69]

As for the reasons why they did it I don't know and its not exactly clear. My take is that as it was just after the TPG takeover and they were on a cost cutting exercise and may have had 750 parts spare with not so much demand for the 750ss or Monster, the 900 was the big seller after all. and as the Monster was far the best selling model they wanted to make as many options available for little development cost, hence the City and Dark models etc. plus other modes variations and the S was the flagship model so they wanted that to have the performance advantage over the other models. (S models had the big valve head) and had injection first.

That does sound like a very plausible reason... shame it was that was around though!

Also it sounds like I need to get my hand on the “Monster bible”, is that the title of the book?

Finally, when the Monster got launched I was still in France and the company importing Ducati jumped on the success of the monster and created their own high end limited editions ... those were pretty tasty, have a search for Sima carbon Monster!