The break-in question for the pro's

CaptianC

CaptianC

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What is the best way to break in an engine? Ive seen a bunch of guys point to this site below, but there’s a controversy brewing. Couple major things they are pointing out to do differently.

1. Drain the oil shipped in the sled immediately and swap with non-synthetic for break-in.
2. Run hard, very hard in the first 20 min.
3. Change oil after 20 miles
4. Go back to synthetic after a long period of time.

This is the polar opposite from the Yami manual, so whos right? Please chime in because screwing up a new engine would suck.


http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
 
I always follow motomans procedure as close as possible and my engines always run strong and don't burn any oil.
 
mrance111 said:
I always follow motomans procedure as close as possible and my engines always run strong and don't burn any oil.
Click to expand...

Hey mrance, with a new 4 stroke the first thing you want to do is heat cycle the engine several times and break the cams in. To do this start and run the engine at fast idle, 2000-2500RPM (this provides lot's of oil to keep the cams cooler during break in) You'll want to get 15-20 minutes like this to break in the cams. Don't do it 20 minutes straight, you want to bring the engine up to temp and then let it cool, if it take 4 or 5 minutes to do this then repeat 3-5 times.
Once that's done, a dyno is the best way to break it in but if you don't have a dyno in your garage then you want to load the engine as hard as possible while sweeping through the RPM range.
Higher loads increase the pressure on the rings to cylinder.
On the Dyno it takes 3 20 sec runs to completely break in, in the field you will need 20-30 passes in deep snow or up hill while adding throttle, try to load the engine as hard as possible without just reving to peak HP RPM. Once you reach peak HP (shifting RPM) let off and do it again.
Ray
 
Dynoray is correct. That is how I like to do mine also. Heat cycle at least 3 times, 3 days apart. Then run hard for short bursts at WFO. Stock oil is fine for this. I made 4 pulls on my latest turbo sled on the dyno and it went 256 on first pull, 258 on second, 261 on third and 265 on fourth. After that it went to the track dyno for about 30 pulls. Then the oil and filter gets changed to straight petroleum oil. Don't forget to pull elbow off bottom of oil tank to clean debris screen. I'll change oil again at 500 miles, then at 1000 or so. I'll run petroleum oil till at least 1500 miles or thereabouts.
 
I wish I had known about this, I put 85 miles on my rtx. I had afew short bursts in rpm while I was riding. The way that I did it sounds like I will not have as good of a motor as I could have. Is there anything that I can do, should I change my oil atleast?
 
IMO, I agree with most of the methods spoke about on this site. For a motor that will see normal duty (the way 90% of us ride) as long as you don't run lakes WFO, you won't stress things too bad, so I wouldn't worry about the miles you have alread riden.
The main objective is the heat cycles, as stated above. You want to heat the motor to operating temp, let it cool, and repeat. I made a few calls today about this since most of my experience is with automotive engines, and I couldn't find 2 people who said the same thing! The 2 Yamaha dealers I called, said just ride it, and it doesn't need break-in.
I have to agree mostly with the dealers, however. The technology that most engine parts are made of these days don't require as much of a break-in procedure as older generations. If you are looking to extract every last ounce of power that engine will make, go ahead and get picky, but I don't think anybody would ever notice the difference.
I'm sure there are many different opinions here, but I think that if a factory assembles it and sends it out, they have to expect that it should last without a complicated break-in. We don't have to break in our new cars?? I do think a 2 stroke may be different, hence the "chip" that burns out in the Doo's etc....
Nate
 
KnappAttack said:
Dynoray is correct. That is how I like to do mine also. Heat cycle at least 3 times, 3 days apart. Then run hard for short bursts at WFO. Stock oil is fine for this. I made 4 pulls on my latest turbo sled on the dyno and it went 256 on first pull, 258 on second, 261 on third and 265 on fourth. After that it went to the track dyno for about 30 pulls. Then the oil and filter gets changed to straight petroleum oil. Don't forget to pull elbow off bottom of oil tank to clean debris screen. I'll change oil again at 500 miles, then at 1000 or so. I'll run petroleum oil till at least 1500 miles or thereabouts.
Click to expand...

So to get it right, let is idle to heat the engine and cool 3 times, then "Knapp Attak" the hell out of it WFO?
 
CaptianC said:
1. Drain the oil shipped in the sled immediately and swap with non-synthetic for break-in.
Click to expand...
This will only make sense if the manufacturer was stupid enough to put the WRONG oil in it.
2. Run hard, very hard in the first 20 min.
Click to expand...
NO!!! VERY NO!!!
IDLE it for 20 minutes to take off the worst manufacturing imperfections and filter the crud out of the engine BEFORE those imperfections and crud cause SERIOUS DAMAGE.
[/quote]3. Change oil after 20 miles[/quote]
Sure doesn't hurt, but VERY excessive.
[/quote]4. Go back to synthetic after a long period of time.[/quote]
Yamaha doesn't even use synthetic oil. If you feel like switching to synthetic, 2000 miles is a good place.

This is the polar opposite from the Yami manual, so whos right?
Click to expand...
Yamaha is. You seriously considering trusting a high precision engine designed and built by Yamaha to some amateur garage mechanic just because he has a website? I'll remind you that ANYONE can get a website FOR FREE and it DOESN'T mean that he knows what he's talking about.



The Yamaha procedure;
Idle 5 minutes at a time, 3 times.
Run it for XXXX miles with NO SUSTAINED operation over 5000 rpm.
Run it for XXXX miles with NO SUSTAINED operation over 8000 rpm.
Change oil
Ride it like hell.

Fill in "XXXX" from manual.

"NO SUSTAINED" - These words are VERY IMPORTANT. They do NOT mean "DO NOT". What they MEAN is that you CAN and in fact SHOULD run it to 10k+ rpm during both 5000 and 8000 rpm stages of breakin, but KEEP IT BRIEF and follow it by equal time operating BELOW those speeds. This means that if you are in the 5000 rpm period, let it rip for just a moment, then bring it back down to idle for a bit, then bring it back up.

THE KEY TO SUCCESSFUL BREAKIN: Keep the engine speed CHANGING CONSTANTLY. Do NOT keep it at a constant speed for more than a second at a time unless absolutely necessary.
 
Lazy, Is the key change to what your saying and the website is the idle issue? I noticed that you and the board agrees with you, idle 3 times for 5 min, this is diffrent from the site. The other diffrence is no need to change the shipped oil? I thought that the Yami stuff was a semi-synthetic? Last, run hard, but for short bursts and try not to sustain a certain RPM for a period above a few sec during breakin.

How many miles before she's set?
 
If you want it to be fast....ride it like youre gonna ride it....any babying IMO is worthless...I ran mine in ala motoman,hard with much loading of motor initially,as always.....doesnt burn a drop and fastest apex around.....

I never heat cycled mine once...just hard bursts,then off the throttle...basically exactly the motoman method...

youll hear many say NO NO...but,Ive done this for over 25 yrs now,and never had any issues with hard break ins..and ALWAYS had fast sleds....

If you want a slug,like many apexs out there...do it by the book.

JMO

Dan
 
Broke mine in like the owners manual says. Does not burn a drop of oil and my sled is the fastest normally asperated Apex/Attak in my group. Did load the engine early on, jusk kept the revs down and allowed for some cooling before the next burst.
 
Do the heat sink thing when you first get your sled. Then fluctuate your rpms all the way through the power band as much as possible and you have a perfectly broken in motor. Do not just hold it steady at one particular rpm. I would NOT use synthetic oil until you have 1500-2000 miles on your motor.
 
mrance111 said:
I always follow motomans procedure as close as possible and my engines always run strong and don't burn any oil.
Click to expand...


I used this method and now have 4300 kms on my sled, just got back from a 3000 kms trip and not one oz of oil burned, the two other apex that rode with me took about 1/2 to 3/4 pt. Needless to say, they followed Yamaha break-in and thought I was crazy. Who is laughing now ?
 
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