Hello, John Talley here with Partzilla.com. Today we're gonna be
answering one of the questions that came in specifically about the break-in
procedure on an engine. Now, it can be kind of horrifying after you spent
all this time, money, and energy putting everything together you don't want to
hurt it. You want it to perform the best they can. Today I'm going to share with
you my views and the way I break in the engines that I build.
Step one: make sure that you're using a conventional type motor oil. Doesn't
matter which manufacturer, you want to use just make sure it's the conventional
type. Reason being is we want there to actually be a little bit of transfer of
metal if you will in between particularly the piston rings and the
actual cylinder walls. If you have one in there that's synthetic or semi-synthetic,
that's actually too slippery and it won't give the friction necessary for
that transfer to happen, because what we want is to have actual metal to metal
contact in between the cylinder walls and the rings. Because what's gonna happen
during those first few minutes, they're gonna actually be wearing against each
other and conforming to each other. Remember those cross hatches or the
hones inside the cylinders? Well, they're there for a reason. They're actually
there to cut into the rings and the rings into those. That combination is
going to make a seal in between those two dissimilar metals. If you go with the
synthetic or a semi-synthetic it's going to be too slick and that process can't
happen, and your rings are never gonna seat properly. Kind of think of it is
like breaking in or bedding in your brake pads. If you're a performance rider or
a racer, you know that when you first put on a set of brake pads on a new set of
rotors, you have to go through a hard heat cycle to even transfer some of that
pad material onto the rotor itself. When you do that, it creates a really
good seal or grabbing area for the brake pads. It's kind of the same thing that
we're doing here with the piston rings and the cylinder walls. You're
transferring a little bit of this material into those hone marks and that
creates the seal. That's what gives you the good compression, and that is what
it's gonna make the engine really come alive. Now granted it's gonna change a
little bit depending on if you're working with a high-performance
motocross bike, or high-performance four-wheeler versus a UTV or
side-by-side that's mainly utility. But this is kind of a guideline that I'm
going to give you that I think will apply to all engines across the board.
The procedure I use is actually a pretty simple one. I believe in actually running
the engine fairly hard straight out of the box. The first time I do start it up
though, I am a little bit careful with it. It is
just sitting still, in the shop. Make sure it's well ventilated. And you just want
to bring it up to temp but you still want to be burying the throttle in
between 0 and 50 percent of your throttle range. All you're doing is just
bringing the engine up to temp, you're looking for leaks, making sure it sounds
right, no mechanical issues that need to be addressed immediately. Let it come up
to temp, check that with a heat gun if you have one just to make sure. If not-- if
your fan's working-- if it has one-- make sure that comes on at least once and
then shut it down. Let it cool down. Now at that point, crank it back up and let's
go for a short ride. What we're gonna do here is actually start pushing the motor
a little bit. start putting a load on it. I mean if you've got access to a dyno,
strap it down, start varying the load in between 0 and 70%, somewhere in there.
Start burying your throttle in between 50, 80, even up to 90 percent. I believe
that most of your engine break-in actually occurs and within the first 15
to 20 minutes of the engine life. And that's what I base my braking procedure
on. During that first 15 to 20 minutes I actually pushed mine harder than most
people recommend. It's gonna be important to pick an area where you can vary your
speed without endangering yourself or those around you. If you live in town, go
out to the country somewhere to do this. It will be foolish to try to do this
with a lot of traffic around you. So during that first 20 minutes, keep
burying the throttle. Run it like you are going to run it. If it is a UTV and
you're just going to be working with it, well run it like you're actually going
to work it. If this is a race machine, go ahead and run it like it's gonna be
running at the track. You don't want to baby an engine that's gonna be built for
performance and then shock it, you know, one oil change later, and expect it
to truly perform. After you've run it that first 20 minutes, bring it back,
check it over again. At this point, dump the oil out of it. Go ahead and change
your filter because everything that has been sloughed off in that first 20 minutes
off of your piston, off of your rings, off of the different bearings, it is all now
flowing around in the engine. And I want to get that out of
there. So, go ahead and dump the oil, change your filter, then refill it with
conventional again. Now the second part, go ahead and run the machine like you're
gonna run it. It really varies as to what type of machine it is how long you're
gonna leave the conventional oil in there. If it is a performance ATV, or side
by side, or motocross bike, go ahead and run it for three to four hours like
you're gonna run it. Go ahead and put the coals to it and go ahead and run it.
Three to four hours, at that point, dump the oil, change the filter, fill it up
with whatever type of oil that you plan on running long term in that machine,
whether it be the conventional synthetic or semi-synthetic. Completely up to you. I
don't want to get into that battle right now. That's a topic for a different video.
Now if you're running a performance street bike, go ahead and run it in that
four to five hour range as well. Especially ones that are gonna be run on
the track. Same decision: drop the oil, go with whatever all your gonna go with.
Now for a street cruiser, we can go a little bit further. Let's go four to five
hundred miles, however long that takes you to do that. Some it may take a day,
some may it take a week, depends on the rider. Same decision again. Go with
whatever oil that you're gonna run long term. Utility ATVs and side-by-sides,
after that initial twenty minutes, put in the conventional oil just like the
others and run it for the whole weekend. Work it like you're going to work it.
Don't baby it, run it like you're going to actually use the machine for the
whole weekend. Just make sure that adds up to at least
five to six hours on the engine. At that point, once again put in whatever oil
that you plan on running long term. Well now you know where I stand. I believe you
should go ahead and break in a machine on the upper limits of how you're gonna
use it from day to day. I'm not one of those that subscribes to babying them
along and then just hammering them after X amount of time. I don't think that's
fair for the machine. I don't believe that forces the rings out hard enough
and gets them in contact with the cylinder where you can actually get the
seating process accomplished. So if you have any other questions you'd like me
to answer them one on one like this, why don't you send them in to us and
we'll consider it and maybe make a video out of it. Listen, we just want to say
thank you for shopping here with us at partzilla.
If you have any questions, leave them in the comment section below or give us a call.
We're here to help to make sure that you have fun out on the road, trail, or track.
So, thanks again and we will see you in the next video.