| Author | Message | ||
     Royintulsa |
What is Motoman Break In for an engine? I have just 200 miles on mine - and have kept it pretty close to the manual specifications. | ||
| Aeholton |
http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm | ||
| Thunderbox |
Yes and according to Motoman you are unfortunately, to late to employ that method. | ||
| Royintulsa |
Well, maybe not, I did not read the manual until after the first 30 miles had been put on the bike, I did warm it up before riding and took it up to 6000 rpms at least three times so hopefully I am ok. | ||
| Chadhargis |
I know break in is a controversial topic (much like tires and oil), but every single person I know who's used the Motoman break in procedure has had nothing by good luck with it. Bike runs strong, doesn't use much oil (if any), and has had no mechanical issues. (Message edited by chadhargis on October 18, 2005) | ||
| Whodom |
Here's an interesting idea I ran across while surfing some websites for antique construction equipment collectors. Caterpillar (the bulldozer/motorgrader/diesel engine company) used to recommend this: if one of their diesels used excess oil after so many hours of operation (whatever they recommended for break in) they recommended dumping a specific quantity of Bon Ami (yes, the abrasive kitchen/bathroom cleaning stuff) into the intake and then running it hard for so many additional hours. Evidently the idea was that the fine abrasive in Bon Ami would "lap" the rings to fit the cylinder walls. Heck, if I had a low-mileage engine that used a lot of oil, I think I'd be willing to try it. | ||
| Thunderbox |
I can speek to that approach as we did that in the Military a lot. If you had a Detroit Diesel and it was idled too much we would do that to stop the oil burning. No where did Detroit Deisel recommend that to fix the oil problem. That is not recommended as a fix. That stuff gets everywhere in the engine when you do that. Why would you take a motor with warranty and shove abrasive cleaner into the intake. Take it and get it fixed if it's broken. You pay for the warranty you know. | ||
| Whodom |
Dave, didn't mean to imply I'd try this on a near-new bike with oil usage problems. But if I had done a rebuild myself and was having problems, I figure it might be worth a try. Someone actually posted the pages from a ~1950's Caterpillar maintenance manual on one of these sites that recommended the procedure. Of course, these were BIG slow-turning engines and the metallurgy back then was probably significantly different. It would probably be really easy to completely hose-up a modern engine by mis-using this technique. | ||
| Eor |
I think I'll pass on the Bon Ami right now.  | ||
| Javadog |
I recently was a passenger in a friend's brand new Acura car. It was her fifth one and she was driving like a bat out of h***. I asked her if she read the owner's manual and if she was following the recommended break in procedure. She said she had never read any manuals in her life, just had the oil changed regularly. I asked if she had ever had any engine problems or oil consumption issues with her cars and she said no. I know the comparison is not exactly fair but this does support the Motoman break in philosophy. | ||
| Crusty |
I apprenticed as an Operating Engineer in the late'60s and early '70s. The Caterpillar engines that the Bon Ami cure was recommended for were the D-13000 series diesels. As I recall, they redlined at 900 RPM and average oil consumption was on the order of a gallon every eight hours. There was a five gallon difference between the low and high marks on the dipstick. The engine made 65 Horsepower, according to its data plate. There's no way in hell that I'd put Bon Ami in any engine in any motorcycle that I'd own. | ||
| Trojan |
When we fitted a brand new XB12 engine in our race bike the only break-in it got was the first 10 minutes of practice, and that wasn't exactly at slow speed  That motor is still going really well 18 months later and has had no problems at all. | ||
| Whodom |
Hey Crusty, that's cool. My Dad was an operating engineer from about 1938 until about 1988. I used to go to work with him on a lot of Saturdays when I was a kid back in the 60's. |
