Comes the time to think about how to do “engine break in”. I hesitated to put this post in the thread, because the subject is similar to the topic of oil, everybody has a strong belief and many get emotional about the best way. Truth is, many don’t think about it and it gets done. This post is not meant to tell anyone the best way to break in a new engine. It is simply meant to document how this bike will be broken in and provide information for those new motorcycle owners who want to develop a strategy of their own.
Break in is defined as getting the moving parts of the engine to wear in while in the presence of good quality oil that results in the best result for performance and long life. The most important of these wear in processes being the seating of the piston rings against the engine cylinder. There are different philosophies on how to go about getting that done. The team subscribes to the moderate force approach with emphasis on the first hours of operation which includes changing the oil to remove particles and contaminants. The goal is to get good pressure on the rings with moderate throttle application with deceleration cycles over the first 4-hour period after initial startup.
1) Before start up, the oil gets changed to a known quality wet clutch rated motorcycle or equivalent oil that contains a good amount of ZDDP such as Rotella 15-40W. For this break in, a gallon of Rotella T4 15-40 was purchased.
2) Change the oil after 5 to 10 minutes. This interval is new to this break in procedure as the team had previously made the first oil change at 1 hour. The 5 minutes was suggested by a forum member “Bruces” in a thread on “how often to change oil at break in” and seemed to be better than the 1 hour we had previously used. There is a study on U tube about contaminants in new engines that is “very revealing” and led to this short interval as a means to circulate and flush the engine.
3) We plan to change the oil after 4 hours no matter the miles. I use a timer or a watch to loosely track or approximate the time. The team has broken in two other bikes with this method and after 4 hours they usually end up at around 100 miles on the odometer having been operated mostly in the 0 to 40 mph range.
4) Change the oil at 250 miles.
5) Change the oil to synthetic at 500 miles.
Back story:
The team developed this break in process several years ago when the HAWK was put together. By now, you know the CR27 Team is particular, and we therefore decided the best possible way to get pressure on the rings during “break in” would be to ride up hill. After some initial operation, I transported the Hawk out to a gravel logging road that began around 200 ft or so elevation climbing out about 5 miles up to about 1900 ft. The motor is pulling most all the time in this situation and up. As I made the way, I would alternately lay on the throttle in the mid-range+ and allow it to decelerate. The first time we tried this course, I got to 1900 ft to turn around and as I did, the HAWK died and would not immediately restart......... I could feel the heat rise up despite the 40-degree air temperature. She was hot after that climb. I rolled off down and bump started her, coughed and spat and off we went down through the easier air of descent. The engine a little tight, carburetor some out of tune, or too much work?
Resources:
http://www.dansmc.com/engine_breakin.htm
Ready for break in!
