Just ordered my hawk what mods are recommended?

[zanoknight]

What do you guys recommend i do to my new hawk coming in a couple of days? Should i do a soft engine break in?

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by zanoknight

Should i do a soft engine break in?

Congrats Zano on the purchase!

I sill start with the break in question just because it's going to be the most controversial and likely to start a war lol. So I am not going to tell you which method to do, but instead tell you HOW I do my hard break ins, and what I would recommend if you do go this route.

First. If you go this route, you will be looking at doing some wide open throttle at some point. Depending on your elevation, you will want to at least upgrade the main jet and shim the needle with 1 or 2 washers if you plan on using the stock carb at all. Do a search on factory carb tuning and you will find a lot of info on this. You don't have to do this step immediately, but definitely do it before you go romping on it. Also, on your very first start ups, avoid using the choke any longer than necessary, and no longer than about 30 seconds to a minute. It won't want to idle very well, so help it along with the throttle gently. Too much fuel on a brand new engine can fuel wash the cylinder and actually cause harm to the unseated rings.

Second. Set your valve clearances before even starting the engine. The recommended spec for these motors is .003 intake/exhaust, plus or minus .001. Many here, including myself run .003 intake, .004 exhaust If you set them to this spec, you will want to regularly re-check the clearances because as the engine breaks in the valve clearances will change, usually by the gap shrinking. I made it a habit to check them every time I changed the oil, which leads me to the third point.

Three. Change the engine oil it comes with before you even run it. Buy a couple of 4 quart jugs of Rotella T4 15w40, it's a great oil for these engines and it's affordable. WalMart usually has them for around 13-15 bucks a jug, and 2 jugs = 6 oil changes. You want a lot of oil for one main reason - you will be changing the oil a lot. My very first run with my bike I got it started and set my idle speed to around 2200rpm and let it idle for 20 minutes with the bike as level as I could get it (Sitting on the bike is a good idea). I had a fan pointed at the motor to help keep it cool (a good idea). I then changed the oil. After that, I changed the oil 2 more times during the initial hard process, and then after that I set my intervals to 100 miles, 200 miles, 400 miles - which I just completed.

Four. Critical factor. Before running the engine hard, it is very important that the engine has a couple of good heat cycles. The first one was my 20 minutes of fast idle. Let it cool all the way down after that. The second time I ran it I toodled around my neighborhood for maybe 5-10 minutes or so just to get it hot, then shut it down and let it cool down all the way again.

At this point I setup to start the "hard" break in process. I do this in a couple of stages. The first stage - Ride the bike around nice and easy until it is up to temp, maybe 10 minutes or so. Once the motor is up to temp, on a very empty stretch of road, I ran the bike up and down the gears never going beyond half-3/4 throttle. You don't want to go wide open at this point, just rev it up and down with "gusto" going through the gears up and down. Accelerate up, and give it some good engine braking downshifting, never cruising at any speed for more than a few seconds. Once you have gone a few miles, shut it off and let it cool completely again. I changed the oil again at this point - seems excessive, but keep in mind you are being very hard on a fresh engine.

Second stage, start off like the first, get it up to temp. Then, same idea, rev up and down through the gears, at first start like the first stage, limit the throttle for a bit, but start mixing in some wide open throttle pulls up a couple of gears, then engine brake down. I do this for a run of about 10-15 miles. Don't be afraid to downshift and engine brake at higher RPM's either. The great thing about these bikes, since they aren't super fast or powerful, is that you can generally pull this off on most state and county roads without ever breaking the law lol. Once this part of the process is done, again let it cool down completely, change the oil, check the valve clearances.

From this point forward, ride it business as usual. The real key to a "hard" break in is that the engine gets run hard as early as possible in it's life. Not only to help seat the rings more effectively, but also to induce the normal rod stretch that would eventually occour on any wide open throttle pull regardless of how it was broken in. By doing it early, this ensures that there is no chance of the first compression ring potentially running into a ridge in the bore OR ring of carbon deposits that can actually cause a loss of sealing pressure and reduce compression.

I am sure some people are reading this right now and cringing with mechanical sympathy. I won't argue against their methodology on a soft break in. I can only speak of my experiences and evidence of others as to the advantages. If you do choose the hard break in method, you need to be very critical of all aspects of the engine, leaks, temps, etc. Also be aware than you don't have to rev it to the moon the whole time for this to be effective, but a couple of pulls up to around 7000rpm toward the middle or end of the second stage is a good idea. Do what you are comfortable with.

[Megadan]

Ok, first, sorry for the novel, but I felt all of that information was critical.

As far as recommended upgrades, I have what I consider my top 3 for a great Hawk experience.

1. The Digital Tach cluster is a great upgrade, and very easy to install during assembly. It's accurate, and having the tach on the bike is a very good idea if you do want to do a hard break in.

2. Changing to different sprockets, especially if you want to use the bike on the road. There are a ton of options, so depending on how you want to use the bike will really determine what options are best.

3. Air box mod or other intake upgrade and either gutting the cat from the stock exhaust or upgrading to the ebay exhaust. Not really necessary, but that cat gets REALLY hot, and I and a couple of other people have ran into the carburetor bowl getting so hot from it that it caused the fuel to boil. Plus, it's pretty restrictive as well.

Beyond that there are some other upgrades you can do down the road like an oil cooler, LED lights, etc.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Congrats Zano on the purchase!

I sill start with the break in question just because it's going to be the most controversial and likely to start a war lol. So I am not going to tell you which method to do, but instead tell you HOW I do my hard break ins, and what I would recommend if you do go this route.

First. If you go this route, you will be looking at doing some wide open throttle at some point. Depending on your elevation, you will want to at least upgrade the main jet and shim the needle with 1 or 2 washers if you plan on using the stock carb at all. Do a search on factory carb tuning and you will find a lot of info on this. You don't have to do this step immediately, but definitely do it before you go romping on it. Also, on your very first start ups, avoid using the choke any longer than necessary, and no longer than about 30 seconds to a minute. It won't want to idle very well, so help it along with the throttle gently. Too much fuel on a brand new engine can fuel wash the cylinder and actually cause harm to the unseated rings.

Second. Set your valve clearances before even starting the engine. The recommended spec for these motors is .003 intake/exhaust, plus or minus .001. Many here, including myself run .003 intake, .004 exhaust If you set them to this spec, you will want to regularly re-check the clearances because as the engine breaks in the valve clearances will change, usually by the gap shrinking. I made it a habit to check them every time I changed the oil, which leads me to the third point.

Three. Change the engine oil it comes with before you even run it. Buy a couple of 4 quart jugs of Rotella T4 15w40, it's a great oil for these engines and it's affordable. WalMart usually has them for around 13-15 bucks a jug, and 2 jugs = 6 oil changes. You want a lot of oil for one main reason - you will be changing the oil a lot. My very first run with my bike I got it started and set my idle speed to around 2200rpm and let it idle for 20 minutes with the bike as level as I could get it (Sitting on the bike is a good idea). I had a fan pointed at the motor to help keep it cool (a good idea). I then changed the oil. After that, I changed the oil 2 more times during the initial hard process, and then after that I set my intervals to 100 miles, 200 miles, 400 miles - which I just completed.

Four. Critical factor. Before running the engine hard, it is very important that the engine has a couple of good heat cycles. The first one was my 20 minutes of fast idle. Let it cool all the way down after that. The second time I ran it I toodled around my neighborhood for maybe 5-10 minutes or so just to get it hot, then shut it down and let it cool down all the way again.

At this point I setup to start the "hard" break in process. I do this in a couple of stages. The first stage - Ride the bike around nice and easy until it is up to temp, maybe 10 minutes or so. Once the motor is up to temp, on a very empty stretch of road, I ran the bike up and down the gears never going beyond half-3/4 throttle. You don't want to go wide open at this point, just rev it up and down with "gusto" going through the gears up and down. Accelerate up, and give it some good engine braking downshifting, never cruising at any speed for more than a few seconds. Once you have gone a few miles, shut it off and let it cool completely again. I changed the oil again at this point - seems excessive, but keep in mind you are being very hard on a fresh engine.

Second stage, start off like the first, get it up to temp. Then, same idea, rev up and down through the gears, at first start like the first stage, limit the throttle for a bit, but start mixing in some wide open throttle pulls up a couple of gears, then engine brake down. I do this for a run of about 10-15 miles. Don't be afraid to downshift and engine brake at higher RPM's either. The great thing about these bikes, since they aren't super fast or powerful, is that you can generally pull this off on most state and county roads without ever breaking the law lol. Once this part of the process is done, again let it cool down completely, change the oil, check the valve clearances.

From this point forward, ride it business as usual. The real key to a "hard" break in is that the engine gets run hard as early as possible in it's life. Not only to help seat the rings more effectively, but also to induce the normal rod stretch that would eventually occour on any wide open throttle pull regardless of how it was broken in. By doing it early, this ensures that there is no chance of the first compression ring potentially running into a ridge in the bore OR ring of carbon deposits that can actually cause a loss of sealing pressure and reduce compression.

I am sure some people are reading this right now and cringing with mechanical sympathy. I won't argue against their methodology on a soft break in. I can only speak of my experiences and evidence of others as to the advantages. If you do choose the hard break in method, you need to be very critical of all aspects of the engine, leaks, temps, etc. Also be aware than you don't have to rev it to the moon the whole time for this to be effective, but a couple of pulls up to around 7000rpm toward the middle or end of the second stage is a good idea. Do what you are comfortable with.

That is a great process. What I rail against is the hard break in where one just runs the bike balls to the wall from the git go. Your procedure makes a lot of sense....ARH

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by zanoknight

What do you guys recommend i do to my new hawk coming in a couple of days? Should i do a soft engine break in?

Unless you have very small feet, I would get a longer shift lever. The stock one is too short for American feet...ARH

[zanoknight]

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! I'm definitely going to do this kind of breakin period. Hopefully I'll record it and put it on YouTube

[culcune]

Have you watched Motocheez's videos? He offers many break-in tips (obviously, you will have to go back to his first few) for Hawks and Magicians (both use the same engine). Congrats on your new Hawk, by the way! I know Chicago is large, not to mention Illinois, but there seems to be a growing contingent of Hawk/Magician owners from your city/state.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by zanoknight

Thank you so much for the detailed explanation! I'm definitely going to do this kind of breakin period. Hopefully I'll record it and put it on YouTube

Be prepared for lots of people commenting that you are stupid and hurting the engine if you do that! lol. Like I said, it's a controversial subject.

Just always keep in mind that detail about being very critical of every aspect of the engine and the rest of the bike. Check, double check, repeat check everything often. There is a difference between being hard on the engine, and being abusive - which is what Ariel Red Hunter described with people just running the bike balls out from the get go with no regard to anything.

[Azhule]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Be prepared for lots of people commenting that you are stupid and hurting the engine if you do that!

Won't hear any grief from me , that's my kind of break in procedure (a proper "Hard break in")

Welcome to the forum Zano

[green_hawk250]

This is what Kawasaki recommended for Versys 300:





Keep in mind, that they are talking about the engine with 12K redline, not to mention the quality of materials used in Hawk and Kawasaki engines.

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by green_hawk250

This is what Kawasaki recommended for Versys 300:





Keep in mind, that they are talking about the engine with 12K redline.

Every manufacturer states something similar, and it is a great way to make attourneys happy. The irony is, many manufacturers will take a fresh engine or assembled bike and run it on a dyno before it leaves the factory., often exceeding the limitations they then place on the customer.

[green_hawk250]

Originally Posted by Megadan

Every manufacturer states something similar,

Concur. They cover their asses. From the other side, I am 40 years with motorcycles and have had many chances to compare engines condition after "soft" and "hard" break in. Based on what I saw with my own eyes, I would agree with:

Originally Posted by Megadan

Every manufacturer

[Megadan]

Funny you say that, because - while I don't have 40 years like you, I have over 15 with high performance and race engine builds, both boosted and naturally aspirated from 1 cylinder to 12., both gas and diesels. My findings between the two always showed - no difference in bearing wear, no abnormal cylinder wear, scuffing, or broken rings on the hard break in engines, and as a whole generally higher compression between similar engines broken in both ways. Now, when I say this, keep in mind that all of the hard break ins were done in a very methodical and controlled fashion, often times on a dyno or other controlled environment. Occasionally on a track. I am not talking about Joe Q. Public taking a new engine and simply thrashing it everywhere all of the time. That isn't a hard break in, that's simply abuse.

Just for giggles, I can point to my Jeep as an example. I pulled the factory engine 142,000 miles ago due to piston slap, a common issue with the Jeep 4.0L in the early days. No high dollar parts to speak of, just your basic refresh - polished main and rod journals, .010 overbore and hone, new pistons rings, RV cam, yadda yadda. All done by me. It had a hard break in done to it. The motor has been apart since then for various maintenance items, rear main seal for example. Bearings are no less typical than any engine with the miles it has on it. Cylinders still show cross hatching, and a compression test done last year showed all 6 cylinders to be within 3psi of one another and all on the high end of the scale for what this engine should make.

I am more than happy to continue this in a PM, and I mean that. I like discussing alternate points of views. As I said before, this subject is often controversial and tends to cause, at best, debates.