Motorcycle break-in

[shreddr]

Here is a link to a page that talks of a break-in procedure that flies in the face of what the manufacturers recommend.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I am ready to assess the results of my top end rebuild, and am wondering on the break in. Wossner said to break it in according to manufacturer recommendations. This article says otherwise. There is also something about not breaking in with synthetic oil, I will throw this one out to the forum before the maiden voyage, it seems to be pretty controversial.

[SergioK]

Yeah, there's always different opinions. I go with what the manufacturer says. They, at times, have engineers who design and engineer their engines and I pretend to be one and I didn't even stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

[plucky]

seems controversial?

http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&as_qdr=all&q=forum+%22break+in+secrets%22&meta=

maybe to make things real interesting, you should ask what type of oil to use when using mototune's technique.

[kocook]

You did all that to your engine and you don't know how to break it in?

[signit98]

...yeah, you can go with this guys recommendation if you are planing on selling the bike quickly... I am sceptical of his approach although in general, modern engines are much better than what was available even 20 years back because metallurgical advances and increase in production automation have come a LONG way...

The "common" understanding of how an engine has to be "broken" in were from times when the rings and cylinder walls were from much different materials. Nowadays Piston rings, for example are much more flexible and have a lot less base tension and the tolerances are much more exact and consistent then they were 30, 40 or 50 years ago...

Another reason for a careful procedure on any stock engine is already eliminated in your case... the residual "dirt" from the manufacturing process... that is actually the MAIN reason for the 600 mile oil change (and why it is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT Oil change in the life of an engine) and the careful break in procedure these days. A lot of the material used for casting, honing, grinding and such (i.e. quartz sand etc.) will not be fully removed in the automated process... some oil channels might have a little residual stuff in there that has gone uncaught or unnoticed... and that stuff will be picked up by the oil in the first few hundred miles...

Your case, however, is different, Jeff... you put in 3rd party pistons in your stock cylinders... I'd go a little easy on then for a while and give everything a chance to set it... and still do another oil change after 800 or 1000 miles just to see whether there is some stuff that has settled from abrasion...

[SergioK]

Originally Posted by signit98

...yeah, you can go with this guys recommendation if you are planing on selling the bike quickly... I am sceptical of his approach although in general, modern engines are much better than what was available even 20 years back because metallurgical advances and increase in production automation have come a LONG way...

The "common" understanding of how an engine has to be "broken" in were from times when the rings and cylinder walls were from much different materials. Nowadays Piston rings, for example are much more flexible and have a lot less base tension and the tolerances are much more exact and consistent then they were 30, 40 or 50 years ago...

Another reason for a careful procedure on any stock engine is already eliminated in your case... the residual "dirt" from the manufacturing process... that is actually the MAIN reason for the 600 mile oil change (and why it is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT Oil change in the life of an engine) and the careful break in procedure these days. A lot of the material used for casting, honing, grinding and such (i.e. quartz sand etc.) will not be fully removed in the automated process... some oil channels might have a little residual stuff in there that has gone uncaught or unnoticed... and that stuff will be picked up by the oil in the first few hundred miles...

Your case, however, is different, Jeff... you put in 3rd party pistons in your stock cylinders... I'd go a little easy on then for a while and give everything a chance to set it... and still do another oil change after 800 or 1000 miles just to see whether there is some stuff that has settled from abrasion...

That's what I was gonna say but my fingers were tired.

[signit98]

...wonder what they have been doing last night???

[chewie]

One thing I did was put a magnetic sump plug in mine and it did hold one tiny tiny piece of metal on it early on in the motors life. So I spose it did it's job. Maybe worth getting ? I dunno, just a thought.

[blutruck1]

I definitely would NOT use synthetic for the first 600 miles.
BMW seems to think it's okay for their motors to burn oil, something like 1 qt for 300 miles as the service limit. That ridiculous. I pulled the top end of my 1100s and found some weird stuff, left side ring gaps were almost aligned from BMW. Both pistons had indications of oil consumption, I use 1qt every 3k. I've had several Fords, Dodges, Hondas and Yamahas, and none have ever consumed oil like the 1100.
I bought my 1100S used and in pristine condition and I'm sure it was broken in per MFG instructions, which I believe contributed to the oil consumption. When I get the 1100 back together, break in will be several full power runs through the gears. This doesn't mean I'll redline it, rather wide open throttle to around 6500, shift, hit again, shift and back down (traffic allowing). I want cylinder pressure up to push the the rings into the cylinder walls.
I agree with the article on break in. Basically, run it the same as you're going to ride it, except no steady state cruising for the first 500 miles. 20 miles for the first oil change might be a little quick, but if you use assembly lube (I do), I want that out of the engine fairly soon, so an oil change is called for. Using synthetic gets spendy doing low mileage oil changes, plus I think it's too slippery to allow proper seating of rings.

[Bob Hancock]

I think the manufacturers recommendation is way too cautious and the times I have followed them religiously my bike burned oil all it's life. I would just ride it normally without any high RPM running for the first 600. Make sure you have it under some amount of load accelerating/decelerating. Think of it as a ride in the mountains even if all you have is flat. No steady state cruising. No rev limiter bouncing. Ease into full throttle in order to get there about 500 miles and then for short periods. Of course, I'm a nervous nellie changing a dang cam sprocket so what do I know. me >< me

[zx9rmal]

Just my $.02, which is about what it's worth. I'm a BIG believer in full synthetic, especially on a Boxer with less stable operating temps than a liquid cooled motor. Again, just MY opinion, but I think the synthetic "warnings" we all see are bull. It's just oil, BUT more "consistent" in its molecular make-up than regular oil. Many vehicles come from the factory with synthetic. I've used it early on in my last few Beemers, both Boxers and inlines. With an aggressive, but not abusive break-in, none of the bikes used oil. I WOULD use dino oil for the initial oil fill in shreddr's case because it would be a waste of $$ using synthetic for such a short time. YMMV.

[AZ-Twin]

Originally Posted by shreddr

Here is a link to a page that talks of a break-in procedure that flies in the face of what the manufacturers recommend.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

I am ready to assess the results of my top end rebuild, and am wondering on the break in. Wossner said to break it in according to manufacturer recommendations. This article says otherwise. There is also something about not breaking in with synthetic oil, I will throw this one out to the forum before the maiden voyage, it seems to be pretty controversial.

I would follow the recommendation of Wossner and BMW on this one. As far as the first oil change, I agree with a lot of what Ralf said, and I know you had your tighty whities stuffed in the crank case to keep the dirt out, but I would still do an early oil change after the first couple hundred miles.

my $.02

[Deans BMW]

Shreddr, Bob Hancock has it about right, also did you discuss this with Chris when you talked with him. Synthetic is fine from the beginning, I personaly do my first oil change at about the first 200 mile mark.

[throttlemeister]

Anyone thinking they need to pussy a new bike around, go watch a documentary where they show the manufacturing process of motorcycles. Particularly the part where they push the finished bike into the dyno booth to test everything is ok before they ship it out.

They let it idle for a few minutes to warm up a bit and then yank it through all the gears and the entire rpm range.

After that little abuse, you get it. And then you need to stay below 4krpm to prevent damage?

The manufacturer instructions are to prevent users from riding at high constant rpm. Not to keep you from revving it to redline. There is absolutely no problem whatsoever to get to high rpm's with a new engine, as long as you do not stay there. You need to vary the load and rpm as much as possible.

[signit98]

Here's a good write up about oils...

http://www.calsci.com/motorcycleinfo/Oils1.html

[kiwi az]

Originally Posted by throttlemeister

The manufacturer instructions are to prevent users from riding at high constant rpm. Not to keep you from revving it to redline. There is absolutely no problem whatsoever to get to high rpm's with a new engine, as long as you do not stay there. You need to vary the load and rpm as much as possible.

Even KTM, which insists on high quality synth to maintain warranty, ships its bikes with non-synth break-in oil (and winds them all up to full power on the dyno before they go in the box).

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that too gentle a break-in results in glazing and oil-burning for-almost-ever. The manufacturer pays a lot less on the warranty if you burn oil at 20K miles than if you burn it up at 200.

[peter f]

Well

R12S is my 5th Beemer (3rd boxer). In all boxers I've followed the "controversial" break-in thing as described in that well known article (+ mineral Castrol oil). Result? no oil consumption at all (well...say 0.1L per 1K km - max). Many others here in Greece (mostly riding GS) did the official method (burning around 1L per 1K km, since).

Oil after break in: Castrol Power 1 GPS 15W/40 semi synthetic.

[bradzdotcom]

what i've learned:
when i see race teams building engines, it's all hands on. theres no concern about chips and filings...which is basically what our 600 mile run-in is all about. super important.
it flushes out all the left over manufacturing crap (plus plain old dirt/dust from products sitting in the building).

those "hand-rubbed" race motors get a round of regular dino oil, about 6-8 minutes of aggressive but not abusive run in (checking specs/torques/stuff) with cool-downs in between....and then they go ahead and pin it for whatever they're chasing.

one company (i think it begins with an H) had 4 dynos running with production bike engines on them. they brought them up to temp, then switched off the cooling fans and pinned 'em to see how long each one would last.
they had a pool where you could buy blocks of minutes on a particular engine.

sadly, old #3 was second to expire, and way sooner than the optimistic block of time i'd invested in.

and as far as manufacturer's suggested break-in:
the engineers don't write that stuff. it comes from the legal department. they take the actual engineer suggestion, multiply it by the stupidity level of the morons who will be suing them in the future, and arrive at a recommended procedure.

it's like those signs in the corners that say "35 MPH"

................................yea............... ............right.

[Bob Hancock]

Originally Posted by bradzdotcom

and as far as manufacturer's suggested break-in:
the engineers don't write that stuff. it comes from the legal department. they take the actual engineer suggestion, multiply it by the stupidity level of the morons who will be suing them in the future, and arrive at a recommended procedure.

it's like those signs in the corners that say "35 MPH"

................................yea............... ............right.

This should be a sticky for everytime this topic comes up.

[Deans BMW]

Originally Posted by bradzdotcom

what i've learned:
when i see race teams building engines, it's all hands on. theres no concern about chips and filings...which is basically what our 600 mile run-in is all about. super important.
it flushes out all the left over manufacturing crap (plus plain old dirt/dust from products sitting in the building).

those "hand-rubbed" race motors get a round of regular dino oil, about 6-8 minutes of aggressive but not abusive run in (checking specs/torques/stuff) with cool-downs in between....and then they go ahead and pin it for whatever they're chasing.

one company (i think it begins with an H) had 4 dynos running with production bike engines on them. they brought them up to temp, then switched off the cooling fans and pinned 'em to see how long each one would last.
they had a pool where you could buy blocks of minutes on a particular engine.

sadly, old #3 was second to expire, and way sooner than the optimistic block of time i'd invested in.

and as far as manufacturer's suggested break-in:
the engineers don't write that stuff. it comes from the legal department. they take the actual engineer suggestion, multiply it by the stupidity level of the morons who will be suing them in the future, and arrive at a recommended procedure.

it's like those signs in the corners that say "35 MPH"

................................yea............... ............right.

You are 100% correct, and the reason for the initial Dyno oil is because it costs less to use as an engine flush.