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How to break in a new engine
Is it still necessary to break in a new engine, or is there no need?
If it is a good idea to break an engine in, why?
And if you would like to break in your new engine, how should you do that?
What will lengthen the lifetime of your engine and what will decrease it?
How do you prevent your engine from consuming oil?
This page tries to answer these questions.
Well, of course your motorcycle will not break down without breaking in the engine, but you will really see the difference in the long run: it will consume less oil when it gets older, the engine will have slightly more horsepower, and your engine will certainly last longer.
So a decent break in will result in an engine that runs better and longer.
Factories will take samples from the engines and have them run to test them, but most engines reach the shop without ever having run, without oil or fuel. They make their first cycles when the dealer has prepared them for riding.
The moving metal parts in the engine have been manufactured to fit exactly, of course, but nevertheless, they never fit completely. You can only get them fitting completely by making the engine cycle: by riding.
That is what breaking in does: polish the moving parts in the engine, and getting them to fit snugly, which will result in a beautifully running engine.
There is a site, somewhere on the world wide web, with the advise to break in your engine by revving it into the red zone, and to let it cool down afterwards.
What is described, is how engines for race motorcycles are prepared. Those engines only last a few races. So the method is fine for racers, but would be a shame for your new engine.
The method for race engines results in maximum tolerance for all parts. There will be less friction inside the engine, but the lifespan of the engine is decreased considerately.
In short, you should provide much variation to the moving parts, while pushing them as few as possible.
Much variation means that you try to ride with a varying rpm all the time. So you should avoid long distances on interstates or freeways, at constant speed.
The gearbox needs breaking in as well, so try to vary the gears while riding too.
You should try to make life as easy as possible for your new engine: it should never "work" hard.
That means that you should avoid riding steep hills (which is easy when you live in the Netherlands, by the way).
It also means that you should not accelerate hard. Try to accelerate as if you're driving in a really underpowered car. It may be hard, but when you're waiting at a red light, you should not be faster than the cars around you when it turns green!
The day that you're gone before they noticed will not be far away, but for now, please refrain.
To be easy for your new engine, you should keep the rpm's a bit higher than you would ride normally. Try to imagine that you ride a bicycle, uphill: slowly in a very low gear will be the easiest.
Try to avoid riding in cold waether. The oil will be thicker, so the engine will have to work harder.
The booklet that came with your new motorcycle probably says something about the maximum rpm's for the first 1000 kilometers (often there will be a number for the first 100, the second 400 and the third 500 km's).
In most cases, you should keep them below 4000, for the first 100 kilometers.
Of course, after having passed such a "magical" number of kilometers, the idea is not to change the rpm's suddenly to the next maximum. Easy does it!
Just let the rpm's climb, veeeery slowly, from time to time, every time to a slightly higher top, and then back again.
Ideally, you try a higher number of rpm's for the first time whe riding downwards on a slope.
Most manuals don't tell you that, apart from avoiding too high rpm's, you should also avoid too few.
Riding with too few rpm's means that the engine would work too hard, in the same way as it is hard work when you ride a bicyle in a very high gear.
A guiding rule is: try to avoid running the engine below 3000 rpm's. After the break-in period, you can keep the same rule (though you can dive under it from time to time).
Most important is, to accelerate as slowly as possible. After break-in, there will be sweet revenge....
Changing gears very often is good, to break-in the gearbox.
It will be very easy to change gears often, as the range of rpm's that is available is very narrow, in the beginning: between 3 and 4000 rpm. So you will change gears often almost automatically.
No, for the time being, don't take your boy- or girlfriend along. Those times will come, later on...
Nowadays, many cylinders have got a thin layer of nicasil. Nicasil is a hard material, so it hardly gets polished. Tolerances can be kept lower.
But the downside is that, as you can imagine, breaking in will take more time.
The approach is to keep to the break-in scheme for all motorcycles, but to be gentle afterwards: slowly increase the pressure.
It is not unusual for a motorcycle with nicasil cylinders to consume a bit of oil during the first 40.000 kilometers! Afterwards, the cylinders will last forever.
After break-in, it's important to get the engine through all available rpm's. You can even begin to do that at the end of the break-in period.
So, from time to time, let the needle crawl until the red area.
But take your time to get there: let the needle crawl as slowly as possible, just as you had to accelerate at the green light, during the first kilometers.
When you would forget to do that, the cyclinder would stay uneven: the cylinder would have been polished smoothly, apart from a small area in the upper part: that area will only get polished when the piston gets a very high speed, at high rpm's.
So you really have to ride at thos high rpm's from time to time, to get the cylinder smooth all the way.
Breaking in is, as we have seen, needed to reach the point where every metal part fits snugly onto the other parts. So, before the break-in period is over, it is possible that there is a bit of oil consumption.
So check the oil level from time to time!
Because the idea of the break-in period is to smooth metal parts by polishing them, you'd better not use an oil with optimal lubrification properties: nothing would be polished, with such an oil.
So don't put in a full-synthetic oil. A mineral or half-synthetic oil works best.
You will probably understand that it is very important to change the oil after the break-in period. It will contain small particles of metal, and you don't want those between the piston rings and the cylinders!
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I have an Yamaha R15 and have rode it in quite a strange way.
The manual says to do up to 5000 rpm till 500 kms and up to 7500 rpm for 500-1000 kms. I combined this with the Motoman technique to keep the rpm below 5000 and yet give more load on the engine by going at low speeds at high gears.
I changed oil once at 350 kms (grade 20W 40) and now at 550kms. Now, I am riding till 7500 rpm and i am accelerating hard.
The engine goes to 7,500 only at full throttle while the range is upto 10,500 rpm. I guess something is wrong is with the engine. What do you think is the status of my engine now?
If my engine is damaged, can i rectify it by controlled riding henceforth?
From:Karthik
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Awesome Information
From:Mann
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So how long do JE pistons and rings take to break in??
From:Anthony
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************************ Answer ***********************
That's hard to say, because it depends on whether the cylinders are coated with Nicasil or not.
The first 500 to 1000 km should always be done carefully, especially in air-cooled engines.
From:Ernst and Sylvia
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Hi, This is good to hear and I am glad that someone is putting that other article that is on the net in their place.
I have had many bikes offroad and on. Over the years I have noticed that a smooth break in is mutch better that this wild reving and stopping that some dudes do.
I support the easy on the engine way as this makes mutch more sence even if you look at vibrations.
I just got myself two brand new quads and would like to knoe if you have any remarks on this as I will not have rev counter to keep an eye on the rpm's.
Thanks for setting things streight.
From:Jasper
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Hi. I think you have some very good information, but for this text, I'm not sure I agree: Uneven - When you would forget to do that, the cyclinder would stay uneven: the cylinder would have been polished smoothly, apart from a small area in the upper part: that area will only get polished when the piston gets a very high speed, at high rpm's.
Are you saying that unless the engine is run at high rpm, there isn't enough pressure on the rings to seal them at the top-dead-center point?
From:Byron Morrison
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************************ Answer ***********************
No, what we are saying is, that if you run the same RPM threshold every day, you will build up a wall
for the rings, making the motor reluctant to revs.
While you get a nice taper
if you variate you RPM's a awfull lot while breaking the engine in, and that means also revving it buiding slowly up to the redline in the course of it.
Starting with a threshold of half redline the first 200 km, and building it up to redline in the following 700-1300 (depending on bike of course).
That will give a really smooth and consistend operating engine, with nice response and longivety.
But beware, while breaking in, the revs themselves don't hurt, it's the *work* it has to perform that wears out an engine at break in, so take care to let it run freely, variate the revs, and don't push it to hard at first, *and* don't let it slump in the cellar, to little revs kill too, so don't let it slip under 3000 rpm while breaking in!
From:Ernst and Sylvia
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Thank you, that was very informative. I am getting a new bike and I want to look after this one a bit better than the last.
I have a question.
Is it very important to warm up the engine before riding it, during the break-in period?
I stopped warming the bike up after a while, as it seemed to run OK without it (except in wet weaher).
cheers,
From:Paul
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For clarity: warming up the engine is done while riding,after initial startup.It is never a good idea to let the engine run extensively before riding.
That siad, yep, warming the engine will ever be important, when the engine is cold, the oil istoo, and will get later on the places that need lubrication, thelonger it has been standing in the garage, the more important it willbe to be cautious, because a lot of engineparts are lubricated bysplatter lubrication of other moving parts.
So be verry mild to your engine the first 5 miles or so (longer if theengine is bigger) and don't think you can warm the engine by leavingit ticking over on the drive way, then it only warms the cylinder, butthe oil is only pumped verry meagerly by lack of revolutions...
So start put on your helmet and ride away with only a quarter throttle max.
P.S. most of the mechanical wear in a engine finds place right afterstart up, it is almost to say, the miles an engine runs hardly matter,it's the times it is started, and more important even, the lenght ofthe stationairy interludes in which the oil can drip away/oxidise fromto be lubricated surfaces...
From:Sylvia and Ernst
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