punkey
Passed Driver's Ed
- Location
- Top Secret Underground Space Station
I was reading a few of the posts around here regarding engine break-in, and most of you seem to say that taking it easy for the first 1000 miles or so is the best way to do it. However, I remember coming across a link from a website a few months back that said that absolutely flogging it was the best way to go. I dug up the website (http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm), and it turns out that there's a lot of controversy floating around about that page. I happen to think that he makes an ass of himself, but what I know about engine mechanics and performance jibes with what he's saying (basically, caning it from the get-go forces the compression rings against the cylinder wall and wears them way smoother and tighter than babying the engine does), so I decided to see what else I could dig up.
Most of the web pages I found were people fighting over that article, but the ones that I did find that addressed engine break-in actually came down on the same side as the article. This and this are both regarding RC engines, but the principles are the same as far as break-in goes, beating on the engine wears the piston rings smooth. The big counter-arguement is always that it kills reliability, especially against the first article, since that was written by a guy who builds and maintains racing engines for motorcycles that get torn down and rebuilt twice a year, and if they crap out, you just lose the race, instead of being without transportation for a month while the dealership fixes your car and you pay through the nose. However, if anyone's going to be psychotic about reliability, it's going to be airplane fans, and these two websites, if you look past the pre-test "make sure it doesn't start gushing oil in mid-air" baby runs with it chocked in place and the airplane jargon, they're recommending the same thing, that it be blasted at the first opportunity, which is even more applicable to us, as many airplane engines are turbocharged to compensate for the lack of air pressure at altitude. A great article that sums it all up and references/rips-off the airplane articles (or the other way around, I'm not sure) is here. (EDIT: Also, there's a lot of statements floating around to the effect that all car and motorcycle manufacturers beat their engines as soon as they've build the car, directly contradicting what the owner's manual says, but I can't find any supporting evidence, so I guess that'll just have to stay conjecture until some hard proof surfaces.)
Well, go ahead, say I'm an idiot who's going to grenade his engine inside of a month. I'm waiting. :wink:
Most of the web pages I found were people fighting over that article, but the ones that I did find that addressed engine break-in actually came down on the same side as the article. This and this are both regarding RC engines, but the principles are the same as far as break-in goes, beating on the engine wears the piston rings smooth. The big counter-arguement is always that it kills reliability, especially against the first article, since that was written by a guy who builds and maintains racing engines for motorcycles that get torn down and rebuilt twice a year, and if they crap out, you just lose the race, instead of being without transportation for a month while the dealership fixes your car and you pay through the nose. However, if anyone's going to be psychotic about reliability, it's going to be airplane fans, and these two websites, if you look past the pre-test "make sure it doesn't start gushing oil in mid-air" baby runs with it chocked in place and the airplane jargon, they're recommending the same thing, that it be blasted at the first opportunity, which is even more applicable to us, as many airplane engines are turbocharged to compensate for the lack of air pressure at altitude. A great article that sums it all up and references/rips-off the airplane articles (or the other way around, I'm not sure) is here. (EDIT: Also, there's a lot of statements floating around to the effect that all car and motorcycle manufacturers beat their engines as soon as they've build the car, directly contradicting what the owner's manual says, but I can't find any supporting evidence, so I guess that'll just have to stay conjecture until some hard proof surfaces.)
Well, go ahead, say I'm an idiot who's going to grenade his engine inside of a month. I'm waiting. :wink:
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