Engine "Break-in" questions

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Tracer42

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I'm picking up a 2014 FJR1300A tomorrow that's brand new (zero miles). Last bike I bought new did not require initial break-in according to Honda but I'm pretty sure the FJR does but I can't find any answers to these questions so any factual info would be nice.

I'm green on this forum stuff so maybe the answers have already been done so please forgive my lack in experience.

QUESTIONS

How many miles is break in period?

Is there a RPM limit?

Should I purchase the yamaha extended warranty/is it worth the extra money?

RPM limits?

Speed limitations?

What's the maximum sustained rpm seconds......in other words using cruise is out of the question but how long is too long in maintaining or holding RPM (under load of course)?

Any other questions I've missed that need to be answered?

Having numerous break-in's under my belt I truly believe that proper break in is critical thus directly affecting engine longevity and you only get one opportunity to do it, more importantly do it right.

The dealership said they would go over that with me tomorrow morning but having this forum will give me more answers than a salesman in my opinion cause in the hours I've spent on this wonderful forum I've learned that you guys are seasoned, to the point and frequently very entertaining!

From the dealership to home will be about 200 interstate miles on I-20 from Atlanta to the house. I will ride it some but I'm considering trailering it too (taking a friend with).......maybe a bit of both.

Thanks ahead for your answer's and suggestions. I'm gonna try and get some sleep but it'll be hard since I'm so excited about picking up this bike. Hopefully I'll wake up to see all my questions answered.

 
From the manual. This is what I am doing with my 2016. Additionally, I feel a NEPRT coming on.

Break%20In_zpsqpxmg4rl.jpg


 
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I choose to follow the book as per Bellerophon's post above. It seems to me a very sensible approach, allowing metal to relax into its final state without excessive stress (see my story at the bottom of this post). Some use the Motoman break-in method.

I've just read a bit from my link to the Motoman stuff. The page is full of BS, for instance it says the piston rings with their limited string tension can't possibly seal against the many hundreds of psi of combustion pressure. The guy doesn't understand simple leverage. How the heck can I stop 500 pounds of motorcycle with a few pounds of pressure on my brake lever? He also talks about using the cylinder honing pattern to wear the rings into shape, so you have to wear the rings in before that honing wears out. In a modern engine, there is no honing, so nothing to shape the rings. Which he also mentions later, so blows down one of his own arguments. I don't even know if that was valid in the first place.

And he writes ".. that Yamaha uses in it's motorcycles ..." so he doesn't know English enough to use "its". But then, nor do 90% of people, so perhaps I shouldn't hold that against him.

I'm not saying the method doesn't work, I'm saying his reasoning is nonsense.

I will quote something I wrote in the '16 thread:

Strikes me that these days it's not the engne that needs "running in" but the transmission. The bores are coated with some hard-wearing ceramic stuff that doesn't need running in, the rings may need shaping a little, but when did you last see oil smoke out of a new engine?

The only metal on metal wear is from things like bearings, gear wheels, oil pump and cam chain slippers.

When was the last report of engine wear caused by bad running in? Is there any correlation between type of running in and engine life?
Metal "relaxing":

During WW2, Rolls-Royce designed and built the Merlin piston engine, it was used to power many aircraft, one of the most successful engines ever designed. Production was licensed to (I think) the Packard company in Detroit USA, where it was used in some of the USA's planes including the Mustang, also exported back into the UK.

There were many difficulties in establishing the build, but one aspect is not often reported.

It was found that the USA-built engines had a tendency to seize, not nice if you're in the middle of a dog-fight over Middle England (or any other time or place, for that matter). A team from Rolls-Royce went over to the 'States to try to find what was different between the two factories. They found that the US factory was following the manual to the letter, they could find no difference between materials or procedures.

So, after spending days observing in the 'States, they went back to the R-R factory and observed there. And found the difference.

The crankcase was cast in the foundry, moved to the boring machine for boring. But, being English, the workers took a tea-break before starting the machining. This gave the crankcase casting time to relax to its proper shape, instead of relaxing after boring. This extra 15 minutes (or, knowing English workers, maybe half-an-hour
mda.gif
) at a low temperature made all the difference. Putting that waiting time into the procedures made the US engines as good as the English. (Maybe even better, but I could never admit that.)

Is this relevant? Dunno, but we're in NEPRT anyway
smile.png
.

 
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I don't know if it is relevant but it was worth reading. Thanks for the history lesson.

I was so excited to get my 2015 that I read the manual cover to cover and followed the break in procedure to the letter. It was worth it to me for my own peace of mind. Whether I did any good or not I will never know but I felt like I was Doing the Right Thing. For the most part I think Yamaha's engineers know more about the bike than I do.

My one departure from the break in procedure was sliding the bike gently down the pavement 12 hours after I got it. I do NOT recommend doing that.

 
I don't know if it is relevant but it was worth reading. Thanks for the history lesson.
I was so excited to get my 2015 that I read the manual cover to cover and followed the break in procedure to the letter. It was worth it to me for my own peace of mind. Whether I did any good or not I will never know but I felt like I was Doing the Right Thing. For the most part I think Yamaha's engineers know more about the bike than I do.

My one departure from the break in procedure was sliding the bike gently down the pavement 12 hours after I got it. I do NOT recommend doing that.
Your last sentence brought a tear to my eye.

 
From the manual. This is what I am doing with my 2016. Additionally, I feel a NEPRT coming on.
[img=[URL="https://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll39/MarcusCr/2016%20Yamaha%20FJR1300A/Break%20In_zpsqpxmg4rl.jpg%5D"]https://i284.photobucket.com/albums/ll39/MarcusCr/2016%20Yamaha%20FJR1300A/Break%20In_zpsqpxmg4rl.jpg][/URL]
Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. Thank you

 
I don't know if it is relevant but it was worth reading. Thanks for the history lesson.
I was so excited to get my 2015 that I read the manual cover to cover and followed the break in procedure to the letter. It was worth it to me for my own peace of mind. Whether I did any good or not I will never know but I felt like I was Doing the Right Thing. For the most part I think Yamaha's engineers know more about the bike than I do.

My one departure from the break in procedure was sliding the bike gently down the pavement 12 hours after I got it. I do NOT recommend doing that.
Your last sentence brought a tear to my eye.
Make that second to last or paragraph. lol

 
In short the manual is probably all I need to read but it's 200 miles away so reading while riding are probably not real safe. Lol

 
I don't know if it is relevant but it was worth reading. Thanks for the history lesson.

I was so excited to get my 2015 that I read the manual cover to cover and followed the break in procedure to the letter. It was worth it to me for my own peace of mind. Whether I did any good or not I will never know but I felt like I was Doing the Right Thing. For the most part I think Yamaha's engineers know more about the bike than I do.

My one departure from the break in procedure was sliding the bike gently down the pavement 12 hours after I got it. I do NOT recommend doing that.
Your last sentence brought a tear to my eye.
For what it's worth, I had more than one tear in my eyes. I cried like a girl over my beautiful new bike. Just over 20 miles. Ordered the bike, waited impatiently for the bike, picked up the bike, rode it straight to work. Crashed it on the way home the next morning. First 2015 FJR in my area, first crashed 2015 on this forum.

Good luck with your new bike. It is yours, break it in how you want to. Whatever you do will be The Right Thing.

 
"Break in" is a controversial topic.

There are some owners who think they are smarter than the engineers who designed the engine, and will tell you that no break-in is needed.

Even more flamboyantly, some claim the best way to "break-in" an engine is to flog the crap out of it while brand new, vis-a-vis the "motoman break in" technique. They will claim that this is the best way to seat the rings in the freshly honed cylinder bores, etc. If you google "motoman break in" you can read all about it yourself. And since it's published on the internet, it must be true!

Being a sizeable financial investment in a machine that I intend to keep for the majority of its life, I chose to follow the conservative break-in guidance provided in the owners manual on my 2014. Others will choose to do whatever they feel makes the most sense with their own investments.

 
Disclaimer - apples and oranges forthcoming, with a little bit of fairy dust thrown in for good measure.

In 2006, I bought my first brand new boat equipped with a Yamaha 70 hp 2-stroke outboard (that would be the orange). I went fishing the next day. While the motor performed nicely, it didn't run like I wanted. So the next day, I took it back to the dealer and asked him to put a 90 hp on it. The dealer was reluctant, but he did it to please me. When the dealer came to the showroom and told me it was finished, I asked him for the bill. He replied that he wouldn't take my money until he knew I was satisfied. He wanted me and the mechanic to run to the river and see how she runs. I told the dealer I was concerned about break in. His reply - and I quote.... "Run that bitch wide f-ing open as soon as you leave the dock. With a Yamaha - there is no need for any break-in."

Now - how does he know this? I have no clue. Perhaps it was his 35 years experience selling these motors. <<<<<< I suppose that's the fairy dust.

Having written this - I still agree with Fred. It's a new machine anyway. In spite of your experience, you will want to take it easy at first to teach yourself more about the new bike anyhow. Consider it killing 2 birds with one stone.

As for the YES warranty - it's insurance and you know that. No matter what anyone says, it will really boil down to how you feel about insurance. I happen to have the YES warranty on my current bike, but as a general rule, I don't buy the extended warranties on vehicles. If you were to do a scientific poll on this forum, you would likely find out that the majority (vast majority) of the YES warranty owners never got their money out of it. This would parallel with extended warranties in general for vehicles. The '14 FJR is a proven bike manufactured by a company with a undeniable world wide reputation for reliability with a bullet proof motor that is practically unchanged for 13 years. The odds are you will be fine without the warranty.

Seriously - this is a great day. Go out and enjoy your new toy. Look forward to THOUSANDS (if not HUNDREDS of thousands) of wonderful miles. Congrats.

(Oh - and by the by.... the red ones are absolutely the fastest......)

 
Virtually every motor vehicle manufacturer asks for special break-in procedure to be followed. Well, they are all wrong, right? It must be a vehicle manufacturer's inside joke being played on the public, they probably get a big laugh out of it
wink.png


What happens in a FJR engine that has ceramic based (carbon/silica mix) cylinder liner coating and no cross hatch honing in the cylinders? It is interesting to note that cam manufacturers all specify a very strict break-in procedure before full power use. I suspect that the cam in a new FJR is probably not run-in during assembly. I like to give the plane bearings for the cams, rods and crank a chance to thermal cycle. If a race team wants to run an engine all season without having to open it up for repairs they will run-in the engine similar to a break-in period. The old adage, "break it in fast to be fast" works for race cars, it's just that you have to tear the engine down and replace parts after every race.

I do believe in thermal cycling engine parts. I believe in getting thermal cycles into new tires and brakes. I do believe in stress relieving metal. I believe that shops which work metal pay attention to cooling tools, cooling pieces being worked on, heat treating, annealing and quenching. I've put performance cams in engines and I run them in per the manufacturer's specifications.

I do generally follow the manufacturers suggested break-in procedures, especially with engines that make nearly 2 hp/cubic inch (80 ci). I don't believe that running an engine at 5001 rpm will harm it, I don't believe that a few brisk openings of the throttle with some reasonable time between brisk openings will harm the engine. I consider lugging a new engine to be possibly worse than using a little extra power. I would question riding a new motorcycle 1,000 miles with only 3 stops long enough to gas up the tank, there is no time for thermal cycling.

Nobody has ever reported an early engine death due to break-in technique.

Nobody has ever reported an early engine death due to oil used.

I would have buyers resistance to purchasing an older motorcycle which had motoman break-in done.

 
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If you had a warranty repair issue with your engine, and if you fully disclosed to your dealer that you used the motoman break-in method, methinks you would not be looked upon favourably to get warranty service.

 
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