Is Anyone Here A Fan Of 'Hard Engine Break-In' Procedure?

[Megadan]

Originally Posted by Ariel Red Hunter

I don't recommend the hard break in for you unless you change the jetting in your carb....ARH

I am glad somebody else is saying this, because I feel like I killed that horse already and kept on swinging.

[JerryHawk250]

Attachment 11192 Just messing with ya Dan You have been a great addition to this forum.

Originally Posted by megadan

i am glad somebody else is saying this, because i feel like i killed that horse already and kept on swinging.

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by Megadan

I am glad somebody else is saying this, because I feel like I killed that horse already and kept on swinging.

I hear ya'. I just tried to put 67 years of motorcycle experience into one sentance!!!

[Emerikol]

Originally Posted by JerryHawk250

Attachment 11192 Just messing with ya Dan You have been a great addition to this forum.

Now that's funny!! I'm going to print a whole bunch of those up and keep them on standby for the hacks at the office...

[pcspecialist]

I won't break an engine in any other way, I don't even heat cycle them. Get it warm and then hard acceleration/deceleration over and over and over and over again. Never had any problems with gaskets so I think heat cycling just wastes valuable hone scratches, once the sharp edge of the scratches are gone, you aren't going to do any further seating your rings.

Worst that's going to happen when you skip heat cycling is you would have to replace a gasket.

[pcspecialist]

bookieboy is correct, if you experience problems, it is because the engine was not built correctly. There should never be metal to metal bearing contact so there is nothing to "completely mate". A hard break-in would expose the problem right away while a gentle break-in may allow you to get hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles out of the engine, but, it will still suffer an early death.

Originally Posted by bogieboy

not trying to start a fight here, but if an engine is built correctly, and the oil pressure and tolerances are correct, that simply wont happen.... plasti-gage is a must when building motors....

Originally Posted by 2LZ

Like I said, break-in threads come to the same consensus as oil threads.

"In my experience", which is all I can speak from, I've seen more than a few four stroke motors lock cams in cam bearings and snap chains because the new owner whipped the snot out of a new motor and the "hot spots" seized up before they could completely mate surfaces.

To each their own............

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by pcspecialist

bookieboy is correct, if you experience problems, it is because the engine was not built correctly. There should never be metal to metal bearing contact so there is nothing to "completely mate". A hard break-in would expose the problem right away while a gentle break-in may allow you to get hundreds, maybe even thousands of miles out of the engine, but, it will still suffer an early death.

I suppose that is true, nowadays, thanks to good air filters, and sophisticated lube oils. But this was not always true. People still drove Model A Fords, and even Model T Fords were still in use, especially on ranches where I lived as a kid. New Buicks and Chevrolets still had poured bearings. So had steam locomotives. In our neighborhood there was an old lady who drove a Willys Knight. Time for an overhaul, and it went to a garage in Canoga Park where lurked two bachelor brothers who worked on these types of cars. They were in their seventies, and chewed "Red Man" tobacco. To a young boy, these two were what American men were supposed to be. It never occured to them that they couldn't overhaul an engine, so they just went ahead and did it, like they had since 1905. When they started, they told me, it had been a livery and blacksmith shop that repaired engines as a sideline until the horse end of it went out in the late twenties, then they concentrated on cars. It cost $80.00 dollars to re-ring and pour new bearings, and "burn it in" on a Pierce-Arrow engine driven dynomometer. Engine was run on that machine with the head off at low speed for an hour or two, then speeded up. They ran it all day that way. Then changed the oil the next morning, put the head back on, and started it back up. Only now it was motoring the Pierce-Arrow engine. "Gotta run it under a load so as to seat the rings, yuh know". After a couple of hours of this, no smoke, and the engine purred like a kitten. They had the "touch"...ARH

[2LZ]

Originally Posted by Ariel Red Hunter

I hear ya'. I just tried to put 67 years of motorcycle experience into one sentance!!!

Well hell, you got me beat! I've only got 50 years of motorcycles/cars and engines under my belt!

[Ariel Red Hunter]

Originally Posted by 2LZ

Well hell, you got me beat! I've only got 50 years of motorcycles/cars and engines under my belt!

Yeah, well I started playing with motor cycles at age 13, and I'm 80 now. Maybe I did the math wrong. 1950 to 2017. Geez, maybe I am a geezer, huh?... ARH