breaking in

Change the oil at 600 miles and then 1000 miles and keep the revs under 7,000 for the first hundred miles (forget the exact amount the manual says).
 
I broke in my FZ6 on the one hour ride from the dealership to my house. After that, I took it easy on the motor for the 600 miles, and changed the oil.

I made sure, in the first 20 minutes of riding to use the motor with wide open throttle at least 2 or 3 times, as the article suggests for Dyno break in. The goal is to get the rings to wear against the cross hatch pattern in the cylinder walls. My motor is strong, and does not use any oil at all, with 23,000 miles on the odometer. (I do believe that this would have been a useless excercise after the motor had been broken in with mild throttel openings for some weeks.)

I have ridden two otherwise identical quads, one broken in by hard throttle application, and the other with mild use until the 'corect' number of operating hours were accumulated. The 'hard throttle' motor is noticably stronger, all the way accross the RPM range.

The edge surface of the rings are not perfectly smooth.... the cylinder wall is 'rough' on purpose to better cause the rings to 'mate' with the cylinder wall. The rings are C shaped... so they do not put pressure on the cylinder wall evenly. The more contact you force between the ring and cylinder wall early, the better the seal betwen the two. Very difficult to get the entire edge to wear.... the point opposite the opening of the C is least likely to make contact.... if it doesn't, there will always be some leakage between that portion of the ring and the cylinder wall.

Heavy engine load, for short periods of time, will make the rings engage the cylinder wall. This should happen before the cylinder walls are smoothed out by the rings.
 
There is a lot of debate already on this subject on this forum (search should bring up something). Consensus SEEMS to be that one should not avoid high RPM's (but not long-sustained) and not excessively "baby" the motor to properly break in. Anotherwards, not keep RPM's under 7K RPM...just don't keep it above for long periods of time. Even here, there's probably argument that one should run the motor even harder.
 
heard from an person on this forum who heard from an ex racer (sounds fishy but i believe its correct) Could be off a tad. Please correct me but this is the idea.

You want to haul the bike home, dont ride it.
Bring it to a straight empty road.
Start the bike up and run it to 6 grand or so. let engine break to a stop
repeat 5 times
Bring bike to 8k. engine break to a stop.
repeat 5 times
10k 5 times ->
12k 5 times -> all engine break to a stop
14k 5 times ->

This will break your engine in fast and the right way.
 
I have 280 km's on my FZ6 , this puppy has seen 12g buzzs lots, the manaul calls for 1600 km's for a break in period, with no mention of a max. rpm...just not to hold the buzz on for prolonged periods at 8g and up. This winter new cans and fuel remaping are on the agenda...I'am 63 years old and have broken in more scooters then I care to remember..havn't had a serious powerplant issue yet, knock on wood...most reciprocating parts will match seat without any problems...your rings on your pistons however need to wear square to the bore , consider the crosshatch on the clylinders as a file...this file like surface will smooth out in time ( your break in period )after that ring wear will be minamal ,and hopefully worn to produce an effective seal....Daryl
 
Man it's really not that tough. Don't hold the engine at the same rpm for long periods of time. Play with the gears, take it easy just to learn the bike. Get to know the brakes . Change oil at 600 miles and 1000 mi. You are good to go.
Have fun with your new baby.
These motors are great and made to be used all the way up to redline.
Mine has 11k miles and doesn't touch a drop of oil
 
sounds okay to me , I might want to aviod the 14g buzz for a while, before any break in is attempted you want your thermals up,so all parts involved have expanded to running dimensions. your method shown is how we broke in many engines sitting on a dyno. Daryl
 
this is a good topic...some useful information here, completely agree with
the writers who have discussed the specifics of ring seating, the compression
ring acts like this: higher cylinder pressure=higher outward force on the
cylinder wall, hard acceleration produces steeply increased cylinder pressure,
this is not dependent on RPM, the engine could be nursed to redline without
any break-in achievement, the idea is to crank it, briefly...often...or course
always after a proper warm up period, the pistons when cold are not round,
when warm, they become round and fit the cylinder, you don't want to be
seating rings with oval pistons

as for oil, only mineral based oil for the break in, the extra lubricity of
synthetic is a detriment to break in, and certainly no Slick50 or other
additives for the same reason
 
Looks like everybody (including me earlier) forgot the most important break-in FZ6 motor advice: 1) Sink a tall, cold one. 2) Then, proceed as in above posts. Optional: Sink another one after the ride.
 
I've had alot of people with alot more knowledge of bike mechanics show suprise in regards to the recommended Yamaha break in advise, mainly because bikes are so much more advanced now than they where back in the days when those break in techniques where important.
That being said the benefit of following this advise is certainly not killing yourself since staying in the low revs for the first 1000km/s (600 miles) really lets you get used to the bike and its power (well kinda you really only see the power past that point)

I followed the recommended break in, but mainly the part about not letting the revs sit at one point for too long, there was some technical reason for this that I understood, but won't try and repeat and embarras myself for forgetting the names/details.

I definately agree with the second half of Tailgates advice about a tall one after the ride, I avoid drinking before hand though, need my wits about me with all the idiots on the road, especially as a young one with relatively low experience :p
 
wow thks all for the advice..

what temperature in celsius shld i warm the bike up to, before starting the break in?

so i'll put in some high rpms (ie: 8-9000?) for each gear change.. then engine brake down to a stop..
do this maybe a couple of times for the first 20miles..

get a change of mineral oil to flush out all the iron bits..

then after that it will be just taking it easy on the engine until the 1600kms are up..
before going with synthetic oil..

anything fundamentally wrong with this?
 
I did my break in for 250miles then swapped to mobil one synth. Treat it like you stole it. Basicly I look at it like this. If your going to be mine, you gots to be tough.
 
prettymussel said:
wow thks all for the advice..

what temperature in celsius shld i warm the bike up to, before starting the break in?

so i'll put in some high rpms (ie: 8-9000?) for each gear change.. then engine brake down to a stop..
do this maybe a couple of times for the first 20miles..

get a change of mineral oil to flush out all the iron bits..

then after that it will be just taking it easy on the engine until the 1600kms are up..
before going with synthetic oil..

anything fundamentally wrong with this?
Click to expand...

It's more about making the engine work hard, rather than high RPM. Engine load is what you are after. Snap the throttle wide open with ~4000 RPM on it, and accelerate to 8-9000, then snap it shut, and coast back down to 4K on engine braking. I would do this in 3rd, or 4th gear rather than 1st.

You want the motor to have to work hard, for a short period of time...... you also want to avoid super high RPM for extended periods, until the bearings have gotten smoothed out.

The rotating parts of the motor (crankshaft, cams, transmission shafts) don't run in the dead center of the gaps between bearings.... they ride on a wedge of engine oil, that rides on those bearings. Sort of like dough in front of a rolling pin. The oil film is thinner where the pressure is highest. That can be very thin, indeed.

So thin, that the high spots on the bearings, and rotating parts can stick through. If the contact is VERY short duration, the high spot gets knocked off, and flushed away with the engine oil. Longer metallic contact will weld some of the bearing material onto the roatating part.... which blocks oil flow, which causes more heat.... which welds on more metal.... like a snowball going down hill.

If you only go into the high pressure/highly off center region for a few (2-3) seconds, you will 'get away with it'..... that is plenty of time to make the rings work against the cylinder wall, and make the best seal possible.

30 seconds, you could do some more serious metal transfer. So you do the 'hard' runs; then go back to something very much like what the owner's manual says..... don't make it work too hard, and don't run it at the same RPM for any great length of time.

Most go through engine break in on traditional dino oil.... that's almost certainly what Yamaha put in there when they put it together. There are motorcycle manufacturers who run synthetic (mineral) oil from the very start. I run dino, because it's less expensive. If you are going to change the oil at 600 miles, and again at some point less than 3,000 miles..... Dino will cost you less, and do the job adequately.
 
Reading the guys site with his revolutionary way of breaking in kind of brought one thing to my mind, he was very happy to show lots of examples of his system working, and a single example of the normal run in not working (always something to watch for).
Its really kind of sketchy since for any -real- conclusion to be made he would need alot more than 300 bikes in his testing, and would need to be comparing them to matched bikes being done with the manuals run in. Also people always bring bikes with problems in, your obviously NOT going to see the thousands of bikes which used the manual run in properly and have had no problems, not to mention the innumerable variables.
You are also assuming no human error, which is probably the biggest issue your going to face in this anyway.

To me the advantages and disadvantages are you are possibly going to see better performance from your bike, not that it will be noticeable most likely, by riding erratically on the road, or you can use the Yamaha system which alot of people use with no issues, riding a bit more sedately and safely, which has more room for error, ie your not going to accidently hold it in high revs too long and do permanent damage

One thing you will always notice with human nature is that people will often 'feel' like something has made a major difference, even in experiments where control groups aren't actually being given the different product/additive etc.

Overall RJ2112 summed it up really well.

In the end its your bike, and I'm sure no matter what you do you'll be happy as they are an awesome machine after all! If your worried talk to your local dealer/mechanic, they will normally steer you in the right direction, particularly if you let them know you want to do the work yourself (so they will be less motivated by greed/$$$)
 
Red Wazp said:
Man it's really not that tough. Don't hold the engine at the same rpm for long periods of time. Play with the gears, take it easy just to learn the bike. Get to know the brakes . Change oil at 600 miles and 1000 mi. You are good to go.
Have fun with your new baby.
These motors are great and made to be used all the way up to redline.
Mine has 11k miles and doesn't touch a drop of oil
Click to expand...
This is the best and simplest advice to follow I've read here. Only thing I would add to it is to avoid revs higher than 11-12k but hit 11k or so for a second or two a few times when you feel safe to do so.
 
prettymussel said:
wow thks everyone for the valuable input..

now i have a clearer idea of what i should do!

cant wait to collect the bike!! :)
Click to expand...

PM, I don't know if we made it clear.... you should let the engine get to operating temperature before the hard runs. On my '05, that's when the last two LCD blocks on the tachometer stop blinking at me and go solid. I believe that to be when the thermostat opens, and allows coolant to flow to the radiator. Near enough to full operating temp.

After '07, I am sure it's displayed differently. I'd think the water temp should be at 180° F/ 82° C.... someone with the later display should confirm that.
 
RJ2112 said:
PM, I don't know if we made it clear.... you should let the engine get to operating temperature before the hard runs. On my '05, that's when the last two LCD blocks on the tachometer stop blinking at me and go solid. I believe that to be when the thermostat opens, and allows coolant to flow to the radiator. Near enough to full operating temp.

After '07, I am sure it's displayed differently. I'd think the water temp should be at 180° F/ 82° C.... someone with the later display should confirm that.
Click to expand...

at first i was gonna let the engine idle until the temp stabilizes at a certain figure before going out n do the run..
but i guess it's always better to get a confirmation before doing anything!

anyone can confirm wat temp i shld see on the multi function display, which will mean the engine is warmed up enough?

Kriswithak said:
To me the advantages and disadvantages are you are possibly going to see better performance from your bike, not that it will be noticeable most likely, by riding erratically on the road, or you can use the Yamaha system which alot of people use with no issues, riding a bit more sedately and safely, which has more room for error, ie your not going to accidently hold it in high revs too long and do permanent damage

One thing you will always notice with human nature is that people will often 'feel' like something has made a major difference, even in experiments where control groups aren't actually being given the different product/additive etc.
Click to expand...

yup i get what u mean.. i just wanna try n do the best thing i can for my bike.. whether or not it has made a major difference, in the end i might not even know!

:Flash:
 
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