A good kind, not a bad kind. I must be starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have to take this trip in about two weeks!
Here are the official engine break-in instructions:
Break in, first hour
- Keep your engine in neutral.
- Start your engine.
- Run your engine for 5 minutes.
- Keep an eye on your Oil and Temperature gauges.
- Time your engine with a Timing Lamp to factory specifications.
- Continue running your engine for 45 minutes at 1500 rpm.
- Make sure your Oil and Temperature readings are OK.
- Note: this preparation can be done with your boat outside of the water. Make sure the water supply is hooked up correctly!
Next 9 hours
- Safely run the engine with the boat in the water.
- Shift into gear.
- Advance the throttle above 1500 rpm.
- Vary the throttle every 15 minutes.
- Do NOT exceed 3⁄4 throttle during the first 10 hours.
- Check your exhaust manifolds and risers for any water leakage.
- Check for oil leaks around your engine.
So, what this means is a long day trip, motoring out probably to La Cruz or Yelapa and back. 3⁄4 throttle is 2700 RPM, so varying between 2700 and “above 1500” would give me 12 possible settings, which is exactly 3 hours to go through all of them. So I think the sequence would be something like this:
Second hour:
1600, 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, 2100, 2200, 2300, 2400, 2500, 2600, 2700
Fifth hour:
2600, 2500, 2400, 2300, 2200, 2100, 2000, 1900, 1800, 1700, 1600, 2000
Eighth hour: 2300, 2700, 2400, 2200, 2000, 1600, 2100, 2600, 2000, 1700, 1800, 1500
At that point, you’re supposed to change the oil, then you do the full throttle test. The rules are:
- Do NOT operate at full throttle until engine reaches normal operating temperatures.
- Take your engine to full throttle for 30 seconds.
- Take note of your full throttle rpm.
- We highly recommend operating your engine at 300 rpm under your full throttle rpm or less
- Running your motor at 300 rpm under full throttle rpm or less will help avoid damages due to improper fuel/air mixture.
- Avoid full throttle acceleration from IDLE speed.
- Remember to change your Oil and Filter after the first 10 hours of operation and every 30 hours thereafter.
So, post oil change, seems like we do a 15 minute warm up at around 1500 RPM (just outside the jetty I guess) and then crank it slowly to full throttle for 30 seconds. Then, that’s the end of the break-in.
Cruise speed should be 2200 (fuel saving), 2400 (normal) and we won’t know the 300 RPM under full throttle RPM until we get there, but I suspect it will be around 3200 RPM for urgent speed. Fuel consumption at this high setting is about 3 times what it takes at 2200, so it really should only be used in an emergency.