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 34 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. 34 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.