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Engine break in period


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So my circulation pump on my malibu cracked in half at 38 hour mark on my 2012 BU. The dealer (sporting Edge in Antioch,CA) was awesome and replaced the entire engine.

Indmar strongly suggest a 10 hour break in period. I am curious what those on this forum think. The block and most of the components are built by Chevrolet and then essentially painted again and made marine ready. Why is it that when you buy a new car Chevrolet included there is no break in required yet a boat engine requires this.

I have been "breaking it in but the entire time doing so am thinking this is utter bull.

Thoughts?

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I just bought a Toyota pruis for the wife and they recommend a break in period. They said no constant speed so heavy acceleration or breaking... Made me think of how much more I would enjoy this process on a new bu!

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So my circulation pump on my malibu cracked in half at 38 hour mark on my 2012 BU. The dealer (sporting Edge in Antioch,CA) was awesome and replaced the entire engine.

Indmar strongly suggest a 10 hour break in period. I am curious what those on this forum think. The block and most of the components are built by Chevrolet and then essentially painted again and made marine ready. Why is it that when you buy a new car Chevrolet included there is no break in required yet a boat engine requires this.

I have been "breaking it in but the entire time doing so am thinking this is utter bull.

Thoughts?

I just bought a Toyota pruis for the wife and they recommend a break in period. They said no constant speed so heavy acceleration or breaking... Made me think of how much more I would enjoy this process on a new bu!

Having see how they break engines in (testing and QC) at the Merced plant...I'd say as long as you keep it under WOT throttle for the first 5-10 hours, that you'll be fine. Glad to hear the dealer is taking care of you...

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My truck came with a break in period... It was simple but it was there...

Keep the speed to 55mph or less, do not travel at the same speed for long periods of time, do not make full throttle starts, or tow for the first 500 miles... and to avoid hard stops for the first 200 miles.

You have to give the new engine components to start to wear in. ie... piston rings will wear into the cylinder walls and make a better seal. The brakes and rotors will wear out the protective films they have and ware into each other improving performance.

The same is true for any engine, regardless of application

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Well, I did not do full throttle until the 15 hour mark. Full throttle lasted about 10 seconds. I am a little gun shy. My dealer would do the first service at 20, but ended doing the service at 10 hours. I was at the dealer to install a Bimini, so they knocked it out. My rep. Is pretty awesome! I did do about 7 hours of just pure surfing at the beginning. Then I started to open her up. Sustained Higher RPM's for a longer period of time. I have reached almost 20 and it has been flawless. The trailer sucks the big one, but that's it.

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A car is a tad different in that under virtually all circumstances you're varying speeds and loads etc. A boat doesn't do that necessarily. I always follow the break in and I've never ever had a mechanical issue. Does that mean its because of breaking in per guidelines, I dunno, but when Indmar makes a recommendation, why not follow it?

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A car is a tad different in that under virtually all circumstances you're varying speeds and loads etc. A boat doesn't do that necessarily. I always follow the break in and I've never ever had a mechanical issue. Does that mean its because of breaking in per guidelines, I dunno, but when Indmar makes a recommendation, why not follow it?

I agree... if the manufacturer makes a recommendation, there has to be a reason for it.

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Note that PCM also starts with GM marine long blocks and in fact recommends full throttle bursts during engine break in.

pcmbreakin.jpg

This is another one of those topics, like engine oil and oil filters, where people will give very very heated opinions about best practices but nobody will be able to identify a single case of an engine that failed because of an improper break-in procedure.

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Everything I have owned has a break in period, some shorter than others and some longer. The key, IMO, is no WOT for the first 5 hours and constant change of speeds for the first 15 to 20 hours... this is what we did and now have 201 hours on our 2013 Bu after taking delivery on January 31, 2013. Have fun with her! great choice of boats!

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doggy, I don't know about that on engine failure. While perhaps not the direct cause, bad break in is surely a secondary cause for many engine issues. For example, bad ring seat lead to higher oil consumption which indirectly leads to numerous other conditions.

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doggy, I don't know about that on engine failure. While perhaps not the direct cause, bad break in is surely a secondary cause for many engine issues. For example, bad ring seat lead to higher oil consumption which indirectly leads to numerous other conditions.

If that were true, and given that PCM's advice is (and has been for years) to go into full throttle territory almost from the get-go (not for sustained periods of more than a minute), shouldn't we be seeing a bunch of prematurely failing oil drinking nautiques by now? I mean the very first thing listed in the break in procedure is run that mutha wfo.

I'm not saying you are wrong, but I guess I am suggesting that it matters a lot less than people might think.

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I just did some very deep, very advanced research on break in on wikipedia :rofl:

The main goal of break in is to let the rings seat properly and allow the parts to wear into each other and there are two opposite approaches to doing so, but both do have more in common that it would appear. Vary speeds and loads, buit how you "get there" either by increasing speed through the break in or backing off, the most important parts are in fact, common.

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With the new technology of diacom...with the right software, you can tell exactly how the engine has been broken in. You can tell % time at rpm ranges. SO if there were a warranty issue, it would be hard to refute what the diacom spits out!

Since Indmar buys the engines from GM, has anyone checked on the GM marine site and see what they say about breaking in their engines? GM does have a marine division, so I am pretty sure they would have prarameters / guidelines how to break in their engines. Just a thought

Edited by happypappy
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Wow, I am surprised that PCM suggests wide open throttle. I do not disagree that one should break in an engine. I do however doubt that 10 or 20 Hours are required to seat the piston rings. I have been and will follow Indmars suggestions I will also continue to feel that its excessive. I would love to hear from someone whom can actually apply clear tested logic to the break in process and benefits. I bet that the real number was far less and its been rounded and doubled because of all the idiots.

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Malibu tests all boats at WOT. Therefore, every boat leaving the factory has a voided Indmar warranty. Right??

That is what I was saying. Every boat the Malibu sells, has been tested and run at WOT. WHen I picked up my boat years ago from the Merced plant, I saw how they test (QC) their boats. And they are run like they were just stolen. WOT up and down the lake behind the plant.

Haven't been to the Indmar plant, but would guess they do the same. They have to know that engine will produce said HP AND TQ!! and there is only one way to do that.

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There's no good reason not to follow the manual for the break in period which also says no ballast for the first 10 hours. Yep dealers ignore that on demo boats.

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FWIW - I took a test ride in a Nautique 216 many moons ago. The dealer was doing the water test on a new boat that a customer had ordered. I give the dealer credit, as he asked the customer if it was OK that I went along on the water test and took a quick ski run to check out the wakes at various rope lengths.

Not much to say other than there was no way on earth I'd run my boat, new or not, as hard as they did. I don't recall the exact procedure but it was something like WOT for 15 seconds, down to 3000 rpms for 15 seconds, 20 seconds at WOT, down to 3000 rpms for 20 seconds, same again at 30 second intervals. It sure seemed like abuse to me but they did it by the book :)

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With all the electronics on the motors now, I wonder if PCM or Indmar could hook up a computer and see if the motor was broke in properly? When I brought my boat in for it's 20hr check and told the dealer that my motor got hot and chirped at me, then came back into normal range they checked it out and told me the temp. that it reached.

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Indmar's break in isn't much different other than they don't want you to exceed a certain RPM for first three hours and no ballast until 10hrs

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With all the electronics on the motors now, I wonder if PCM or Indmar could hook up a computer and see if the motor was broke in properly? When I brought my boat in for it's 20hr check and told the dealer that my motor got hot and chirped at me, then came back into normal range they checked it out and told me the temp. that it reached.

That is what diacom is.

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