14 replies to this topic

[johnnysti]

Right

Fitted my new 1380 and am now trying to bed it in.

I was wondering if there is any better ways of bedding it in? I spoke to Steve at MED and he said run it on running in oil for 250 miles, drain and change filter, fill up with running in oil again for another 250 miles. Then change the oil again to the proper one with a new filter and get it set up on a RR.

Someone told me its better to do big runs to get the miles on quicker i.e Arun up and down the M4. The plan is to use it as my daily commute which is about 70 miles a day on A and B roads sitting at about 50mph.

Is it safe to go over 50mph and 3000RPM and better to vary the speeds? Why do you need to run an engine in anyway? It it the gears? The head and its components?

The main worry i have is that im changing gear all the time the cam is coming on and i worried that it may dammage or not bed in the engine properly.

So as you can see, im really paranoid and know nothing about engines so any advice will be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks everyone


Johnny

[Sam]

its very bad to have it sitting at a constant speed when running in a new motor, so sitting on the M4 is not recommended

find the cheapest oil you can to run it in, and then change at 50 miles, and again after a couple of hundred. keep using cheapo stuff until it has run in.

whatever you do, dont drive like a granny all the time otherwise you will glase the bores.

[mini93]

person i knew would put the engine in durin the day and jus as it got past rush hour would do the same route in circles, and when they ran out of fuel back to the station they person at the fuel station would think its a bit wierd how often they came back, it was a route which included differing speeds giving the engine different range

[Sprocket]

My personal opinion on running in is, vary engine speeds and loads for the first 250 miles, using running in oil if you can find it or the cheepo cheepo tesco stuff. That should realy be enough. I reved my 1400 to +6000 rpm at avon with only 220 miles on the clock and there is nothing wrong with it. I did however follow the instructions of the ring manufacturer to the letter, of which some 'experienced' engine builders totaly disagreed with.

I dont think the distance after the first 250 realy matters, but when you sell something with a warranty, you have to be sure the people buying the product are going to ensure that it is run in.

[johnnysti]

Thanks for the reply everyone.

Bit worried about "whatever you do, dont drive like a granny all the time otherwise you will glase the bores".

Im brought two 5l tubs of Millers running in oil and a 5l tub of Millers CTV 20-50 oil. I also had it test run by MED to check all was well.


So, its best to run the car in at varying speeds. My route to work is a fastish A road (40-70mph cruise).
So will it be ok to run at the top end of that speed or is that a little to high?



Johnny

Edited by johnnysti, 13 February 2007 - 08:27 PM.

[Road Runner]

I kept to about 3000 revs for the fiset couple of hunderd miles then works it up giveing short squrts up to 4 - 5000 revs when you get to 500 miles open it up a bit more.

[Guess-Works.com]

There are two schools of thought nowadays, and really depends who you talk to...

You have the traditional, run it in slow, dont over load the engine etc etc for about 500/1k miles...

Or

the run the engine upto 4k rpm, drive for an hour, job done...

Like MS, my engine went into the car on the friday night before the showdown in 2005, 40 miles in it was doing 7krpm down the 1/4 mile.... and it's still running ok 18 months later

[supermotolee]

i think the key is engine loads dont stick it in 4th and put your foot down basically, i'd use most of the revs upto 4k say and vary engine revs. couple of oil changes do one early after say 50 miles then one after a further say 250 miles they go play!

i used to work for a main honda dealer and on test rides all the new bikes were used to lets say their full potential * (with only 4 miles on them...) never had any problems i think the key is one early oil change and then just dont go too mad untill you get some decent oil in it...

[mini93]

like GW's 2nd way. In college with the engine we built up we were revving it to about 6k after about 20 min's and that was with the engine under no load standstill, then on the dyno it just got used as if it was ready run in, nothing realy went wrong the engine gave blue smoke out of the breather but the lectures explained it and iv forgotten the reason (was a Kent crossflow engine)

[Dog]

M personally, I'm the type to let it settle and loosen up before going to play...

Start up...

Run 50 miles - varing driving
drop oil

run 100 miles - various driving
drop oil

run 250 miles - various driving
drop oil

run 500 miles - various driving
drop oil

Run to 1000 - HAVE FUN!
Drop oil
normal servicing now...

But thats me...

[Sprocket]

Fair enough but when you only do 2000 mile in one year thats half a year gone with no fun.

[Sam]

Thanks for the reply everyone.

Bit worried about "whatever you do, dont drive like a granny all the time otherwise you will glase the bores".



Johnny

Just drive it normally, and use the gears. The engine needs some load to bed the rings in.

I was speaking to someone at L2B who had a freshly built 1380. He drove as carefully as he could for 1000 miles, being really ginger with it. He ended up glazing the bores, and the whole lot had to be stripped down again so the block could be honed.

[Dog]

Fair enough but when you only do 2000 mile in one year thats half a year gone with no fun.

Aye I know, my Mini will only be used on nice weekends...
I am tempted to do what I said, but when I hit the 250-300mile mark, open it up, and have fun, but change the oil when I said...

[Jordie]

i plan to drive mine like i stole it.

I plan to drive gently and normal throughout all the gears and rev range for 500miles. then after that i'll see what it can really do.

ive got 5 oil filters to do the oil when i feel the need.

[Sam]

The engine we built for my race car was fitted on a saturday, and then raced the next day on the sunday (6000 rpm).

two seasons on, its still sounds sweet.