Engine break in?

[John the Chimp]

Ive searched a few times on proper break in process. I couldnt find anything conclusive.
So Im here asking. Is there a good guidline to follow? I want to do it right so I have a strong reliable motor.
Up until now Ive just been taking it easy. Short ten min rides.no long periods of wide open throttle. Let it cool down and repeat. Is there anything else I should be doing? Any advise would be great. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[rohmell]

You should take a look at the spark plug color to see if it's OK.

 

[2door]

From experience and what you'll read here from old hand builders there doesn't seem to be any hard and fast rules regarding break-in. Some will say to take it easy and do pretty much what you're doing now. Others will say, "don't baby it. Ride it hard from the get-go".

Take rohmell's advice and check your spark plug color to make sure you're in the ball park as far as fuel/air mix and watch for things like loose chains, tensioner brackets and fenders (if you have them). Break-in is the time to look for and find all those little areas that can come back to bite you later.

After a couple of gallons reduce your oil down to about 32:1 and go have fun. You'll discover that the Chinese 2 stroke, if that's what you have, will keep getting better with age and milage. The older they are, the better they perform.

Tom

 

[John the Chimp]

Thanks guys. I have to take the carb. apart tommorrow. So I will clean up the intake and exhaust pipes and gaskets.While Im at it. I have some tinkering to do with the set up. Solder the wires where the bullet connectors are,Change the plug wire,and locktite some bolts. Is there anything I missed?

 

[nvmextc]

When I'm breaking in an engine or have changed piston rings I'll break it in by running a richer oil/fuel ratio than normal for the first tank, and for the first half a tank try keeping at or below half throttle, and finding lots of hills to go up while at half throttle, for the remainder of the tank, riding like normal but trying not to keep full throttle for more than 5-10 seconds at a time.