Break-in oil

ggalex · Apr 18, 2011

I've seen the various posts on break-in but no clarity on type of oil used.
I'm inclined to drain the factory-fill (motorex synth?) right away before I ever start my new FE450, as is suggested by mototuneusa, with non-synthetic car oil (prolly 10w40). Beat the rings in, dump again after an hour, etc. What do other commentators think about this?
I'm hypersensitive about ring break-in cuz I had a 2005 GG 450fse once that I believe never took a good ring set, had a lot of blowby out the crankcase vent that I had to live with, damned bike almost ruined me for 4Ts but I'm back.

from http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

3 more words on break-in:
NO SYNTHETIC OIL !!
Use Valvoline, Halvoline, or similar 10 w 40 Petroleum Car Oil for at least
2 full days of hard racing or 1,500 miles of street riding / driving.
After that use your favorite brand of oil.

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Viewer Questions:
...
Q: My bike comes with synthetic oil from the factory, what should I do ??
A: I recommend changing the factory installed synthetic oil back to petroleum for the break-in period.

Q: If break- in happens so quickly, why do you recommend using petroleum break- in oil for 1500 miles ??
A: Because while about 80% of the ring sealing takes place in the first hour of running the engine,
the last 20% of the process takes a longer time. Street riding isn't a controlled environment, so most of the mileage may not be in "ring loading mode". Synthetic oil is so slippery that it actually "arrests" the break in process before the rings can seal completely. I've had a few customers who switched to synthetic oil too soon, and the rings never sealed properly no matter how hard they rode. Taking a new engine apart to re - ring it is the last thing anyone wants to do, so I recommend a lot of mileage before switching to synthetic. It's really a "better safe than sorry" situation.

srosa · Apr 20, 2011

Disclaimer: I don't yet own a Husaberg. My FS 570 is still on order.

I have owned and successfully broken in (no perceptible blow by or significant oil use) many KTM's, BMW's, Ducati's, along with some fine Japanese hardware and I believe the practice you describe of changing to non-synthetic during break in is dated. My practice for the past decade or so has been to use the oil that came in the bike from the factory. The last bike I broke in was a Ducati 848 that I built into a track bike. Not only did I stay with the factory oil, I broke the bike in on a dynomometer as it wasn't street legal. The final run on the dyno listed out higher bhp than any other 848 the dealer had tested. The bike gave me 2 great years of track use before selling it and it is still running perfect as a street bike today. I changed the oil quite often but there was never any perceptable oil use between changes. I am considering a dyno break in for my FS when it get's here, again with factory oil.

I hope some actual owners chime in to describe their break in practice.

pegscraper · Apr 20, 2011

I too have broken in many new bikes during my 28 years of riding, mostly Japanese stuff, from my first Z1300 to my current FE570 and have had NO break-in related problems on any of them be it comparatively poor performance, oil burning/use, exccesive blow by etc. despite breaking in by the book. I never even considered what the OE oil fill was but just used the bike 'normally' within the parameters set in the owner's manual and changed the oil & filter as prescribed. As for the advise on the Mototune website, it's there for you to read and make your own judgement. The one thing that nobody can argue with is the the warning he gives at the top of the page that 'This is a very controversial subject!'.

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