(800£ in parts later...): Very soon now (yeah right!), I will be assembling my rebuilt 999S engine into the chassis. I had a major bearing failure last year which took bearings, bearing sleeves and the engine block with it so I found an almost new set of engine blocks with bearings and we assembled the engine with new crackshaft bearings, shimmed up after the book etc. and it is now ready to go into the bike. The bike is a trackbike only and I wonder how to get the engine safely broken in when I can't ride it on the road. My plan was to get it started and let it idle for half an hour or so until it gets warm, then run it in a slow group on the first trackday. I can't let it sit idling for long because there is no cooling fan on it. Jim
Have you got a Dyno anywhere near you? You could put it on there for an hour and give it a blat. What do race teams do with their bikes? TBH though I'd just do a trackday on it and then give it an oil service.
Me too, I would do a trackday in Novice/Inters on a tight track and gradually build the revs each session, then drop the oil for the next one.
some rate using a semi synth oil for the running in, because it allows more wear and is cheaper if getting flushed. I would recommend you speak to someone much more qualified that myself to decide if this is something you should do but it seems to get mentioned a lot.
I'd run it in on a semi as mentioned. One thing worth doing is to get oil pressure around it before it fires. Pull the crank sensor connector so it won't fire either spark or fuel and turn it over until the pressure light goes out. Connect sensor back up and start her. I'd avoid leaving it ticking over for any length of time, it needs riding to bed down well, with variable loading.
i seem to remember reading a post from shazam that said to run it on 30w mineral oil for 100-200 miles or so through the twisties or a smaller track then flush it and put the proper stuff in. is this good advice nelly?
I remember that to. In theory there's some sense in it, but he was blessed with much higher ambient temps than us. A straight 30 grade is going to be pretty heavy when cold. I've always used a semi-synth or even a straight mineral multi grade.
The last thing you want to do is let it run at idle, that's very bad, never keep a new engine at a constant rpm for long periods. Bearings "run in" quite quickly. Rings/bores take longer (this is the reason for not using a fully synth), but no point in using something expensive that you're going to bin soon. As mentioned before disconnect the fuel/spark and get oil pressure before you even think about starting it. I usually run it for a few minutes just above idle so it's warm then turn it off and check everything is ok. 20 mins in the garage smoothly increasing a decreasing revs (doesn't have to be all in one go) then 30 mins on track using most of the rev range, accell smoothly and continuously, same with throttling off and you don't want long periods at a constant rpm. After that change the oil and be kind for the next 30 mins using the full rev range and you're good to go.
