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oldtimer57.
I was hoping to get some detailed motor break in tips . I just bought a 2008 Basscat Pantera Classic 19.1 w/200 Mercury Optimax . The boat is getting rigged up so I have not received it yet . Hoping to get a jump on the information . This is my first outboard so I am not familiar with the steps you need to take to do it right . Could someone enlighten me on this process . Thank you !
I hope to be breaking in a new 150 Opti next week myself. I asked a couple of certified Merc mechanics the same question. I normally vary speeds for ten hours on a Yamaha with burst to WOT for no more than 5 mins after three hours. After ten hours I let em rip, take care of em with routine maint and they normally take care of you. The Merc crowd says 3 hours on the Optis before opening one up to WOT for a few mins. Ill get AT LEAST three hours on mine before I start messing with JP heights, props etc.. I found this thread on breaking in an Opti here on the BCB Owners board. The boat I am getting has the SC 1000 guages, however you can get a little hour meter that fits under the cowl for less than 45.00. http://basscatowners.yuku.com/topic/326 … craft.html
Hello again . On the site you sent me to look at , the BCB comment was to have trim down . Maybe I miss understood that comment . My boat dealer guy said the same thing . I can see I will need to check into this one more in depth . What do you think ?
The owners manual for your motor will explain break-in in detail for you. Read that before you begin break-in. You will love your Classic. Brian Hash
1. You have to load the motor while breaking it in. This is best accomplished by trimming all the way down to increase friction with the water. If you just loaf along, the computer will know it and wont count the break-in (extra oil) timer down… 2. Do _not_ crank it up, and slam it to WOT. Warm it up first. This is good advice even after break-in, but it is critical during break-in to get it up to operating temp before you get on it, even just slamming it to WOT to get up on plane is dangerous until is is warmed up… Other than those two tips, the owners manual wont steer you wrong. But I have seen a couple of guys that went out and ran their new motor for a couple of hours and then wondered why the timer (smartcraft) had not counted down yet. The reason is if the computer senses high intake vacuum, minimal throttle opening, it assumes a light load, which does not do the job on seating things in very well…2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200
That is good news to know oldtimer!!! Ive always done most of my breakin time at level or “neutral” trim, not full trim down. Ive never owned an Opti, it sounds like they really want to plow to break em in. Its going to be a long three hours running like that LOL. For years I have said the life of a motor was routine maint along with good oil, warming em up good and letting one cool down after a long WOT run. The advice you are giving about the ECM and double oil may explain why I see so many new Opti owners foulng plugs on breakin? If you did not have enough load and it kept double oiling for several hours not under a load indeed you may tend to foul plugs.
Thanks for the info . The explanation made sense . Oldtimer … Ive heard after the first 3 hours of doing this you still have about 7 hours of varying trim and speed . Do you also suggest that I not do WOT during this 7 hour time slot ? And maybe even a little after ? I have one more question … would it hurt my engine if I turn it off during the first 2 to 3 hours ? Would it be the ultimate break in if I ran straight through the whole process ?
Follow the manual closely. Load it up with trim down. You will be plowing a lot of water, but you gotta do that to put the load on the motor. Vary your speeds just as your manual will recommend and remember you will be running more oil through the motor than normal during break in. Your motor will continueing to break itself in past the 3 hours the manual will talk about. The first ten or so its a good idea to still cary speeds a lot and take especailly extra care of watching rpms and realizing the motor is still getting itself set. Your motor wont fully loosen up until you hit somewhere between 10 and 15 hours. Usually it takes around that many to get things to where they need to be fully. Your motor will behave differently until that happens. Congrats on the new ride and enjoy. You have purchased a fine setup!
That is the simple approach. You do want to run WOT some, just running at 3500 wont do a lot to seat the rings properly, you need some bursts to WOT to heat things up and really load up the rings under pressure. But just not while the block is cold as the pistons will expand more than the sleeves and trash the powerhead before you blink… Those bigger v6 blocks produce a ton of torque at mid-range RPM levels, enough that they can power most boats around while barely breaking a sweat. Best way to break in an Opti is to borrow a friends R-type boat and put your motor on that. That will load the thing down enough that trim is not an issue. On a cat, you have to look like an idiot for a few hours (“jeez, Fred, look at that moron running down the river with the motor trimmed all the way in, plowing like a toon boat…” It hurts even worse to do this with a merc racing motor, which breaks in the same way. Except now it becomes even more embarassing since you have a motor/boat that can break 100 maybe, and you are plowing a wake big enough to roll a cabin cruiser over…2008 Pantera Classic2014 Mercury Pro XS 200
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