New Boat Break In

Just purchased a new 2010 SAN 230. I have heard so many different schools of thought with regard to breaking in the engine. How has everyone handled the break in period for their new boats. I have heard run it like you stole it and then other follow the manufactuerers procedures to a tee.

Any recommendations?

Just go play in the water and have fun! At 50 hours change oil

I would follow the manufactuerers procedures. Oh and change the oil after the first 20 hrs.

PCM's recommended break in is pretty much drive it like you stole it. WOT after warm up for 1 min. Keep it under 3600 or 4200 (cant remember) rpm for first 30 min. WOT for one min and vary RPMs for the next few hours. Kinda like wakeboarding.

Drive it like you stole it! Just don't keep the same RPM for long. Accelerate hard and let off, repeat. You're trying to put a load on the motor.

Here's a great article about break-in. This applies to all engines.
http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Yeah, i was told and did, dont hold same RPM's for more than 30 seconds during the first 10 hrs or somehtign like that. Tough to do when pulling a rider. So we pretty much toobed for the first 10 hrs and just did some laps and explored. 10 hrs goes by real fast. After that jsut change the oil every 50 hrs and you should be good to go

I did a fair amount of reading, including the mototune pages, and there are some different opinions and theories out there, but the one consistent message was to vary the RPMs as much as you can after it is warmed up. I guess trying to toss some riders from tubes would be just about perfect. Enjoy your new ride!

I wish this was posted before my maiden voyage on Saturday. I was told to keep it under 2000 rpm's for the first 3 engine hours. That equates to 9 mph or 2 hours at party cove with the engine running.

Drive it like you stole it, Ricky Bobby!!!

If it wasn't assembled right, it would have failed before leaving the assembly plant.

Break in is not about whether or not it was assembled right, its to make sure the engine goes through varied heating cycles so that all the parts are seated properly. I'm sure some of this is done at the factory, but couldn't say if its enough (maybe that's what you really meant, Mike?). Obviously the manufacturers don't think its enough. I never understand why everyone is so quick to dismiss the instructions from the poeple who know the most about the engine.

No, it really has nothing to do with "heating cycles" either.... There's nothing that's going to "seat" anymore with heat. Engine break-in in a modern engine is all about seating the piston rings properly, so they provide a complete seal around the piston for the life of the engine. To do this, you need pressure to push them against the wall. Varying the RPM will do this pretty well (increased pressure while you're increasing the RPM), but you should take a step further and accelerate hard on each cycle of the throttle. The more load you put on the engine = the more pressure in the cylinders = the more pressure pushing on the rings. Just like that article mentions, the honing on engines is very fine these days, and you have a very short amount of time to properly seat the piston rings. The first few hours on any eninge is critical to how well it will run and how much power it will produce. Going out and idling your engine for those first few hours is literally the worst thing you could do....