Motor break in

[water dog]

I read in the latest R.C.B.M mag that to break in the engine on the shockwave 36 that they set it on a stand and use a gravity feed set up with a bottle of water .Is this the best way to do a break in or should you do it under load in the water ?.I know you can monitor temps better on land but I think that the boat should be broken in the way you are going to intend to use it,in the water.No one breaks a nitro truck with the wheels off the ground ,why do the same with a boat?.

[Chris LaPanse]

The break in under load is better, but some people do it the other way if they really don't feel like retrieving it after it (inevitably) stalls during the break in.

[zakerid]

I read in the latest R.C.B.M mag that to break in the engine on the shockwave 36 that they set it on a stand and use a gravity feed set up with a bottle of water .Is this the best way to do a break in or should you do it under load in the water ?.I know you can monitor temps better on land but I think that the boat should be broken in the way you are going to intend to use it,in the water.No one breaks a nitro truck with the wheels off the ground ,why do the same with a boat?.
there are alot of people that break in nitro trucks with the wheels off thr ground. Is that the best way to do it? I personally don't think so. I have heat cycled all of my nitro's with great success. If I had to guess they were following the mfg's suggested break-in.

[MattHiggins]

Like many things, nitro-engine break-in techniques included, if you ask ten different people, you get ten different answers. If you're experienced then breaking-in in the water, under load is probably best. I personally still prefer doing the initial break-in in dry dock and then finishing up in the water. Some engines are pretty tight and finicky out of the box and I don't look forward to retrieving a stalled boat ten times in ten minutes.

[water dog]

Some guys keep a glow plug igniter on thier engines to keep them running .

[bugfanatic]

Matt has it absolutely right in my opinion. Is it best to do it on land? No. But it IS the most convenient. I do the initial break-in on the bench & final break in on the water. What I mean by this is when the motor can hold a decent idle, I take it to the lake & then do the final needle settings & such. Like everyone says, just make sure that you don't run it too lean. I've found that if it (the smoke) burns your nose, you're pretty close, just richen it up a tad. I use a lower (below 20%) nitro content for both the bench & water break-in, best not to change fuel before your motor's tuned in since you will be retuning it as you run it anyway.

[water dog]

Hey BUG ?.How do you start out with your break in on the bench ?.I put my boat in a tub of water when i started out ,that way I had a load on the motor ,but the feumes can get nasty !!!.

[mjmsprt40]

I would hazard a gues that under load break in is the way to go. The initial run might be done on land so you can get the needle settings, but then get your boat in the water so you can get a working load on it.

I understand from reading about aircraft engines that this can vary quite a bit. The small lapped engines need some bench time if they're to work properly, the larger ringed engines should be run very rich at first then leaned in to breaking between two and four cycle, and then we come to the ABC engines which should be set for a rich two cycle and run almost out-of-the-box in race configuration. ABC engines only come to proper operating temperatures while under working loads, it seems.

[bugfanatic]

Hey Water Dog, I made a mount for breaking in engines on the bench. This way you don't have a spinning prop or flex shaft that you have to keep lubed. It has it's own fuel tank & I run a water circuit through the head too. Only draw back is that the motor isn't under load. That's why I like to finish the break-in out on the lake in the boat. My mono's outboard I had to do 'on the lake' since it wouldn't fit on the jig, but I use this for my plane, truck, & inboard boat motors. Works great. In fact I got the idea from seeing some that you can buy. Let me see if I can find a link so you can see what I'm talking about. But anyway, I start out just trying to get it a little loosened up. Usually when I don't have to move the needle much to keep it running good I know I'm close. These new motors (ABC construction) are a lot tighter than the old ones, so I just do the initial break-in before I go out to the lake. Luckily I have a buddy that owns a pontoon boat so I can chase the rc boat down. I can take all my gear & electric starter & cooler on the pontoon too so I can tinker with my rc boat & keep restarting it or whatever I need to do.

Here's one, not quite like mine. http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXA378&P=0

If you buy or make a simple motor mount ( http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXR586&P=ML ) & affix it to a 10" x 10" square board, then attach a fuel tank, & a handle to control the throttle, you'll have an idea of what I use. I loaned mine out or I'd just go down & take a pic of it. I then have a washer jug with a barbed hose fitting on it that attaches to the cooling barb on the engine head. I put the washer jug up on a shelf above my bench & the water runs down through the head, out a hose & into a collection jug. Works great, a lot of water flow.