Breaking in Kawasaki engines

[jhellwig]

I work in the maintenance department for a John Deere factory and almost everyone in the maintenance department and a few other departments have tx gators or cx gators. We get new gator yearly and they get used very hard. Most of them get 200 to 300 hours with some getting tripple that on the factory fill with it never even being checked to see if they still have oil in them. We never have issues with them aside from the occasional transmission or carburetor issues. Almost all of these are severely overloaded. When we get the new ones no one goes easy on them till they are broken in. They just the the peddal slammed to the floor till you have to slam on the brakes.

I have gotten three new gators since I have been working here and here is what I have found works best to break them in to obtain full power and not consume oil. When these are new they are very gutless and the brakes don't work the best. On the cx gators that have a 8.5 hp single cylinder Kawasaki motor the best way is to reach down behind the seat and grab the govoner arm and pull it wide open for a few hundred feet. Then we run them as hard as you can and the will come around in about a day or two. If you don't do this they run like [censored] and die a lot. On the tx gators with a 15.5 hp v-twin Kawasaki you have to for it then slam on the brakes repeatedly then let it cool down for a bit and it will be good to go. You can always tell when you get on a gator that has been driven by management as they will be slugish and slow even with 100 hours on them. They just don't break in right without a good load.

I know this goes against what everyone says you should do to break engines in but we have no issues with it. The gators never use oil even with the factory fill and never have mechanical issues.

 

[toneydoc]

What can be said? That is not how I typically break in my engines but I don't have money just to buy something new whenever I want to and then run the [censored] out of it.

And I guess I am a little BITOGish because I change the break in oil after 5-10 hours of initial use. My keep running for many years.

Sure do wish I had the money of John Deere company to spend on good equipment and then run the [censored] out of it

 

[Andy636]

If you go on kawiforums you will met guys there that had plenty of bikes and the ones that never gave them problems are the ones they ride like they stole them from the dealership lot.

 

[ShotGun429]

The Kawasaki engines are well built engines, We see very few problems in my lawn fleet here.

 

[Blueskies123]

If you get a new one every year how do you know you are not doing subtle damage that only shows itself after 5 to 10 years? It sounds like your definition of how to break in an engine is how much power you feel after 10 hours of operation. Maybe the guys who buy them used from you might feel differently.

 

[The_Eric]

It's in line with what I do... Let 'er warm up then turn it loose!

 

[The_Eric]

Originally Posted By: Blueskies123
If you get a new one every year how do you know you are not doing subtle damage that only shows itself after 5 to 10 years? It sounds like your definition of how to break in an engine is how much power you feel after 10 hours of operation. Maybe the guys who buy them used from you might feel differently.


If you have to "baby" an engine at first to get it to last, then there's something wrong with it. You need to seat the rings ASAP. The rest of that bit about parts needing to "wear in" is old thinking. Maybe it was needed in the 20's and 30's, but with modern materials and modern machining, it's not necessary. If you have to baby it to wear in the various parts, you've got other problems.

 

[The motor guy]

Originally Posted By: The_Eric
Originally Posted By: Blueskies123
If you get a new one every year how do you know you are not doing subtle damage that only shows itself after 5 to 10 years? It sounds like your definition of how to break in an engine is how much power you feel after 10 hours of operation. Maybe the guys who buy them used from you might feel differently.


If you have to "baby" an engine at first to get it to last, then there's something wrong with it. You need to seat the rings ASAP. The rest of that bit about parts needing to "wear in" is old thinking. Maybe it was needed in the 20's and 30's, but with modern materials and modern machining, it's not necessary. If you have to baby it to wear in the various parts, you've got other problems.


Yeah you run her hard with a good load forces the compression rings out against the cylinder creating a good seal and also let the engine coast down in gear like down a hill this creates a large vacuum and also helps the rings seat. Not sure how you break in a lawn mower engine since they are usually set at one rpm the whole life. I guess just hope you have a good amount of grass to cut to put a good load on it.

 

[NateDN10]

Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman

Not sure how you break in a lawn mower engine since they are usually set at one rpm the whole life. I guess just hope you have a good amount of grass to cut to put a good load on it.

My thoughts exactly. Not much you can do for a lawn mower.

 

[bmwpowere36m3]

Sounds like the "Mototune" method for breaking in an engine... run it hard, vary the RPMs and don't let the engine overheat. The only difference is changing the oil sooner.

I've broken in my equipment, bikes like this. However I do change the oil after the first few hours or 50-100 miles. Engines run strong and don't burn any oil.

 

[Cardenio327]

Yeah, that just about describes how we broke in engines at a trucking company I worked at. Engines were completely rebuilt every 900,000 miles and trucks were kept for a 4,000,000 mile service life. Detroit series 60 12.7.

After cam break-in the tractor would be assigned to a driver not known for babying equipment. The trailer would be pre-loaded by another tractor to a full gross weight of 105,000#. Then full power up the huge hill on the Interstate in front of the terminal.

 

[4wheeldog]

Running a small aircooled motor for 200 to 900 hours, without an oil change makes me cringe. This is an oil forum, after all.

I would not knowing buy a used unit that had been treated in this manner. But it is impressive to know that they actually survive the treatment.

 

[229]

50-100 hours oil changes for life. There were some problems with the big block series. I have five figure zero turn with Kawi..

 

[jhellwig]

I would say that longevity of the engine isn't affected by how we run them due to the fact that they don't use any oil even on ones with 800 or better hours on them. That is a good amount of hours on something like that being used hard every single day. We have some of the small cx Gators that weigh close to a ton running around with no issues. That is well beyond their 400 pound capacity.

On my tx gator that I just got I will be able to get the bed up to change the oil. I will change it at 10 hours then every 100 hours after that just for someone to do. I did that to my last tx gator.

There are about 5 gators that ever get the oil changed out of out 30 to 40 of them. They either get 15w-40 rotella or 5w-30 Mobil 1.

The tx gators have a filter on them so the break in junk is getting caught.