Originally Posted by
tysonsk
Ok. Well. I would not recommend you using their method, for several reasons which I will explain.
For me there are several things wrong with the video.
-They are starting the engine with no pre-heat. I always pre-heat using a Competition heat, and a new engine always fires on the first go for me using this pre-heating process, every time. This guy seemed to have a bit of an issue with getting it fired up.
-He's blowing into the pressure line. You can do that if you're that way inclined (that you like to make things difficult), but I like pinching the pressureline and then opening and closing the fuel tank lid about 5 times. This will facilitate pumping fuel up to the engine, with absolutely no hassle. (Ryan Lutz instructional video tip)
-He removes the plug and cranks the engine round for no apparent reason.
What would ever be the point of cranking a cold engine round, with no plug in it? I can only assume he is trying to get the engine lubricated, but for the health of the engine I'd rather just blob some oil in there before fitting it in the car! I always disassemble engines before breaking them in anyway, to make sure there are no metal shavings in there, and about 50% of the time there will be tiny metal shavings in there which it is a good idea to remove! When you have an engine dismantled, you can add oil to lubricate it real well when re-assembling, and that way the engine is well oiled up before you go to perform the first ever start of the engine. I usually add oil to front bearing, fit crankshaft, add oil to rear bearing, rotate crankshaft to distribute oil coating, add oil to crank pin, drop some oil in the piston pin area, coat piston and sleeve with oil, then reassemble, this means the engine will be well lubricated and will fire on first go, when you pre-heat before break-in.
-The guy lets the engine sit around idling on the box, no attempt to check temperature, revs it randomly.
Now this is what is important to understand: Metals expand at different rates according to the temperature! When you are breaking in an engine you are essentially adapting the sealing surfaces to fit eachother at OPERATING TEMPERATURE. If you perform the break-in at an excessively low temperature, you will be adapting the sealing surfaces to fit eachother at 50% of the operating temperature. This means that at operating temperature the sealing surfaces will in fact be very different in terms of size, and this may shorten your engine's lifespan significantly.
-Idling on the box and running at low temp is "the cardinal sin", read the break in bible on this forum. It explains this very well. You kill the rod, the engine doesn't reach operating temperature, etc.
Basicly, for me, everything is wrong about this video. It's just way wrong.
It's an InfoRC video, I have a lot of respect for Miguel Zambrana, who is the InfoRC guy, he does a wonderful job of promoting radiocontrol. But this person who he is filming, has done this instructional video all wrong.
IMHO people really must get the engine up to 190-200F during the major part of the break-in procedure, so that the engine is not too cold, this will adapt the sealing surfaces to eachother at a better temperature, more closely resembling operating temperature, this also helps the rod, and then they really should heat-cycle as this will get your engine broken in much faster, again helping you save the rod.