Engine Break-In on the Modern Engine?
 

I purchased an already broken in Ninja 250R that I used to learn how to ride on. Now that I have done that, I recently upgraded...

I picked up a 2014 Kawasaki Ninja 650 ABS. It runs like a dream.

After bringing it home from the dealer and joy riding a little bit, I was at home reading the manual over for some of the little gadgets/gizmos and I came upon the "Engine Break-In" section, and I got nervous.

Now, I am not the type of person who fired it up at the dealer and screeched out of the lot speed shifting at redline up to 13k RPM. However, I can honestly say I am almost certain I didn't follow the "In the first 500 miles, don't go over 4,000 RPM." The dealer was 38 miles from my house, so I was on the freeway to get it home.

There seems to be a lot of controversy around propr "break in" procedures. Some people suggest breaking it in hard by using full range of the RPMs, including occasional heat treating the cylinders by high RPM bursts, then letting it cool down, etc. Others suggest keeping to the manual which is considered the "soft break in" method.

Being partially mechanical savvy, I understand the purpose on old model motorcycles as the technology to create perfect cylinders with perfect seats on the rings wasn't available.

I mean, I can understand not red lining the bike fresh out of the gate but 4k RPM on a 2014 technology engine seems a little "over precautious" to me.

I would assume the more "standard" procedure is probably best, but wanted to hear opinions. What I mean by "standard" is basically using the full range of RPM, trying not to stay at any 1 RPM for too long, some high, some low, using engine breaking whenever possible, etc. I would say keeping it under 80% of red line. That would give you normal use of the bike without "racing" the engine at very high RPM for long durations...

Thoughts?

There definitely are varying opinions on this matter. I would say ride it within the recommendations for the first 200 miles, change the oil and then ride like you stole it.

Check out this article, FWIW:
Break In Secrets--How To Break In New Motorcycle and Car Engines For More Power

I'd do my first oil and filter change sooner than described in the manual. Get those bits out.

Fact is a good break in is to just ride the bike. Don't peen the snot out of it and don't chug around like some old beezer in a 4 cylinder 62 Chevy II on his way to the barbershop.

Seems the best thing for break in of an engine is regular riding and a first service between 600 and 1000 miles. That's been true for the last couple of decades now.

I will say I think Kawasaki must have bought a billion of those "do not exceed 4000 rpm for the first 600 miles" stickers, they had one on my 1975 Kawasaki 400 two stroke triple. If you rode the bike like the sticker said you'd have fouled the plugs in less than 100 miles. Fact is on a two stroke after about 100 miles the engine was fine to run up around 6000-6500 in bursts.

The gas pressure behind the rings pushing them out against the cylinder walls when accelerating harder will help seat them in. Then the easier running and slowing processes allow cooling and not excessively overheating the rings.

Just ride it in a normal fashion without the extremes for the first thousand miles or so and all will be fine. Easy to remember the break in process too.

NOTE:
After reading that link I need to clarify my comments. We lived in an area where it was easy to get out of town and ride winding hilly roads. That pretty much made for the acceleration/deceleration process and no sustained set rpm for long periods. It also was rural enough to do some hard acceleration in the first 2-3 gears easily without any problems.

Congrats on the new ride and welcome to KF

With a new ride or a new engine build, I use the cheap oil, load the engine, and unload the engine revs. Get things to seat so to speak. Maybe a few laps, ie maybe 100 miles. Change out to your best oil after that. After that, check the valves and the condition of the oil (1000 miles), generally, you are good to go with staying within the kawi manual.

Is there any way to know if you don't break it in properly? Obviously if you really jack it up you will know due to engine seizing, but any other way to tell? Or will it just start eating oil at say 10,000 miles instead of 40,000 miles....

Don't get too anal about it. If you just go out and ride around accelerating up and decelerating progressively running a bit stronger for the first thousand miles you should do fine. Short of doing a bunch of "maybe" testing like compression testing, there is nothing short of a tear down and measure to know if it is working in right for the average rider.

Just remember as was mentioned in a few posts and that link, the goal is to run with harder acceleration in brief spurts and vary rpm up and down (like running around back roads with some harder passes) to force the rings out against the cylinder walls to seat them in, while the decel allows some cool down with less pressure. In the first couple of hundred you might consider running a half hour or so then take a break to cool down, but I doubt that is necessary.

Simplified - run back roads and screw around a bit. Don't lug the engine around, don't run over about 70% redline, and don't run at a continuous rpm (aka like running a freeway or flat straight roads). If you live in an area with winding back roads, go ride there. If you putt around lug too much the rings don't get to seat in adequately due to not getting needed gas pressure behind the rings pushing them out. If you rev the snot out of the bike too hard (had a friend do this with his Z1) the rings can get too hot due to the constant high gas pressure creating too much friction without adequate chance to cool. Pretty simple. Oh, my friend's Z1 was smoking at 10,000 miles. My KLX650 broken in as I just described burns no oil and runs pretty much as strong as it did day one after 30,000+ miles.