I'm having a 1550 big bore kit with andrews 26 cams and a PC III installed in my EFI 2004 softail. The bike has about 8,500 miles on it. It will have a prelinminary map installed in the PC. I plan to have it dyno tuned. How much of a break-in period should I do before the first oil change? Is it like starting over new...1,000 miles? Can I get it dyno tuned before it's broken in? If so should I have a certain number of miles on the big bore first? Thanks

 

There are numerous answers to this question if you do a search. Most people who are EXPERIENCED engine builders like PhilM, say no need to rack up the miles prior to the Dyno. I have been on this board since 2005 and have learned that this man knows what he is talking about, along with others like Dalton and Dawg. If I were doing a build and wondering i would ask all of them and see what they say. I may be the doc, but they are my attendings....LOL

 

+1 on search because there are a gazillion opinions. Personally I would do the heat cycle break in and then dyno. A couple calls to builders will get different opinions too...

I am a big fan of early oil change, break in with clean regular oil...change at 100-500 miles to remove grit and debris left from build and hit the dyno, or hit dyno and then change. I favor synthetic big time at first oil change but that's just me.

It is not rocket science. I never met anyone who broke in a high performance water cooled engine per manufacturer and the air cooled is comparatively sloppy clearances. If long mileage break in is a warranty issue then you better have some way of documenting it...

John

 

Ask who is installing the 95" kit for you.

 

Thanks for the replies. I will have regular oil for the breakin and then switch to synthetic, which is what I have been using prior to the BB install. I'll try a search, but it sounds like it won't be necessary to do a complete new 1,000 mile breakin like the owners manual instructed for the bike when it was new.

 

Nope, absolutely not necessary. In fact, you could easily "wash the rings out" before they ever get a chance to seat properly if it's too rich & nobody is watching the AFR's.....

If you have a competent Dyno tuner, let him seat the rings for ya, on the Dyno. He can monitor AFR & temp right from the start.

Get it right, in the beginning, get'r tuned, & go ride! Simple as that.....

 

yep get the afr set up and make sure to go thru the proper heat cycles and the bike will be fine. the most imporant thing to make sure is the parts are clean going together. make sure you wash and break clean the cylinders , pistons and heads as much as you camn then wipe down with a clean rag then assembly.
have never seen the rings gets washed out as fast as with dirty parts.

 

Great points George!

Clean, clean, clean....

 

After several heat cycles, and as long as the bike will be polite enough to go down the road, we put 6-7 miles on them, and if all is well, then we generally ship them to www.joescyclerepair.com for him to tune them off.
After doing this with him, for almost a decade, have yet to have a reason to change that method.
Scott

 

So far, all good advise. If I know the base map is really close, I will do the heat cycles, break it in in the same fashion as I would normally ride, or with the 30-60mph roll-ons in third gear and then get it tuned as soon as possible. As Gerge and Phil said...cleanliness really can't be over-emphasized. A rich tune from the get go will cause wear that can't be corrected except by re-ringing.