Breaking in a rebuilt engine

[bbse]

I have been breaking in a newly rebuilt engine on my 3054. It starts great, runs strong and has "0" blow-by from the crank case. I have about 7 hrs on the engine now. The first hour or so I just drove it around. After that I started brushcutting between 2200 and 2500 rpm. My concern is that it seems to be losing (not leaking) a couple ounces of oil per hour. I expected some oil use at first but I thought the rings would seat in a couple of hrs. How long does it take to seat rings. Everything else seems to be normal. One guy told me that it could take the whole 50 hours plus before the oil consumption stopped and maybe even longer. He did have some diesel experience. Just wondering?

 

[Bird]

Now I'm no mechanic, but you said you just drove it around for the first hour or so, and now you've been brush hogging with it, but that doesn't tell us what kind of load that brush hogging is. In my opinion, and from what I've always been told, you need to do something to put a load on that engine; i.e., hard pulling or brush hogging if you're cutting something thick enough that you can tell the engine is working hard.

 

[bbse]

I guess that is what I am asking. My fields are fairly thick with blackberry bushes right now and I am doing a lot of it on hillsides. I just cannot say that it is under a heavy load. I do pull the engine down some, especially on the hills. I guess I could put the box scraper on and find some dirt to drag for a couple of hours.

 

[Bird]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I do pull the engine down some )</font>

That's what I'm talking about. That should do it. And if it doesn't, well . . ., like I said, I'm not a mechanic. /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

 

[bbse]

When it is cold it will blow a little white smoke, especially after it idles a while and I rev her up. Now I don't mean alot just a little and it is white not blue. After she warms up and I am cutting under a load it is either clear or ocassionally I see just a tad of white. Now when it gets under a heavy load it turns black and stays that way for a bit. Then the loads drop and it goes back to clear or a little white. I guess I need to try and put her under load that keeps her black? Like I said, she is not missing a lick and pulling strong. I just have to get these oil rings seated.

 

[KiotiJohn]

I'm not expert at this either, but you don't need to lug the engine down enough to keep the smoke black. That little puff of black is common when you hit a tough area while mowing, and it sounds as though everything is working as it should.

Just operate the tractor as you would normally without lugging the engine down too much, as that is not really helpful. Just do normal to heavy work, and operate at all manner of RPM over the 50 hours.

By far the worst thing you can do is to drag the engine down to a point that adding throttle wouldn't make it run faster, that's lugging. But working it hard is okay. Go drag some dirt with the boxblade, and make sure you run it long enough for it to get to operating temperature and then go for at least 30 minutes each time.

A few ounces of oil at this point probably isn't a major concern considering your description of the start up and smoke colors etc. As long as the oil stays between the hash marks on the stick, you have nothing to worry about in that respect.

I suspect you'll see a decrease in 20-30 hours, and yes, I've heard others say it took their rebuilds longer.

John