Rings seated?

[acw592]

I rebuilt the top end of my 400ex that was burning oil. Bored to 416, weisco high comp. piston, hot cam stg. 1. I broke it in the way I ride, fairly hard, varying the throttle so the rings would seat well.I have now run about4-5 tanks of fuel through.Changed the oil after 3 tanks. No synthetic oil yet. Had the new valve seals put in, cleaned the valves and they all seated well, but it seems to be burning a little oil. I can smell it and today when it was idleing,I would hit the throttle a little and see some exhaust.It was upper 60's at the time.I checked the oil which was full but it only had a couple tanks of fuel through it since the oil change. Shouldn't the rings have seated by now?

[tank69]

Why break in your motor that way? I've be riding 30 years and I have always broke my motors in the traditional way, start it, let it idle, cool it down, repeat and I've never had a problem. To each his own, I just don't get it.

Maybe the problem isn't the break in process at all, are your rings lined up correctly?

[bwamos]

There's a lot of theorys on both ways to do it.

Most important part is to run heat cycles. How you obtain the heat cycles, is less important.

Other than how the rings alignment was installed...

My first thought.. is you could even be running a little rich. If the cylinder walls wash it can draw oil up past the rings and cause what you are describing. I know I've heard the 400ex's have a tendancy to do that fairly easily.

[CDCHONDAS]

yea and from what I've seen there are alot of people who can't properly bore and hone a cylinder, which in turn leads to short engine life and oil consumption.

[tank69]

Originally posted by CDCHONDAS
yea and from what I've seen there are alot of people who can't properly bore and hone a cylinder, which in turn leads to short engine life and oil consumption.

Ain't that the truth!!! Way too many "backyard" borers out there and you get what you pay for. I'm sure there are some great small shop guys out there, but alot of the sub-par shops/garages/homes are giving them a bad name. Thank god my father has been doing my cylinders, he's been a machinist over 40 years!

[F-16Guy]

Yeah, you shouldn't be burning any oil after a fresh rebuild. Did you gap the rings properly? Wash the cylinder thoroughly before assembly? Coat the cylinder and piston with oil during assembly? When I broke mine in, I rode it around gently for about 20 minutes at what would be a very high idle (2000-2500 rpm) to break in the cam, then rode around progressively harder each tank until I was riding "no mercy" at about the 4th tank. I think you either got it too hot during break in or you got a bad bore job.

[acw592]

I did gap the rings, wash the cylinder and then coat everything with oil before assembly. And, Im not trying to start anything ugly about engine break in. What I did was run mine mainly in 3rd gear, accelerating rapidly, then letting the engine wind back down, then accelerate-kept repeating that process. I wasn't bouncing off the rev limiter or anything, just trying to vary the throttle. I know there are lots of different opinions on engine break-in. The bore and hone was done by a dealership which has been doing them for years. I did talk to them today and they said anything that HAD been burning quite a bit of oil, often gets the oil built up in the silencer packing and it will still smell like its burning oil for awhile when it gets hot. Guess I'll just keep watching the oil level.

[tank69]

You said you break it in the way you ride.


I broke it in the way I ride, fairly hard, varying the throttle so the rings would seat well.

Then you said this is how you ride.


What I did was run mine mainly in 3rd gear, accelerating rapidly, then letting the engine wind back down, then accelerate-kept repeating that process

Neither of which make any sense because "running mainly in 3rd. gear" is not riding "fairly hard". Which is it, did you beat the piss out of it or did you baby it when you broke in? If you beat the piss out of it, there's a good chance it didn't break in right. If you were running in 3rd. gear riding like you were saying in your second post, you could have the same results as beating the piss out of it due to lagging and the rapid accel and decel cycles.

If it's a reputable dealer, even those guys are known to hose up a bore job, then take your slip on apart and repack it to see if there is any oil buildup. I think they told you this to get you moving on as I've never seen so much oil in the silencer packing that would cause this condition, however, I've been wrong before.

Keep an eye on the oil level and let us know the results after a few rides. I hope it's the packing in your slip on....so I can be wrong and you don't have to worry about a bad bore/piston/ring job. ;)

Tank