I bought a new honda rancher 420 4x2. I have heard a few different techniques on breaking in the motor. I was kind of sticking to... drive like youre gonna ride it and letting it cool down for a few minutes in between. Any ideas??

 

Dont forget to service it after riding it about 20 hours.

 

Break it in hard, to seat the rings properly! http://www.mototuneusa.../brea...secrets.htm

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Warm it up thoroughly. I do a hillclimb, fast with lots of throtle. Turn around at the top, and come down in a low gear with lots of compression braking. I do that three times, then park it and let it cool down completely. Next day, I do the same thing, and again the day after that.

Then I just ride it normally (in very hilly terrain), but varying the speed throughout the ride. Short rides at first, then a little bit longer rides each day. Complete cool down after each ride.

Stick with petroleum based oil during break-in (like GN4 or Maxima Premium). I change my oil and filter at 1 hour, to get any metal shavings left over from machining out of the engine quickly. I change oil and filter again at 5 hrs and then at 10 hours I change to synthetic oil (Redline ester synthetic).

I also change out the oil in the differential/rear drive early on, again to get the shavings out of there.

Do not neglect to do a valve adjustment at 20 hours!!!

Some good oil reads: http://www.thumperfaq.com/oil.htm


http://www.sportrider.com/tech/146_0308_oil/index.html

 

Ride it like you stole it!

Warm it up, haul azz thru all gears 2-3 times, park it, let it cool, repeat several times.
Change the oil and filter and you are done.