115 HP Merc Break In???

[kaydano]

We bought the 24 SSL today, with a Mercury 115 HP 4-stroke, and when I got home and looked through the papers, no manual. That was the one thing I didn't have on my check list!!! There's nothing online (the FAQs on Mercury's website say to buy a manual - a lot of help that is).

Can someone describe the break in procedure for me? Or copy the important stuff from a manual? I would REALLY appreciate that. My understanding is you are supposed to vary the RPMs, don't let it idle a lot, don't WOT a lot, don't stay at any one RPM level for very long, but you need to be fairly aggressive loading and unloading the motor to get the rings to wear and seal in.

Does the manual say how many hours you have to do this? And is there anything special I need to know? If my impression on break in above is wrong, please let me know. I've heard if you don't put load on the motor in the first hours after "birth", you'll get a poor seal between the rings and the cylinder... I've also heard "don't over do it", so I'm not 100% sure what to do.

Thanks for any help anyone can offer! I hope to leave for the lake around noon tomorrow, and I don't want to screw up a brand new motor.

 

[Bigtop]

Well I do not own a merc but have a yamaha 115 four stroke. Your description of break in period is what my manual stated. Basically you don't want to run at 1 speed for long periods of time. Without going back to the manual, I believe the break in period was for the first 10 or 20 hours. I know you were wanting more specifics for a merc, but since you said you were going tomthe lake tomorrow, I thought I would let you know something in case no one with a merc responds. I think you will be fine as long as run it like you stated. It won't hurt to power it up to launch and load either. Have fun on your first day at the lake and enjoy. Hope this helps put your mind at ease.

 

[ChuckP]

Good post! We'll be putting our new Merc 200hp tomorrow too.

 

[spinzone]

I apologize as Im at my inlaws in E. Europe for the next 5 days so I dont have my manual to refer but I do remember that for the 1st 2 hours, you need to run at varying RPMs for 8 minutes not to exceed 4500rpms and then WOT for less than 1 minute.

 

[spinzone]

I also found this on the web for you. This is exactly what my break in period was for my 2011.

1) For the first hour of operation, run the engine at varied throttle settings not exceeding 3500 rpm's, or at approximately half throttle.

2) For the second hour of operation, run the engine at varied throttle settings up to 4500 RPM or at thrree-quarter throttle, and during this period of time, run it at full throttle for approximately one minute every 8 minutes.

3) For the next eight hours of operation, avoid continuous operation at full throttle from more than 5 minutes at a time.

 

[kaydano]

Thanks for the comments, Big and Spin. That was EXACTLY what I needed before we went out today. We had a great day on the lake, and I've now got two hours on the motor (then the rain came in).