"break in oil" - product alert - avoid this one!

Brad Penn "break in oil"

My buddy used this product this summer on some virgin "perfect bores" with some brand new Kawasaki OEM rings (1015cc) on OEM cast iron liners.

The motor upon start up smoked non stop after the first 10 seconds after start up... the motor ran for another 3-4 minutes before he shut it down and tore into it to see the issue - the rings had been "whipped over on the leading edge" and looked like they had 100K miles on them... the way it smoked he thought he forgot to valve seals in it or maybe he forgot the oil rings but actually nothing was wrong except he was using this product for the first time.

The rings did not seat at all.

He drained the oil and changed the filter then lightly honed the liners and put another set of new OEM rings on the stock pistons. He filled up with his regular oil (see bottom)with no additives and started it up... no smoking and correctly broke in rings.

He called the local distributor and that guy said he had the same issue with this product in his personal race car - a 700 CI Pro Mod mountain motor drag car... he ended up solving the smoking by shutting off his water pump and making a full 1/4 mile pass under full power thereby seating the rings and avoiding stripping it down.

The guy who told me about this owns a high performance motorcycle shop and has put together countless motors and this was the first time he ever got a "surprise" like the one from this product although he uses the Brad Penn Grade 1 oils (like the old Kendal green) and swears by them because they have correct levels of ZDDP for flat tappet motors... He believes there might be something "slick" in its composition that is detrimental to ring seating.

DO NOT USE THIS PRODUCT !

All break-in procedures warn you about not allowing an engine to idle. This is not tthe oli brand it is the procedure. i had the same problem with a completly diferent oil and a high ZDDP content. It took almost 3000 Mi to brake in the engine and for it to stop smoking. The trick is to start the engine and giving it only enough time to build propper oil pressure and than to run it HARD for a few minutes under load to allow everything to seat. If you don't, the engine will burn oil untill you do run it hard, and the longer you take to do this, the longer it will take to than stop the oil burning. The bigest mistake people make, is to use an oil which is too heavy to brake in an engine. The cylinder walls will get glazed and than never brake in.

Back in the stone age when we built engines, there was no such thing as break in oil. We used STP oil treatment with a 1" paint brush to paint engine bearing surfaces and parts we wanted to protect.

I rebuilt my KZ 750 engine about 3 years ago and I used a 50-50 mix of castrol GTX and STP oil treatment for coating critical surfaces, including the cylinder walls, rings, cam lobes, etc. The engine broke in perfectly and very quickly. I did not do anything tricky when I started it, I just rode it around on city streets under light throttle openings at first then gradually rode it a little harder.

I am not sure why the Brad Penn oil caused a problem, I have never used it.

It was the product... both of these guys are not dummy's... the motorcycle guy has over $100K into a Top Fuel Kawasaki and has rebuilt countless Z1 style motors as a living and the distributor has at least $100K into that Pro Mod car... they both had the same issue.

These are both professionals working in a related industry.

Drag racers usually don't have the luxury of being able to break motors in anyways, so I believe these guys have a set procedure they follow - no idling is a given.

I would not post this as a lark... I thought I should mention it in case anybody is thinking about using it... two horror stories is too much as far as I am concerned.

If it was only the one incident I probably would not waste my time to post it.

I use whatever mfg, spec engine oil for that engine, I would never use anything like above product, never ever had a problem with rings seating, but thanks for the heads up! :huh:

Did you have oil on the cylinder liners during assembly? I have been told that it's best to run the rings in dry to work with the swirl pattern in the liners as oil in the steel makeup takes a long time (weeks) to burn out of the metal and it will smoke. I am assuming it is like getting your car oil sprayed; it works slowly into the metal to protect it.
David

lemo32 wrote:

I use whatever mfg, spec engine oil for that engine, I would never use anything like above product, never ever had a problem with rings seating, but thanks for the heads up! :huh:

The problem is, most current production motor oil does not meet the minimum requirements needed for any flat tappet engine such as these motorcycles. It is only applicable for very late model auto engines. Only specialty oils still have adequate ZDDP levels and the right stuff to work with wet clutches and flat tappet engines.

Kawboy74 wrote:

Did you have oil on the cylinder liners during assembly? I have been told that it's best to run the rings in dry to work with the swirl pattern in the liners as oil in the steel makeup takes a long time (weeks) to burn out of the metal and it will smoke.

FWIW, After I bored mine, I coated the pistons, rings, walls with a 50-50 mix of castrol and STP so it wouldn't be starting up dry. It took about ten minutes of running to burn the oil out, rings seated perfectly.

Kawboy74 wrote:

Did you have oil on the cylinder liners during assembly? I have been told that it's best to run the rings in dry to work with the swirl pattern in the liners as oil in the steel makeup takes a long time (weeks) to burn out of the metal and it will smoke. I am assuming it is like getting your car oil sprayed; it works slowly into the metal to protect it.
David

Some companies like MTC, say no oil on the pistons and rings. Some companies like VHR put them together dry, they say the break in peroid is the time it takes to pump oil. If your not sure, ask the company that made the parts.

When I rebuilt my 77 KZ1000 and installed MTC pistons, I followed there advice to not put oil on the pistons and rings. It put the smallest puff of blue smoke out the exhaust when I first started it. After that it doesn't smoke or use oil.

I've rebuilt a ton of car motors and a few bike engines,and I coat all the surfaces with regular oil,and before I fire it up for the first time,I allways spit down the intake,and prick my finger with a push pin,and drip a drop of blood down there too.Just for luck.Never had an issue.A little tetnus,but hey,that's what it's all about.

Injected wrote:

It was the product... both of these guys are not dummy's... the motorcycle guy has over $100K into a Top Fuel Kawasaki and has rebuilt countless Z1 style motors as a living and the distributor has at least $100K into that Pro Mod car... they both had the same issue.

These are both professionals working in a related industry.

Drag racers usually don't have the luxury of being able to break motors in anyways, so I believe these guys have a set procedure they follow - no idling is a given.

I would not post this as a lark... I thought I should mention it in case anybody is thinking about using it... two horror stories is too much as far as I am concerned.

If it was only the one incident I probably would not waste my time to post it.

Sounds like a bad batch of oil got bottled up and shipped to me.

I've used, Valvoline, Castrol, BelRay, Joe Gibbs, Kendal and Rotella to break in motors. Sometimes with lifter lube additives, sometimes not. Never had or seen an issue like that. Oh.... I even had to use STP one time in a 351 Windsor because the guy insisted on it

I know a car engine builder that dyno's at least 3 motors a week that has broken in race engines with Mobil 1. No issues with ring seating their either.

It's rare, but not unheard of to get bad motor oil from a good name company. Remember the Kendall incident a number of years back?

Thanks for the heads up. I'm going to talk to the local speed shop that sells all the racing oils and see if they ran into anything. Some numbers off those bottles would be good to have

I have also posted this on a very good tech site for feedback from our car brothers.