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My general guidelines are as follows: Prime up the oil system either manually or run the starter with the switch off until the pressure is up. Then, fire it up. Run at about third to half throttle for the first 15 minutes checking the gauges, observing for anything leaking, fine tune timing etc during this time. Then, open it up to ½ to ¾ throttle for the next 15 minutes, still no load. The next half hour (still no load) vary the speed every 5 minutes or so, rev it a little but don’t go overboard either too slow or too fast. I like to shut them down after an hour or so and re-torque the head and re-set the valves. After the initial one hour no-load break-in it is important that the engine have some load on it, starting light increasing as time goes on (do not lug it down below the set rpm) do not keep a consistent rpm or load on it for the first 10 hours or so (a little vary is really all you need). After 10 hours or so you can pretty much use it normally, you still don’t want to lug it hard or lit it idle for long periods of time but use it. I have overhauled several engines, and the best have turned out when I used them lightly for an hour or so after the one hour no-load run in, then moderately for a couple hours increasing to almost rated load until 10 hours and then normally thereafter. The worst ones were the ones that I couldn’t really keep a load on (loader tractors) for the first ten hours. I also like to do the first oil and filter change at 10 hours, then 50 hours, then at the normal interval. Good luck and enjoy…
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