How To Break In An Outboard Motor

The break in process of an engine may vary slightly by manufacturer, be sure to reference the owners manual for your new motor before you put your boat in the water and begin the process.

Before you start, check the process outlined by Suzuki Marine in their owners manual and remove the cowl from the motor and spend some time going over everything. Do not only familiarize yourself with the motor but check fluids, wires and hoses to make sure there wasn’t any loose connections.

You should always double check and make sure no issues had developed in the process and that nothing had come loose.

Then,  inspect:

• Battery connections
• Propellor nut
• Transom mount bolts

If you’ve got an issue to address it’s much easier to fix it on land with a full set of tools than floating around on the lake or river.

You can now proceed with  Suzuki Outboards break in process as outlined in the owners manual.

Again, most manufacturers processes will be very similar but make sure you refer to the owners manual for your own motor.

Suzuki DF200 Outboard Break In

The “break in” process for the Suzuki DF200 Four Stroke Outboard is outlined below:

For the initial 2 hours:

• Allow sufficient idling time for the engine to warm up after cold engine starting (about 5 minutes).
• After warming up, run the engine at idling speed or the lowest in gear speed for about 15 minutes.
• During the remaining 1 hour and 45 minutes operate the engine in gear at leass than half throttle (3000 r/min)

For the next 1 hour:

• Operate the engine in gear ar 4000 r/min or three quarter throttle. Avoid running the engine at full throttle.

Remaining 7 hours:

• Operate the engine in gear at desired engine speed. You may occasionally use full throttle but do not operate the engine continuously at full throttle for more than five minutes.

Put about four hours of time on the motor towards the break in process before you head back home. When you pull the boat from the water, do another quick “once over” of the outboard connections and fluids before you head out just to triple check any issues.

During the process, spending time on the water learning the boat and breaking it in, focus on some other items as well including:

• Getting a good general feel for the boat and it’s operation.
• Filling livewells and bait wells to see how the added weight impacted the boat sitting in the water.
• Measuring the floatation pods and transom to determine where the water line hits with live wells empty and full and the boat loaded with people (for sonar installation).