Honda BF20 break-in

[davkrat]

Took my brand new BF20 out for the first time today. I topped off the oil and followed the break-in procedure. Idled around for 15 minutes then did over an hour of low speed, followed by another hour of 50+% power. I then trolled for a little bit to see how slow the troll was at idle, 10 minutes or so. I then started to run back to the boat ramp planning to do occasional bursts at full throttle limiting it to 5 minutes. I ran for about 7 minutes between 75-100% throttle when the engine started to bog down. I noticed smoke bubbling out of the water about 100' behind the boat. I stopped and brought the motor up and noticed some black carbon/burnt oil at the exhaust ports. I let the engine cool down then started it back up. Ran it for a while at 50% throttle then tried full power again, no more problems after that.

​Is it normal to burn a little oil during the break-in? Was idling around a bad idea, could it have caused oil to build up?

​Did I just smoke my piston rings???

 

[ondarvr]

Was that the recommended break in procedure?

 

[davkrat]

Honda's procedure:

15 minutes idle/trolling speed
​45 minutes 10%-30% of maximum rpm
60 minutes 50%-80% of max rpm
​next 8 hours do not run engine at full throttle for more than 5 minutes.

​I did the first 2 hours just as instructed. Getting in to the next "8 hours" is when I idled for a while then ran it up to full throttle. I just got it on plane and ran between 75%-100% for 7 minutes when the smoke happened. During the "8-hours" period it does not say not to idle, just to avoid extended full throttle runs.

 

[ondarvr]

Check the oil level.