www.iFourWinns.com

Well, I got to discussing the break-in period during on-water delivery of my new 220. The guy from the dealership said I could run it full throttle right away, just to vary my speeds for the first 20 hours. Also said I could wakeboard behind it right away, since you only board at 20MPH, and that I could pull a skier on 2 as well-but he would avoid pulling a slalom skier above 25MPH for the first 10-15 hours.

I was excited to hear the wakeboarding part, but I'm not sure I'm 100% confident in what he had to say after reviewing my Mercruiser owner's manual. It says 3/4 throttle max for the first 10 hours, and not to go WOT in order to come out of the hole. In order to wakeboard, you don't have to come out WOT nor do you have to run at full throttle.

I've heard many things over the years about proper run-in, but hardly ANY of them were listed in the manual-such as NO TOWING for the first 20 hours. Obviously, I'm not interested in voiding my warranty, but it was very surprising that the manual wasn't more "limiting" in what I could do.

I've seen some articles out there on motorcycle engines and other performance engines, which basically say to run it hard and don't "baby" it. Are many of those things old wives' tales (sorry ladies) or what? Curious as to others' thoughts on the run-in period?

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)

Well, you may not like my opinion on this. I vote for following the manual. I've seen too many cases of dealers either not knowing what they're even talking about, or telling customers what they think they want to hear.

We did pull a 2-man tube during break-in, but only a couple of times, only at "just-planing" speed, only for short times, and only with 2 young kids on it.

We paid *careful* attention to varying speed throughout the 20 hours, never ran WOT until after 10 hours, and between 10 and 20 only ran WOT once or twice for no more than 10-20 seconds. Now at 45 hours, we still don't run WOT very often, nor for much longer than that. It's pretty much that once-in-a-blue-moon occasion when we're in the right place at the right time and we get a large expanse of glass-smooth water with no one else around. At those times, I can't resist, at least for a few moments .

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Mike
2005 Four Winns 230/240
VP 5.7GXi/DP
1998 F-150 XLT
Boat Pic

Agreed on all fronts. Like I said, not interested in voiding my warranty. The only one I really feel OK about is wakeboarding. It is only 20MPH, I can start out slowly and get up just fine, and there is no way that pulling me at 20MPH would approach anywhere near 3/4 throttle-let alone WOT.

Thanks for the input. I think I'll probably follow your advice on all the other points.

Everyone have an enjoyable, and safe, holiday weekend.

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Paul
2007 Four Winns Horizon 220
Mercruiser 350 Mag MPI w/ Bravo III Drive
2004 Ford Explorer Limited (V8-AWD)
Pomme de Terre Lake (Southwest Missouri)