Merc 150 Break-in Advice

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Mark Hofman

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Guys, I'll be home from a business trip on Sunday. If the temperature doesn't drop below 60, I want to get my boat out on the water to break in the outboard. My question is:



How much time will it take me to do the break in and burn the 30 gallons of fuel required by Mercury? The motor is a 150 XR6 and the boat is a Tournament V18. I know that I will need to vary the engine speed, keeping it below 4,000 RPMs for the first hour. But, after I can go to higher RPMs, about how long will a tank of gas last running non-stop above 4,000?



Thanks!



Mark
 
Haven't exactly measured it, but I think the XR-6 burns about 14 GPH at WOT.



Russ
 
Mark, I just broke in my new Merc 150. I burned around 9 to 10 gallons per hour on the average, while varying the throttle appropriately. I never held the motor at full throttle for more than 2 minutes at the most after I passed the first hour. That first tank was mixed with oil as well so that I had "double" oiling for the first tank full (32 gallons in a 185 Sport). My dealer recommended going through the process for at least 10 hours which I just completed. Send me a note with your questions.
 
Mark,



The one thing you didn't mention was adding oil to the first tank of gas. My dealer did that as part of the setup, and yours probably did to, but it wouldn't hurt to check with the dealer. I agree with Bob on running the first 50 gallons with 50:1 mix. I only ran the first 30 Gallons that way, but if I had to do it over again I'd run the first 50 gallons as Bob recommends. I talked to some of the other boat owners (with different motor manufacturers), and that's what they recommended. This one is VERY important to the new engine.



By the way we did have a number of tornados on the ground in Austin last night and lots of flooding. My area wasn't effected, but others were in serious danger. Fortunately, that doesn't happen often. We have more weather in the area tonight. I'm still headed out in the morning for a day on the lake. The morning weather may stop me if it's as severe as it was last night. Other wise, I'm on the lake.



Regards,



Steve
 
Steve:



Yeah, I forgot to mention adding oil directly to the first couple of tanks of fuel.



We're taking it out to Lake Carlyle in Illinois tomorrow for its first run. We'll burn 30 gallons on this trip, and then I'll run another 20 gallons through in late January when we go on a trout fishing trip to Lake Taneycomo near Branson.



Thanks for all the advice, guys! I know I'm going to have a hard time sleeping tonight. Too excited.



Mark
 

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