Break-In Procedure for DF30 - recommendation from Porta Bote?

[Mo Ford]

Hey all, I just joined here after seeing this thread.

Have any of you received your motors yet from Porta Bote?
I ordered a white DF 30 remote at the end of June on backorder; just got a call last Tuesday (7/28) that they were in stock and shipping out at the end of the week.

Would be cool to hear your experience, and how your setup and break-in went.

Best,
Mo
(Redding, CA)

[jeopardy954]

I ordered white too, I think it looks much nicer! I was thinking of ordering about two weeks ago when they had stock, but held off due to an upcoming move, and now am kicking myself for doing so!!

They said that the motor I bought will hit the US on July 20th (already en route when I ordered). He said the black won't be available until september or october.

[trizzle]

Ya, saw your post on THT, that was a porta bote motor? Which break in procedure did you actually use? Sounded like a combo of prop/weight distribution to me, hope you get it squared away! On my last motor, which was a pretty torquey 40hp 2 stroke Merc, I couldn’t plane with 2 guys in the back with a 3 blade prop. 4 blade helped a good bit though.

Ya, not sure where this idea comes from....? Seemed like a friendly guy, but not sure why he’s recommending this?

I followed the manual. I don't know why he would just make it up though. He was a complete jerk to me. Anyone else I've talked to has been pleasant there. It's too bad they are backed up now. Mine came extremely fast. I went with the white one. Do you know if there is a supply difference between the white and black?

[jeopardy954]

Ya, saw your post on THT, that was a porta bote motor? Which break in procedure did you actually use? Sounded like a combo of prop/weight distribution to me, hope you get it squared away! On my last motor, which was a pretty torquey 40hp 2 stroke Merc, I couldn’t plane with 2 guys in the back with a 3 blade prop. 4 blade helped a good bit though.

Ya, not sure where this idea comes from....? Seemed like a friendly guy, but not sure why he’s recommending this?

[trizzle]

Hello All,

Recently ordered a DF30 from Porta-Bote, hoping to get it by end of July (sounds like everyone is short on motors!).

When talking to them on the phone, the person I was speaking with recommended a break-in procedure much different than that in the manual: Specifically, he suggested starting off with 4 hours of idling in neutral, followed by 2h at 25% throttle (so around 1600 rpm by my estimation).

Has anyone heard of this? Anyone think this would be helpful or harmful? I know what break-in should accomplish in theory, but don't know much about the how and the what in terms of what it's actually doing... if a longer idle increases the chances of a better, smoother engine I'd be happy to do it, but is it a case of more is better for sure?

Thanks in advance!

That old man is a dumbass. I talked to the same guy cause I was having issues getting on plane. It's all very straight forward in the manual. 10 hours total of break-in. He told me to run it for 3 hours without muffs in the driveway to start. Claimed my manual was the old one and was going to get someone at Suzuki fired.

Edit: here's the review I left them.

Bought a Suzuki outboard from these guys. Let me start by saying, delivery was quick and Cindy was pleasant with me. Where things went really South is I've been having issues with the motor not performing the way it should. I called and Cindy said she'd have someone call me back. The older"gentleman" that called me back is a habitual liar. It was unbelievable. He started by belittling me immediately and telling me to "read the goddamn manual" for proper break in period. I told him I did and I followed the manual to a t. He cut me off rudely and told me that I didn't follow the break in procedure and I'm lucky I didn't seize the motor. His instructions were to not put the motor in gear for the first 10 hours. First 3 hours to run it on the trailer with no muffs. Yeah you read that right, run it without water for 3 hours. Followed by 3 hours with muffs. I then cut him off and started reading word for word from the manual on the real procedure. Guess what guys? I have the "old" manual and this was supposed to be fixed "6 months ago" and "somebody is going to get fired". This all started over me just calling to see if they could help out or see if they had a way to help me out. Long story short is, if you don't have a dealer close to you, don't buy from these guys. I've got to drive 3 hours to the closest dealer to get this figured out now.. if you have a dealer close but these a significantly better but, then why not?

[Murray]

Follow the owners manual. One has to assume that the manufacturer would know what’s best for their engines not to mention potential warranty claims down the road.

[jeopardy954]

Hello All,

Recently ordered a DF30 from Porta-Bote, hoping to get it by end of July (sounds like everyone is short on motors!).

When talking to them on the phone, the person I was speaking with recommended a break-in procedure much different than that in the manual: Specifically, he suggested starting off with 4 hours of idling in neutral, followed by 2h at 25% throttle (so around 1600 rpm by my estimation).

Has anyone heard of this? Anyone think this would be helpful or harmful? I know what break-in should accomplish in theory, but don't know much about the how and the what in terms of what it's actually doing... if a longer idle increases the chances of a better, smoother engine I'd be happy to do it, but is it a case of more is better for sure?

Thanks in advance!