This is coming from another thread. I don't want to hijack it so ...

I know our cylinders are ceramic coated, just never gave this next part much thought until now.

When an engine is being broken in, the rings 'seal' to the cylinder walls (thus conforming to their shape for best seal) during the break in period. In a conventional engine this comes from the filing action caused by the cross hatch honing. The honing leaves very small ridges in the cylinder which act like a file on the rings causing them to conform to the cylinder wall shape (anyone out there feel free to correct me if this understanding is wrong). It largely ends when those ridges wear down and no longer possess any cutting action.

So how do our rings get 'sealed' and conform to the shape of our cylinders without the crosshatch honing being in there?

Hoping someone knows this. Its going to drive me nuts now until I figure it out.

Whatever action causes it works, we have some of the most reliable motors out there for long term driving. Just would really like to understand what it is.

Gram

Just a little heads up, is this coming from the Synthetic oil VS detergent oil break in thread?
I wouldn't mind knowing the facts on this myself.
Howie

I had to make one more post to get my number off 666, I couldn't take that.. sorry.
As far as synthetic oil goes I know a lot of my buddy's that will put that stuff in a new car and go like , I know that in a jet engine we use synthetic oil on every component and there is no break in period on any of the moving parts.
I also know that the engines we have now are not the same as they were 15 to 20 years ago. But I'm not even sure that matters with the oils today.
H

Back on topic. Could the ceramic be harder than the rings?

Well ceramic is harder than steel, they use ceramic rods to sharpen knives now because it will sharpen at an almost atomic level, more or less molding the steel into an edge instead of removing it.
H

Yeah, this is from the oil discussion.

But its really not about the oil. The reason I was always told not to use synthetics during break in was because the rings needed to seat real well before the hone hatching lost its bite. Then Doc pop'd in said it wouldn't matter in our ceramic coated cylinders. Got to thinking about that and he's right, we don't have the hone hatching.

So now I'm confused

Hotelfox wrote:
Well ceramic is harder than steel, they use ceramic rods to sharpen knives now because it will sharpen at an almost atomic level, more or less molding the steel into an edge instead of removing it.
H

Hmmm... Maybe thats it. Maybe its hard enough to do the job, even without the hatching. So you talking about ceramics being used to act as soap stones? If they can do that they could do this. Thats really interesting.

If the ceramic walls are smooth (which they're probably not), then the rings obviously don't need that much "adjustment", except by whatever friction is still caused by the scraping. Just a thought from a guy who doesn't wrench for a living.

The rings would definitely need to break in somehow. They need to match the cylinder walls and exert a small amount of pressure to do their job. Unless Yamaha has some fantastic new process that can make uniform walls, pistons, and rings that can all match with some incredibly small tolerances.

I really have to know the answer. Guess its time to put my researchers cap on

i was wondering that myself i went straight to mobile one at 600 miles!