I have a new to me 250 SHO and have read that idling for extended periods can be a problem on 4 strokes, especially SHO motors contributing to early powerhead issues. I'm going to be scanning for a couple of days and was wondering if there's any recommended protocol for extended idling with a SHO, such as 30 minutes idling followed by 10 minutes WOT to prevent carbon build up. Or will running Ring Free and a 1 mile WOT run in between 20-30 minutes of idling be sufficient?
Don't want to blow my new motor! Thanks!

Get extended warranty. The 2 most important things I hear: 89 octane and ring-free.

First 10 hours of break-in (no idling). Idling time after break in is not addressed in the manual although I limit mine to 30 minutes or less the vary speed from 3K to WOT for 5 to 10 minutes. Only thing Yamaha Tech advised me to use was STABIL ethanol treatment. I am curious to see what others have to say about the ring free. SHO also needs to be serviced every 50 hours.

I use my for extended periods of idling when fishing and stopping to check an area. I have not hat a single issue in 3 years. I have been running Yamaha 4 stokes for many years and never had a single engine issue and I fished them all the same way.

Thanks!