Engine Break In, breaking-in, motor break-in [Merged 10-6]

[BrokeTurbo]

As the following thread will illustrate, motor break-in is not the issue it was in the fifties and sixties.
For all intents and purposes, your method will not significantly matter, within reason.

Well, I am getting the laser back from the shop this weekend. Here's a List of whats new, and whats not.New Pistons, Bearings, Rods, Crankshaft, Rings, Oil pump, Belts, Pullys, Head, Valves, No balancer belt. The only real thing thats old, but freshened up is the block, and valve cover, and the FI system. (Fuel Injection)

I am going to run Mobil 1 10w-30 with a Puroilator PL101xx Filter. I have a new clutch with a resurfaced flywheel going on. I've also got new fluids in the transmission.

My question is how should I break it in? This is my first non 70's Chevy, and I was wondering if there are any tricks to it.

The way I was going to do it, was 15 min of idle, warm up. Make sure all fluids/hoses/electrical is plugged in. Then about 1 hour of normal driving. Might take out to the Highway, and cruise around 65-70 for a little bit.

This sound good? I was not going to get on it, or push it till ive got about 500 miles on the engine. Even then, I'll still be taking it easy. Anyone have any tips or help? Thanks

 

[hereitcomes]

The best break in would probably be driving it the way you intend on a daily basis. There are 2383232 different opinions on how to "correctly" do it. Drive the way you normaly do and things should go ok. good luck

 

[98autogstspyder]

I would not run more than 12psi of boost until about 3000 miles.
Do an oil change @ 500, 1000, 2000, & 3000mi.
After that, you’ll probably be in good shape.

I would say 3,000 miles is way past the break in period of a new motor. The Haynes manual I have says something in the neighborhood of about 1200 miles for a new motor. Deathmug is right about the oil changes though. That is a good idea and smart to change the oil that often with a new motor. A clutch usually needs about 500 miles or so for a proper break in. So after the 1200 mile marker you should be okay to start letting her rip. Good luck with the new engine .

 

[Crawl]

Sounds good, should i go regular or synthetic on the new engine?

3000k before turning boost up sound right to everyone else? Im only going to be running probably 14-15 anyway because i just have a T25 stock fuel no air/fuel control, going to upgrade to the walbro 190/rewired thats about it till next spring

 

[Deathmug]

Sounds good, should i go regular or synthetic on the new engine?

Go regular till after 3K. Then use some Moble 1 or Royal Purple

 

[Crawl]

oh yeah, also what do people recommend for an oil filter, 95 GSX, i heard some people use oversized oil filters? (and what type of Royal Purple do you recommend , the 10w30 or?)

 

[Deathmug]

oh yeah, also what do people recommend for an oil filter, 95 GSX, i heard some people use oversized oil filters? (and what type of Royal Purple do you recommend , the 10w30 or?)

I use RP 10w30 & a napa gold filter w/o any probs.
The Napa golds are pretty much the same as the K&N, but 1/2 the price.

 

[dsmpride]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you are. I've got my relatively new evo3 and a brand new motor in the works and was really concerned as well. I talked to the guys at RRE and they said that if you're getting your turbo oil supply from the oil filter housing instead of the head you'd be good. This is just becase oil there at the "stock" supply location has just come out of the oil filter. So I ordered a new stainless feed line from them and I think I'll be good.

Good luck

 

[Deathmug]

I'm in pretty much the same boat as you are. I've got my relatively new evo3 and a brand new motor in the works and was really concerned as well. I talked to the guys at RRE and they said that if you're getting your turbo oil supply from the oil filter housing instead of the head you'd be good. This is just becase oil there at the "stock" supply location has just come out of the oil filter. So I ordered a new stainless feed line from them and I think I'll be good.

Good luck

I cant remember where the stock feed location is.
Are you saying it's close enough to the oil filter to do the job?

 

[weith1111]

I have two suggestions:

1. read this post, and any related: http://dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=147960&highlight=engine+break
specifically the "hard break-in" section, good stuff

things to not forget: use non-synthetic oil for a few thousand miles

2. use your old turbo just in case, if anything is wrong with the motor assembly, or any crap got in it, the turbo is going to get taken out, or at least need a rebuild if something trashes the impellers. it's super not likely, but would you rather chance wasting $700 or undo a couple lines and 6 or 7 bolts or whatever it is to swap the turbo? obviously it would suck to lose your brand new motor, but better the motor alone than the motor AND the turbo!

just my .02

 

[highintenzity4]

Hey guys my motor goes in this weekend.. I rebuilt it with ross pistons .20 over, eagle rods, clevite bearings, cleaned up head and got new valves and valve stem seals... Im anxious to go get tuned already... Do I have to break in the motor? Thanks.

 

[sweet97]

Probably the most controversial question that gets asked. I had Buschur Racing build my motor. David Buschur told me to go run the motor as hard as I wanted to as soon as I wanted too. I did not go that far but did not baby it for 3000 miles either. Boosted right away, just not WOT and continued to run a bit harder each day with oil changes at 100 miles, 500 miles and a couple more before 1000 miles at which time I went synthetic and have been running hard since 750 miles. The miles add up quick!!

 

[Ryan95tsiAWD]

What piston rings?

 

[highintenzity4]

Im using the rings that came with the ross kit... So I dont need to break in my motor? Look at the dragsters dont break in their rebuilds.hehe.

 

[2-0turbo]

I prescribe to the mototune philosophy. My new motor was seeing 12 psi after mile 002. I let it warm up in the garage, verified no leaks and proper coolant, and then drove the shit out of it. I had it on the roadcourse at 150 miles and put 250 hard miles on it at the track. I am running 10W-30 dino oil. I burned about a quart of oil at the track. Oil consumption is stabilizing now with 1600 miles on the clock. I have not done a compression check.

Aviation piston engines require minimum 75% power after a rebuild or replacing individual cyclinders/jugs. That requirement is for the first 50 hours. The goal is the same: seat the rings. Nothing else "breaks-in". If you're breaking in bearings, you'll be tearing it down soon.

My advice: make sure your tune is good and run it hard.

 

[boostmaniac]

My advice would be to run it at almost WOT if you were just breaking in the rings but as long as you have new bearings in I'd take it easy.
What I do is run it 3/4 throttle for about then at 100miles change your oil,then at 3-500 miles I'd change it again then run it as hard as you want and just make sure to change your oil another time before 1000miles. Good Luck!

 

[Turbo Talon DL]

So, I also "tried" to do the Mototune USA method of breaking in the motor. I had some linkage and a couple small leaks that kept it off the road for about the first 15min of NON road time while the engine was running. It did see about 8psi at zero miles for about 2 sec... Now that it has almost 500 miles on it, the compression test only yeilded about 150ish psi This is after a good hard drive as well, so the engine was still hot, burned my fingers on the plugs actually. My battery or starter wont really allow me to crank my engine over as hard as i would like tho, so im not sure if the low numbers are due to my valve timing, which I have triple checked, and its still set the same as when i first set it, my battery being low, or my starter being stupid. The car fires up instantly, not even a chance for it to crank over once before it runs.

 

[K_Hill]

I would recommend you breaking it in.

 

[NeOzz1]

This is not a DSM 4 cy but I broke my 4 stroke quad in (YFZ450) Pretty hard basically riding it like i have always(running it hard) and now with over 50 - 100 hours on it it runs like a champ, I don't know if this is relevant to this situation but it worked for that 4 stroke engine. I have also read almost every post in this thread an I would say no matter how you break in your engine as long as u change your oil alot and use non-synthetic at the beginning you will be fine but also after reading this I am starting to think it may be better to run it hard, I believe the engine will be fine no matter which way you break it in but there is proof of running perfect or beyond if you break it in hard. Just thought I would summarize some to help others.

 

[Endz0r]

my engine has just a little over 550 miles on it...i've been driving it hard since the beginning...conventional oil...no turbo timing...etc.

 

[Ryan95tsiAWD]

Im not sure about ross rings....but if they are similar to stock it is a good idea to break the car in by, obviously getting all leaks fixed, then doing some 3/4 throttle pulls from about 3500 to 5500rpms (10 or so pulls should do it). Drive the car normal (no constant long distance speeds and dont race the dern thing) for about 1500 miles. changing the oil when the other guy said is fine, just DONT use synthetic till the car has been broke in.

if those are chromoly rings then they are supposed to be "broken in" after about 15mins of driving and from what ive been told that one good pass down the strip is all you need.

everyone has there own method, but this has worked for our cars.

 

[renovatio]

I think hobbes had the best reply for a break in procedure let it warm up, vary speeds don"t let it idle. Warm up is crucial especially if you have forged pistons as they expand a lot more than cast ones do. You should also never exceed 65% of your rpm range. Most high end machine shops will bench run there engines before they sell it to you. This way if you treat it like crap when its new and it breaks they will have some insurance. Also if you used any moly assy. lube it could clog your filter. I like to use a cheapo fram for the first 50 miles and then change it and the oil. I babied mine for the first 500 miles. than I gave it hell and it runs great. Change the oil again at 500-600. A new engine can have a lot of foreign material in it machine shop dust (mixes well with oil to make lapping compound) rag lint, cleaning residue, dirt from tools honing oil. all of this is impossible to remove completely. Your filter will catch anything smaller than 3 microns thats pretty small. when the filter clogs it will bypass all that crap right into you main bearings and by by new motor. Also if you honed you cylinders It is important that you cross hatch is at the right angle 60* to shallow and the rings wont lubricate correctly to step and you will compromise compression. If you are worried about your cylinders being to large from honing you should Mic them, or you can check you ring end gap with a new piston ring. Both proceders are lined in you repair manual.

 

[2-0turbo]

<SNIP>You should also never exceed 65% of your rpm range. Most high end machine shops will bench run there engines before they sell it to you.

What do you base this on? I read a road and track article where the author visited the Mercedes AMG division. (I can find the article if you like--it was quite interesting) He helped one of the workers assemble an engine (all assembly work at AMG done by hand). After completing the assembly the engine goes to a cold dyno for about 10-15 minutes where no fuel or spark is used, but the engine is spun over with an electric motor to check oil pressure, leaks, water, etc. It then goes across the street to the hot dyno. It gets bolted up and fired up for the first time. Once warmed to NOT, they do several full-throttle dyno pulls. This was on a supercharged V8. It put down around 503 HP if my memory serves. This is with zero miles on the engine--all the way to redline, more than once.

Bottom line, Mercedes is not worried about hurting the motor doing that with zero miles on the clock. An engine is a machine. It doesn't know if it is new or not. If there is a crack somewhere or a material problem, it will break. But, your motor doesn't really know the difference between 5000 and 7000 RPM. There is absolutely no reason you can't go redline your brand-new motor. Think of it this way: at 1000 RPM, your motor is rotating almost 17 times per second. At 5K, it is 83 times per second. At 7K, it is 116 times per second. When you stop and think about what that means and how fast that little bugger is turning, the 33 times less per second it rotate at 5K versus 7K is noise in the equation.

This topic has generated a ton of responses, so there are lots of different methods of doing it out there. Everyone has the own opinion, philosophy and personal experience. But don't go and post stuff like "don't exceed 65% of RPM range" like it is some law and your motor will fail if you do. That is your opinion, one that I did not follow and have suffered no ill effects. So please state it as an opinion and not fact.

 

[94Jettameowpsst]

Whats it mean when you broke in your motor and you have relitively low compression in one of the cyliinders? That mean the rings in that cylinder didnt seat properly?

 

[tsunari]

Whats it mean when you broke in your motor and you have relitively low compression in one of the cyliinders? That mean the rings in that cylinder didnt seat properly?

how much lower is that cylinder compared to the others? I would imagine it's kind of difficult to properly seat 3 of 4 sets of rings when they are all operating in the same environment.

 

[DSMjrv]

well after 2 months of delays i am finally getting my car back tomorrow. it has a freshly rebuilt motor and i want to know waht the best bay to break it in would be? like what to do in the first 500 miles then 1000 and so on...

a friend told me i should let the car idle for about 20 min... then drive it for 10... and if everything checks out do 3 3rd gear pulls at 10-15psi and change the oil... after that drive normal on it for a good 500 miles and change the oil again, then at 1000 then at 3000.... and so on...

does that sould right?