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

 

[white1gdsm11]

damn so is it pointless to not rev the motor past 3000 not putting load on the engine at all.changing oil at the mileage you guys said. but not hitting it for more than 1000 miles......i thought it took 800 miles for the rings to seat?

 

[eric91gst]

should i run any boost when i break it in?

 

[Locke]

If you are very concerned, put your old clutch in for the break in of the motor.

I would not be so concerned, myself. I would slip the clutch more than normal to help the clutch seat quickly. (Not so much as to glaze the PP and flywheel though)

Use your best judgment, or wait for others to chime in.

 

[toybreaker]

for the clutch, i believe act reccomends to give it a few hard launches and let it cool to break in a 2600.

This is not correct.

Breaking in a clutch is more about the disc material than it is about the pressure plate clamping strength.

Act recomends minimal slip/loading during break in on their street discs, (according to their faq sheet on their website.) I didn't see too much in the way of break-in instructions on fidanza's website.

Hard launches will flat destroy a virgin street clutch disc, and will create hot spots on the flywheel and pressure plate, rendering them unusable.....

as for the motor breakin procedure, no offense to tonybreaker but i have run 15 motors that i personally put together and broke in with the method i posted, half of witch saw 400+ whp before the first 1500 miles and they never used a drop of oil, perfect compression and are just down right strong.

No offense taken . This is the intraweb, and everybodies entitled to their opinion.

That is a pretty small sample though...I have personally machined, assembled, and broke in several hundred engines....and I'm pretty familiar with the proccess.

There are several other large variables to be taken into account here as well.

The ring materials will have a large influence over the break in procedure.

The composition and materials of the piston, their installed clearance, and several other factors will influence the rpm/load/time equation.

I looked in Eric's profile (and a few of his threads) for more info on the internals, but didn't find much. He does ask good questions, and he's recieved some solid advice. I'd like to continue that trend.


A specific break in procedure is beyond the scope of a few choice words, that's for sure!

you can use either method im sure tonybreakers will work just as well, but whatever you do USE ONLY 20W-50 for the break in and first couple oil changes. its thicker so it wont get past the rings as easy because they wont be seated at all right off the bat, itll have a ton of blowby. the thicker the oil, the harder it is to get past the rings, and the less oil getting past teh rings, the better they bite and seat.

I'm not sure I agree with this.

A thicker oil won't be as easily scraped off the cylinder wall by the very thin oil control rings. Visualize a squeegee on your windshield, what will scrape off easier, a thin fluid, or a thick one?

On these motors, with factory pistons, and factory style three piece oil control rings, the piston pin is oiled thru the oil control ring spacer. (as well as the squirter on the rod, and some splash from the piston squirters in the case.) A very small pressure differential exists above the lower oil control ring, and the crankcase below it. This moves oil into the spacer section of the oil control ring pack, and some will travel down the piston oil passage and flood the pin's top surface, (where the load is the highest, btw)

I want that pin to see oil as soon as possible, and I want it to have a large flow rate, and thinner oil will do that for me.

Thicker oil will also have more of a tendency to decrease the volume of oil seen at engine start up. (thicker oil=more resistance to flow=higher pressure=more oil bypassed at the oil pressure relief valve=less oil going into the engine.)

This is critical because the oil not only lubricates the machined surfaces, it also flushes away debris and wear particles that occur on the cylinder walls and in between the bearing surfaces.

The single biggest problem I have seen on these motors during break in is damage to the rod bearings. Most of it is cleanliness issues. (The mains usually look ~acceptable.) This leads me to believe that people don't get their cranks clean enough. The crank polishing process leaves a pretty significant amount of fine particles on the crank, and in it's oiling passages. These can be hard to remove, even with bottle brushes, and flushing the passages. There's some areas of the drilled passages that you just can't access to clean. When the crank is full of oil and rotating, centrifical force acting on the oil will hydraulically scour these areas clean. Some of these particles will end up in the rod bearings. I'd like to flush that out quickly, before it gets imbedded in the bearing face.

This is why I actually light my own motors on 5w-30, and do the initial 5 minute (unloaded) warm up on this oil. I then change the oil to 10w-30, and fire in a fresh filter for the initial light load/low rpm test flight.

I might think about a thicker oil on subsequent runs, depending on ambient air temp, and the monitored oil temp.

The key to a successfull break-in is to progressively increase the load/rpm envelope, That way, you're not tearing the peaks off/scuffing the bores/mashing stuff into the bearings, but progressively removing the high spots, and wearing the surfaces into each other at a measured, reasonable rate.

And, you're also not just burnishing/glazing the bores by babying it. That's almost as bad, but the rings will eventually break-in, just not as well, and there will be increased leak-down/blow-by/oil consumption.

In summary;

Have a plan of attack, and stick to it.

Try and minimise the heat cycles on a fresh motor. Get it lit, leak checked, and fresh oil in it, and the intial load cycles on the rings done in a time efficient manner. I can usually get more than a hundred miles on a fresh motor the first day, just aimlessly motoring around.

An incredible amount of wear occurs in the beginning of a motors life.

I'd like all that wear to be with everything at operating temperature.

This ensures the pistons are at their operating clearance, and supporting the rings correctly, and the bores are have reached their operating dimensions/shape.

A series of progressively larger loads, systematically applied, with a rest/coast period in between load cycles, will achieve a successfull break-in with minimal collateral damage.

You can never change your oil too much on a fresh motor during the break in. tease: well, maybe I can, but I'm a freak )

As far as boosting a fresh motor, that's for you to decide. I personally don't get into boost for long periods, but I think a little boost, judiciously applied will speed the break-in proccess, especially during the later load cycles.

Good luck, and let us know how it turns out!

 

[BISHILVR]

Btw, I'm a master engine machinist, and I've built/broken in hundreds of motors, and I really hate it when people bring up the "break it in like you stole it"....

It's partially true, but people take it to extremes, and I've seen a lot of scuffed pistons, because they didn't have the motor up to operating temps, and then they boosted the piss out of it, expanding the pistons too quickly...or bearing distress from not allowing the high spots on the bearings/crank to work themselves into a happy medium before loading them up.

It seems like anybody that builds engines everyday (you and I and others) always suggest the same break in procedure. Then you have the "moto-tune" people that will listen to some no name guy with no credentials that wrote his theory on some internet site on how he broke in a dirt bike engine one time and it didnt immediately blow up. People just wont learn. The majority of the break in on the rings can actually be done in neutral in your driveway.

 

[cc4ever]

The best way to break in a clutch is to just drive around in the city. Those stand still starts without reving high are the way that it breaks in. Your clutch should not slip all the way to redline. But do not shift hard at all when you are above 3k rpms. So yes if you want to increase rpms over 3k then go ahead, just be very easy on the shifting.

 

[eric91gst]

can i run any boost while breaking in the clutch and motor at the same time

 

[HondaStylez]

Clutch break in involves slipping it as little as possible. This has nothing to do with the amount of power the motor is making and how much you're beating on it, just don't slip it, end of story. The guy that said slip it a lot is misinformed. That's the best way to glaze over your new clutch.

 

[matt98eclipse]

I just got done replaceing my rod bearings and piston rings on my 420a motor. Does anyone have any tips on how to break it in?

 

[iEMPIRE]

Get on the Highway.

 

[matt98eclipse]

I was told to stay off the high ways

 

[wangboy925]

no highway driving

no using synthtic oil

no 900rmp idle when u start it, keep it at idle at 3k rpm for about 20 minutes
vary driving at different rpms and speeds

acclerate the car at around 75% throttle to seat the rings properly to around 4k rpm and let off the pedal to have vacuum and let the rpms drop till 2k and reapeat

replace oil and filter at 50 miles after driving it, then again at 500 miles, then 1000 miles

no full boost while breaking in the engine

no bogging the car

 

[b00st3d]

Ten people will tell you ten different ways...here's mine:

1. 15 mins of low rpms 2000-2500.
2. drain oil and remove filter.
3. Add new filter and oil.
4. Go drive the car fairly hard and resume normal driving.

I did my oil changes at 200, 500 and 1000 miles then switched to synthetic and 2500 mile oil changes. No problems to date.

 

[matt98eclipse]

k thanxs man im gonna be breaking it in this weekend. So what about 3 pounds of boost or do u just recommend no boost till after broken in?

 

[GloriousDSM]

This will answer all your questions and anything else you could possibly think of Sir.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215733&highlight=engine+break+in

 

[b00st3d]

I'm not a person that buys into the 1k mile break in theroy. Look at new cars, people hop in them and drive as normal.

On my motor, i gave it the above break-in and was out racing the following weekend.

 

[matt98eclipse]

thats what i was thinking too. So should i boost at all or low boost ?

 

[GloriousDSM]

low boost will be fine, you need to if you want to get the motor and rings seated properly to a forced induction application

 

[absolute_DSM]

This will answer all your questions and anything else you could possibly think of Sir.

http://www.dsmtuners.com/forums/showthread.php?t=215733&highlight=engine+break+in

Great thread and as Defiant says
"All break-in stories are guesses. There are so many different methods and hints that it apparently doesn't really matter- and matters less now than twenty years ago, when a "high-mileage" engine was 60,000 miles. We have kids hotrodding DSMs at _triple_ that mileage, and killing parts other than the engine.

The "rule" I was told early, and have had success with (over a quarter-million miles on my '69 Datsun 2000, which I rebuilt and broke in) is to drive the new engine the way you intend to drive it for its whole life."

That pretty much sums it up.

 

[Locke]

Slipping is how the clutch seats. Always has been.

For organic street discs "00 and SS" we recommend breaking in the clutch for 200-300 miles with mild engagement such as stop and go city driving prior to racing or spirited driving. ACT race discs usually only require a few hard slips to lap in the surfaces prior to normal driving or racing. Do not overheat the clutch during the break in period.

 

[gsxeclipse97]

Ok well i finally get my car back today or on monday. The motor I bought was a 7-bolt that had new rings put in the bearings were good so signs of wear on them. No i know that I have to go back through the break in process but no one has a direct anwser to how you do that. There are 2 main ways that i have been told how to do this.

1. Take it easy on the motor for the first 500-2000 miles and then if everything is good after that you can step on it. Others have said not to give it more than 9 psi and vary the engine speeds.

2. Another group said drive it like you stole it to make sure if something is going to break it does it then.

People said i did the break in process wrong but i did excatly what i was told to do with the motor. Also would it be ok for me to make a trip to austin from houston with the motor or do i need to wait for something.

 

[SpectreTalon]

From the Haynes Manual:

1. Accelerate at full throttle from 30 to 50 mph, then allow vehicle to slow to 30 mph with the throttle closed. Repeat procedure 10-12 times. This will load the piston rings and cause them to seat properly against the cylinder walls.
2. Drive the vehicle gently for the first 500 miles (no sustained high speeds). Check oil.
3. At approximately 500-600 miles, change oil and filter, and for the next few hundred miles, drive normally, do not pamper it or abuse it.
4. After 2000 miles, change oil and filter again, and consider the engine broken in.

I'm guessing after changing the oil and filter (3) it would be safe to make your trip. Hope this helps a little. Good luck

 

[DJYoshaBYD]

^^^^^

Do what he said... when I broke in my high comp motor like this, I got 190 psi in all cylinders when I did the compression test at 25 miles.... After 500, change the oil and drive it normally and try not to drive the engine at a super constant RPM... I.E. when your on the freeway, downshift every once in a while and give it some gas just to keep the RPMs varying while you breaking it in.... after 2000, its broke it... have fun

 

[staticbrainwash]

If you ask a few mechanics, look through a few threads on here, or even ask us tooners, we'll all tell you something different.

I recently bought a buschur, and they just told me not to take it over 55 for the first few hundred miles. After that just don't beat on it real hard.

That being said, as soon as i hit 1k miles, i got boost happy on her. And i've have ZERO problems.

If you ask defiant, he'll tell you it doesn't matter at all. People will have failures and successes breaking it in every possible way.

So my honest advice to you, is just to break it in how you want to/how you feel it's safest. Just make sure you're pretty anal about oil changes, break it in for the first 1k or so on dino oil, then switch to your favorite synthetic poison.

Good luck and happy boosting!

 

[DJYoshaBYD]

ps... and dont shi+ on the car too much when your breaking it in.... Im sure you will be fine... also, make sure no one is behind you... slowing down without the break pedal equals no brake lights... good luck.... sure you will be happy with the results