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

 

[dewpac]

I'm putting a 2.4L in my '96 GSX and I'm at the point of basically being ready to drop the motor in. I have not picked up an oil cooler yet (I have switched to the '90 housing though) because I can't decide whether to go with a '90 model cooler, or a Setrab unit.

Anyhow, Given that I don't have a cooler yet, and if I did, it might well end up with metal bits in it during break in, would it hurt to just get a hose to run from the "out" to the "in" on the filter housing, just during breakin? My thinking is that it'd help me get more of the breakin oil out of the car faster by making sure none is in the car. I can also get this hose by the weekend which means I can probably finish up this weekend rather than waiting another week. I think that I'd only be running the motor ~30 mins or so in around 70 degree weather. Any thoughts?

 

[tsunari]

*disclaimer* I've never done it before *disclaimer*

Out of curiosity, why do you think you'll have a bunch of little metal bit floating around ?

Either way, if I were to do this and was worried of not getting all of the little nasties out of the engine I would go ahead and bypass the cooler but not drive the car. Oil temperatures are SO important in vehicles, especially forced induction motors. Unlike the old skool VW bug, our engines were designed to have those coolers in place. Without the cooler, how is that heat going to dissapate?

1) Your oil will be absorbing heat from around your pistons
2) It will be absorbing a lot of heat from your turbine as well

If you cant get rid of that heat, the oil will eventually hit thermal break down and say good-bye lubrication- hello friction city . . . and that means bearings, rings, cams, pretty much any moving part. I'm ASSUMING you're using a non-synthetic oil for this break-in period and that just compounds the problem because non-synthetic oils will actually break down at lower temperatures than the fully synthetic counterpart.

So yes- I think you would be fine to bypass the cooler and just *IDLE* the engine to get everything flowing and perhaps clean some of the gunk out that may be in there. But I would HIGHLY recommend NOT driving without some sort of oil cooler.


. . . Then again . . . I may be wrong- there are of course air cooled oil coolers as opposed to the stock water cooled ones . . . and what happens when you're in gridlock traffic in 100 deg heat in the summer? Not much air passing over those fins . . . but there is SOME cooling effect. It's just not as efficient as when you're at cruising speed.

Hope this helped some and didn't just make you go completely cross-eyed. (If I'm wrong . . . please someone correct me)

 

[jrpmp69]

I just rebuilt the engine in my 2g eclipse with forged pistong and rods and was wondering what the highest recommended RPM is and how long i have to drive it like an old lady in order for it to break in properly.
Your response and feedback is grealy appreciated.

 

[92awddsm]

I wouldnt turn it more the 5000-5500, keep boost turned down and run it for about 1000-1500 miles before you run it hard. Make the first oil cange after about 10-15 mins runtime so you can get all the thick assembly lube out of the motor. If not, it can and will clog the oil filter.

 

[jrpmp69]

I wouldnt turn it more the 5000-5500, keep boost turned down and run it for about 1000-1500 miles before you run it hard. Make the first oil cange after about 10-15 mins runtime so you can get all the thick assembly lube out of the motor. If not, it can and will clog the oil filter.

I have changed the oil once already after only 10 miles of driving, but not the oil filter. I will be changing the oil once again in a week or so and will change the oil filter then.

I have not rev'd it over 3500 RPM since i picked it up from the shop and have maintained the boost in vaccum only. I have driven it for 130 miles like that so far, I will continue to drive like that for atleast the next 3 weeks or so, i drive a lot so i will probably hit 1000 miles in a week and a half.

Thanks for the info.

 

[mr2turbo12]

when i was breaking in my motor in my mr2 turbo, i didnt go above 5k, just drive it normal, u dont have to baby it. I changed the oil after 15 mins of idle, after 250 miles, then at 500 miles and now at 1000 miles, my car boosts and drives perfect.

 

[jrpmp69]

Thanks for your reply.

Is it good to turn on the car and let it sit at idle for an hour or so? Someone told me to do that, that it would break in a litle faster if i did it a couple of times.

 

[mr2turbo12]

i dont know about that, it only takes like 15-25 mins the let the rings seat in properly.

 

[92awddsm]

mr2, I am an ase cetifiedmaster automotive machinist and have built over 200 engines in my time and I have never seen a set of rings seat in less than 800 miles. Besides rings, bearings need to seat also. How did you get rings to seat in 30 mins? Ive pulled down some toyota and saturn engines with over 100k miles because of oil consumption and find that the rings have never seated.

jrpmp69, change the oil filter. The assembly lube will clog the filter and cause the oil to bypass and then it doesnt filter at all. They are only a couple of dollars and Im sure you spent more than that on the rebuild. Better to be safe than to do it again.

 

[jrpmp69]

i dont know about that, it only takes like 15-25 mins the let the rings seat in properly.

I mean like after you have already driven the car for 200 miles. My car has been driven 236 miles since it was rebuilt, 10 miles after the rebuild, i removed the oil pan and cleaned all of the thick assembly lube from the bottom of the pan,and the oil still looks very clean, should i change it after 250 miles? what could happen if i dont change it until it has 500 miles?

 

[jrpmp69]

mr2, I am an ase cetifiedmaster automotive machinist and have built over 200 engines in my time and I have never seen a set of rings seat in less than 800 miles. Besides rings, bearings need to seat also. How did you get rings to seat in 30 mins? Ive pulled down some toyota and saturn engines with over 100k miles because of oil consumption and find that the rings have never seated.

jrpmp69, change the oil filter. The assembly lube will clog the filter and cause the oil to bypass and then it doesnt filter at all. They are only a couple of dollars and Im sure you spent more than that on the rebuild. Better to be safe than to do it again.

Could i just change the oil filter without having to drain the oil?

 

[92awddsm]

Yes, change the filter and add 3/4 qt of oil.

 

[mr2turbo12]

mr2, I am an ase cetifiedmaster automotive machinist and have built over 200 engines in my time and I have never seen a set of rings seat in less than 800 miles. Besides rings, bearings need to seat also. How did you get rings to seat in 30 mins? Ive pulled down some toyota and saturn engines with over 100k miles because of oil consumption and find that the rings have never seated.

i am just going by what i was told by a very reputable mr2 shop here in chicago area. Known well in the mr2 community. He told me that he doesnt even wait for his cars to go thru the "break in period". He has built many turbo charged mr2's and have lasted long, and he is currently building his drag civic hatch, and 350z tt. www.cj-motorsports.com

and a shop that did rebuild my motor told me afterb 500 miles, i can start to beat on it(i waited 900 miles before i went WOT)

 

[92awddsm]

Well if you are building a race engine, usually you set clearances a tad loose, and run the engine under a load on race fuel as a break in. Most of the race fuels produced today have less lubrication than pupm gas which aids in seating the rings. Usually when the engine is run hard, rings still havent seated. Take a new engine out and run it at the dragstrip and it will usually pick up with every pass and sometimes it might 20-30 passes before it levels off. Reason for this is rings sometimes take that long to seat properly.

 

[44pirate]

Would you still use this break-in method with forged pistons as well? Ross pistons to be more specific.

 

[ITSME4G63]

thanks alot mayte

 

[ITSME4G63]

Would you still use this break-in method with forged pistons as well? Ross pistons to be more specific.

Im curious of this too, but I dont think it would make a differeance.

 

[dna66]

I should be getting my car back this week and wanted to know how i am supposed to break it in. I haven't seen anything in the FAQ so I was hoping someone could steer me in the right direction.

Thanks.

 

[Defiant]

Search here and on the web in general, but it pretty much boils down to that within reason, it doesn't matter that much anymore. Materials and lubricants, along with machining tolerances have done much to do away with most of the old-time methods and voodoo-like rituals of the recent past. Don't overdo anything -including under-doing it- and you should have more miles in that engine than you'll ever run it.

 

[philipkrotch]

put regular oil in it. let it sit for about 10 min of idling, then drive it normally for about 20 running through the gears and rpm, flooring it sometimes but not going above 4500, if u go near redline, do it slowly not under boost. after about 20-30 min, take it home, change your oil, and bead the snot out of it,. its a proven method. the first 20 min is when the piston rings make theyre seal with the cylinder walls, they just pretty much smooth the walls down and seal them selves, after that then your good. u can switch to a synthetic blend after the first oil change. u just wanna run regular oil when u break it in because synthetic it soo "slippery" and wont let the rings wear down the cylinder walla like they need too. i had the website that went into detail about it but i cant find it. keep in mind these are Dyno prover results and did not interfere with life of the motor and reliability

 

[Flybiyou]

I put this in the general form cause most people look here. Im looking for first hand knowledge or wiseman on this subject. Im getting my car in 5 days had it 6-bolted with ross piston and egeal rods all new arp hardware fully built head ported and polished with 1mm oversized valves hks cams. Other mods or small 16g- true 3" fully exhaust,front mount-A-FAC 660 injectors 255walbro fuel pump findaza flywheel 2600 act clutch 1g throttle body-manual boost controller going to be set at 20 psi and last 40 shot of nitrous.

My question is the guy doing my rebuild said he was going to drive for a night around town and home to put some miles on it 50 to give you a number and check the machinist work then he said he was going to TUNE IT Should he run it a few times on the dyno to tune it before I put 1000 to 1500 miles on it. I dont want to get it back and drive it for a day and have the motor all messed up. He told me that it would be fine but still very concerned.

When I do get it back I plan on driving it alot around town and letting the motor slow me down I read that helps breakin the motor faster. Well any thoughts or knowledge on this subject would be more than helpful.

Thanks AJ

 

[midnght]

I would not let someone put my freshly built engine on a dyno with only 50 miles on it. Maybe after the recommended break-in, but NEVER before the engine has had a chance to break in. There is a procedure to breaking in an engine. Not all are the same, but none that I have read suggest this.

Are you going to run synthetic? Is the guy "test driving" it going to change the oil after the 30-50mile break in?

Who is recommending a dyno tune after 50 miles? Is it a local DSM shop in your area?

 

[Flybiyou]

It's a guy that worked at a dsm shop he quit and does side work now (not going to metion names but everone I talk to said he was the top man at the dsm shop till he quit.

 

[flipnoy213]

Just rebuild my engine changing everything (bearings, seals, crankshaft, Exedy clutch kit, etc). How do i break in the engine?

 

[1gfromND]

Drive really really easy and really really slow.