2004 GT Questions

GetImpact said:

IMO - Do not take it too easy on your performance car.

One camp believes that you should work the car pretty hard when it's young to get everything seated in well so you'll get the best performance out of it later.

The other camp says to baby it so it can live a longer life.

Well, I don't believe a gentle breakin does a damned thing for you except make your car SLOW later on. The main reason being that you won't seat the rings as well as you could for good compression.

GetImpact said:

how will his car be slower later on? it has the same engine, the same hp, the same compression. the rings are already in their place and dont need to be set after the car leaves the assembly line.

GetImpact said:

Another is that the computer learns your demands

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the computer is already tuned from the factory and is set to the stock setting, it isnt magically programed while you are driving

GetImpact said:

Look... the truth is, if you are gonna beat hard on your Mustang AFTER the break-in then you are no less likely to break something when you had babied it before. Limits are limits, you know. For instance, you aren't gonna make your rods any stronger driving it like a granny the first few K miles

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correct, your rods arent strenthened ever. however, the reason a brand new car is supposed to be babied is because metal is rubbing metal in the engine. the moving parts have not yet smoothed out and are rubbing each other in an akward position. hence when your oil is changed at 1000 miles, there ARE metal shavings in the oil. this is from the metal parts grinding together, they get smoother the more you drive it.

GetImpact said:

Most car engines are manufactured with damned good tolerences already, and they come ready to run at the dealership. Best thing is to run it through paces with varied driving (hard, medium and soft demands) all the time. It's what it was designed for all along

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this is correct though. new engines nowadays are able to tolerate stress better than in the past

GetImpact said:

If you were planning to poosyfoot (stupid language filter) a Mustang so that it lives a boring life to a ripe old age, then you should have just got a V6... because, obviously, your main goal is not to have fun with it but to drive what looks (but you won't let it act) like a Mustang

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GetImpact said:

Whatever you break going past the limits, you can always replace with BETTER parts after the warranty is up and make it actually STRONGER

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yes, but while the warranty is in place for the three years, why go through the trouble of purposly driving hard on the break in just so the warranty can fix it?

GetImpact said:

Changing the oil and filter early is not a bad idea...

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agreed

GetImpact said:

but "metal flakes"?... I call on that. This is what the filter medium is for... to catch that stuff. I changed my oil to Mobil Drive Clean and installed K&N Oil Filter at 3K, which should be perfectly fine. I'll go to Mobile Synthetic at 6K. Changing it at only 500 miles is being anal, IMO, but to each his own

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there actually are metal "flakes" in the oil when it is changed for the first time. and the fuel filter you talk about cleans the oil BEFORE it goes into the engine. thats when the oil picks up the shavings.

GetImpact said:

Finally, mine got worked in real good (but not severely beaten) in the first week. Since then it has been no disappointment to drive and has only been getting faster... I break traction HARD in 1st gear from a roll with just a good throttle blip. Busting loose 2nd is cake. No clutch dumps needed... EVER. The stock exhaust is getting nice and throaty too. Good stuff.

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yes, i really believe that your stang is constantly getting faster, especially since you broke it in hard

also, dont think you are hot stuff cuz you break loose in 1st and 2nd. i babied my car on the break in, changed the oil at 1k miles, and 2800 ever since, and i could break loosed 1st and 2nd before i got my gears. now third chirps too, not even to mention 2nd or the notorious 4.10 1st.

back on topic, the TRUTH is, break in the car gently, change the oil at ~1,000 miles, and then go easy another 500 miles. ask your mechanic to show you the oil after you change it, then you can see the shavings. or you can ask any mechanic if there is more engine wear in the first 1,000 miles than in the following 3,000 miles. you will not have to worry about breaking anything this way, and you can be sure your engine will run strong well into 150,000 miles, if you choose to keep it that long. dont listen to these people who say your car will be slower if you go easy, thats

btw getimpact, you say your car has given you zero problems? i was wondering how many miles you had on your car so far? im guessing less than 20k

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GetImpact said:

I know what I wrote here seems counterintuitive, but it really is true DerekStangGT.

Your rings do set according to how you run the motor when it is young. Google it even... read all you can from experienced experts. Some good brisk and mixed driving is very good for a young factory motor (I never said to bounce off the rev limiter like a madman though), and you actually NEED a little wear during this time to assure that the parts mate together for best performance.

This is one reason SVT recommends that you DO NOT USE synthetics earlier than 5K or 6K miles. Ask them! You *need* some early wear, and you need to exercise the motor vigorously to have things seat themselves for a better seal. Hell, if you used synthetics, you could extend out your "break in" for much longer and make it even gentler couldn't you?... but that isn't recommended by anyone who knows anything... WHY IS THAT?

Do you even realize that metal-on-metal contact is minimal in a motor that has proper lube levels and brought up to operating temps? Do you have any idea the distance of travel the rings undergo over the cylinder surfaces during the life of an engine? IT IS A LOT!! (Each turn of the crank = one pass and back, stroke length x 2... multiply that times RPMs and then figure the average RPMs & overall runtime of your motor)

The oil you put in the engine has a surface adhesion to metals (a film) which lets the those pieces glide across each other virtually untouched. Early in the life of an engine, the ring-to-cylinder-wall shaping is not exactly perfect. There is a good bit of gap in there which allows some blowby and a less than optimal cylinder compression. By loading the motor (variously and at times, vigorously) you cause the rings to (for lack of a better term) errode themselves a tad until they conform to each other.

If you baby an engine too much when young, the rings will only shape themselves into the cylinder so much and then take a set (has to do with modern cylinder honing methods and the short duration of metal-to-metal friction that affords)... then you'll have a less than perfect seal at some points.

Remember... during the VAST MAJORITY of your engine's operations there is little to no wear on the metal surfaces... the oil has them gliding past.

After some initial wear during a more vigorous break-in, the engine INCREASES its work output.

The REAL MYTH is all about the slow and gentle method. That stopped being at all necessary in most factory engines DECADES AGO. Factory engines today are VASTLY less sensitive to early jaunts into the higher revs... to the point of being NO PROBLEM.

All you really need to do to protect your young factory motor is to let it warm up good before a good romp so the oil can adequately coat the parts... then "break it in" by driving it the way it was designed to be driven.

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