Break in period??

I was told the break-in period was the first 1000 miles. For mine I was also told to drive it hard. I don't agree with this, the new 3v has pistons with weaker rings than the previous mustangs to better accomodate emissions standards. Don't get me wrong it's a strong engine and it will take abuse but I wouldn't constantly hammer it in the breakin period. For mine I drove it normal and hammered it every so often to make sure I could have fun with it in the future without something breaking. Also I wouldn't do any drag racing either and by hammer a mean take it up to 6 grand. So far no problems and if something does break I got the extended warranty

I still had to break in my Saleen after I bought it. I had to keep it under 4000 rpms until 500 miles, and then change the oil to 100% synthetic oil. Then keep it under 5000 rpms until 1000 miles. The whole time varying the rpms while driving (i.e. no long road trips until 1K miles). After that it was officially broken in according to Saleen.

Break-in periods are a joke. The only thing you should do during that period is drive the crap out of it. The seals and everything are already set by the time the car gets to you. During the first 1000 miles, an engine really "learns" how you want it to perform. If you pooch it during the first 1000 miles, you won't get as much out of it. Besides, if anything was to go wrong, you'd want it to go wrong right away, mostly for warranty reasons. Different people will tell you different things, but I've had several people, one being a Master Tech for BMW tell me break-in periods are not needed on cars these days.

DarkFireGT said:

Break-in periods are a joke. The only thing you should do during that period is drive the crap out of it. The seals and everything are already set by the time the car gets to you. During the first 1000 miles, an engine really "learns" how you want it to perform. If you pooch it during the first 1000 miles, you won't get as much out of it. Besides, if anything was to go wrong, you'd want it to go wrong right away, mostly for warranty reasons. Different people will tell you different things, but I've had several people, one being a Master Tech for BMW tell me break-in periods are not needed on cars these days.

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:Word: Someone make this a sticky. Your rings are seated by the time you get it. Think of all the cars out there!!! How many of those folks even know how to change a flat much less "proper break in" So run it and have fun.

Not the computer... the engine itself. Just like anything, living or not, everything has memory. With engines, it's more like tracks and things of that nature. If you never push your car, when you do go to push it, say 10,000 miles down the road, it's going to be alot harder on it than if you did it from day one, because you set the precident. You tell the engine how far it needs to go, how fast it needs to work. It has nothing to do with computers, it's all in the engine itself. I dunno if that makes sense or not.. An engine just gets ruts, grooves, and tracks in it, just like anything else mechanical. And if you try to change that, or make it work harder, quicker, or faster, it will cause more stress on the part.

Piston rings definetaly need a brake in period, especially if they are manufactured with hardened rings. (MOLY) Only tha tarded do not understand that breaking in a new engine at 5000 rpm would make the cylinder bores look like a teenager with acne. Its amazing how simple mechanical theory goes out the window replaced by dimwits!

This is not a rebuilt engine here. The rings are seated by the time you get the car.
Those engines are run on propane/natural gas before they even get placed in the chassis. After assembly the car gets driven a little to check other things.

If car makers didn't "break in" the motors imagine all the oil burners smoking their way back to the dealer; warranty nightmare.

Change your oil after the first 500 miles and have fun.

Alec said:

This is not a rebuilt engine here. The rings are seated by the time you get the car.
Those engines are run on propane/natural gas before they even get placed in the chassis. After assembly the car gets driven a little to check other things.

If car makers didn't "break in" the motors imagine all the oil burners smoking their way back to the dealer; warranty nightmare.

Change your oil after the first 500 miles and have fun.

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:Word: Couldn't have said it better myself.

The engines from the factory are NOT broke-in. They are indeed run and tested and yes also driven to a truck or train for deliverer but they are NOT broke-in ready for hard use.

I don’t recall where I got the following information but it was some time back and I saved it to a Word document for future use. This seem an appropriate time to share it:

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Engine break-in information:

Breaking in an engine is a process of properly wearing-in the pistons/cylinders/rings, bearings, valves, camshaft, lifters, rockers, etc... In addition, part of the breaking in process is not only wearing-in and seating the internal engine components but also stress relieving the components as well. Crankshafts, connecting rods, pistons, blocks etc... have many stresses due to the casting or forging process, machining and welding process.

These stresses are properly reduced/eliminated by costly and time consuming heat aging as well as shot peening and or high frequency vibration on a very specialized bedplate for an extended period of time. For production applications this is cost and time prohibitive. Therefore, the next best thing is exposing your engine to multiple heating and cooling cycles under various load and RPM's. The heating and cooling break in process continues over a period of time.

Further heat cycling break-in will continue during the multiple heating and cooling cycles from driving your vehicle under varying RPM and engine load conditions and then shutting it down for a long period of time to let it cool completely. The multiple heating and cooling cycles are an extremely important factor in properly breaking in a new engine and are often an overlooked factor in the total break-in process. These heating and cooling cycles achieve what is called stress relieving. Back in the "old days" of engine manufacturing, after casting and before an engine block was machined, it would be set outside for several months to age, during which stress relieving occurred naturally, then the block was machined, which helped to produce a better engine than one that was machined immediately after casting.

By changing the factory installed oil and filter after the first 500 miles you will also be removing the initial wear-in particulates present in the oil and filter. The reason for this is that during initial wear-in there is very high particulate contamination in the oil. These particulates consist mainly of microscopic particles of aluminum, bronze, copper, lead and iron, plus soot particles and other by-products of combustion in your oil. Your filter cannot filter out all these small particulates as many are sub-micron size and too small for the filter to trap, BUT they are also small enough to fit between your bearing and other internal clearances and cause wear. That is why we recommend to that in order to properly break-in a new engine, regardless of what your new car salesman or dealership personnel tell you, is to perform the first oil and filter change at 500 miles.

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It is never a good idea to take a new vehicle, or more specifically, a new motor out and drive it like you stole it because you are only taking life out of the motor. Ask any “professional” engine builder that builds motors for long term and they would tell you the same thing. Break-in is the most important aspect of the longevity of a motor…