New Engine Breaking Hard or soft

balderman

New Member

Dec 6, 2002

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Spring City, PA

Mar 24, 2004

#1

• Mar 24, 2004

• #1

I have hear many peple say you should break your new Engine in easy. Then there are some that say break it in the way you are going to run it..

Just looking for everyones opinion

 

Numbles

Active Member

Dec 10, 2003

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Chicago, IL

Mar 24, 2004

#2

• Mar 24, 2004

• #2

Ive hear to keep it low for the first few tanks of gas. Then put a thousand miles on while giving it a good amount of gas through the gears but dont let it get too much into the power band. Id say at least 1000 miles. By then everything is gonna be where its gonna be and its time to have fun.

 

Car Nut

Founding Member

Jul 6, 2000

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37

Snellville, Georgia (Atlanta area)

Mar 24, 2004

#3

• Mar 24, 2004

• #3

There an ocean's worth of grey area on this topic. I had a friend who's dad took the brand new '96 Mystic Cobra and red-lined it through 3rd (cobra only had 30+ miles)........over and over again (dude was a big time loser and usually always drunk). That car never ran quite right afterwards and around 40K-50K it had lots of problems that a Cobra never should have considering the quality of the engine. Tranny had problems, sway bars broke early on, and lots of other weird stuff. Of course, I dont' think my friend treated the car very well overall.

My opinion, since you asked, is to run the engine a bit less harsh than normal. Upper rpm's are fine, but get there gradually (a good bit less than WOT). Don't let it idle from a cold start for a ridiculous amount of time, either. Just be a little more careful with the engine and drive it smooth for 500 miles or so. Higher speeds are ok, just don't go WOT to 100mph from a stop. After 500 miles, drive normal. On the new cars I've had, I don't get wild until about 1000 miles, but that's just me.

Some may start out being very agressive on a new engine and may not have any problems, but logic tells me to take it easy in the beginning stages. Some new cars today say that break-in is from 2,500 - 3,000 miles, but that's just nuts.

 

95snoozer

Active Member

Dec 14, 2002

2,572

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RCR

Mar 24, 2004

#4

• Mar 24, 2004

• #4

go easy on it for 300

if you have moly rings, in which you would do heat cycles. when teh car is warmed up after driving for a while, make a few rips on the motor. no Redline BS but some WOT to seat the rings well..

vary rpm and i personally would keep it under 4k

 

HtownGT

New Member

Dec 5, 2002

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Houston

Mar 24, 2004

#5

• Mar 24, 2004

• #5

they way we broke in my friends el camino motor was to drive it soft for 300 miles, then a lil harder after that with the occasional WOT to make sure the **** works right. just dont red-line it everytime u get in teh car and u shoudl be fine. i mena u have to test it to see if it can handle, bc if something is gonan break its most likely gonan break when ur on it.

 

Gravel

Member

Mar 17, 2004

216

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Bellingham WA

Mar 24, 2004

#6

• Mar 24, 2004

• #6

95snoozer said:

go easy on it for 300

if you have moly rings, in which you would do heat cycles. when teh car is warmed up after driving for a while, make a few rips on the motor. no Redline BS but some WOT to seat the rings well..

vary rpm and i personally would keep it under 4k

Click to expand...

Yeah, what he said

 

moneypit94

Active Member

May 23, 2003

1,723

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Macomb, IL

Mar 24, 2004

#7

• Mar 24, 2004

• #7

I personally think the key to breaking in a new motor is not how you treat it so to speak but its changing the oil and filter and changing it often... Metal debrea from the rings and stuff is what kills your motor.. Now by changing the oil and filter you sorta flush that stuff out with each change.

For street cars i would suggest starting it and running it for an hour or so, change oil, run for like 100 miles, change oil, run for 500-1000 miles change oil, and then again like at 3000 or so... The key is watching what comes out at the end of the oil filter.. If there is a lot of little debrea (looks almost like find glitter) then you should change your oil sooner, if less then change it later if you want...

BTW I would take it easy on it initially too far as the RPMS go... Work your way up like suggested before..

 

tmoss

Gettin Wired

Founding Member

Jun 28, 2001

7,153

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Saint Louis, MO

Mar 25, 2004

#8

• Mar 25, 2004

• #8

Do they baby race engines before racing them? - and a LOT of them go a season without being taken apart. Quality of machining and assembly plays into this big time.

 

moneypit94

Active Member

May 23, 2003

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Macomb, IL

Mar 25, 2004

#9

• Mar 25, 2004

• #9

tmoss said:

Do they baby race engines before racing them? - and a LOT of them go a season without being taken apart. Quality of machining and assembly plays into this big time.

Click to expand...

How many race engines you know of that go 100K miles? That would be like comparing apples and oranges.

I do agree with you about the assymbly and machine work though.

A lot of race engines that i have been around (been around quite a few) they aren't sure how long they will last so they break them in as fast as possible... They call them "Shotgun" Engines, cause there is no idea when they will go because of the extreme stress going to be put on them.

My father who is has been a racer and mechanic his whole life has built hundreds of engines and broke in just as many... For racing he drives the car easy all the way down an old road then turns it around and runs it as hard as possible all the way back... Its considered broke in after that... Now with street cars we break it in very slowly. Take our time cause unlike a racer there are no plans on breaking it down and refreshing it the next year.

Just like stated above there are people that beat on new engines and they last for like 45k miles and then there are all kinds of problems.. So for the long hall taking it easy would be the wise thing to do.

 

stackz

Founding Member

Jun 13, 2001

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james island, sc

Mar 25, 2004

#10

• Mar 25, 2004

• #10

break any newly built engine in the same way the factory breaks engines in. They run them through a normalized battery of tests, toss them in the car, and idle them for 30 minutes. then they ship them off to the dealer where they test driven by maniacs like me and you.

it only takes 30 seconds for cam lobes, piston rings, and bearings to develop their wear pattern.

 

moneypit94

Active Member

May 23, 2003

1,723

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Macomb, IL

Mar 25, 2004

#11

• Mar 25, 2004

• #11

stackz said:

break any newly built engine in the same way the factory breaks engines in. They run them through a normalized battery of tests, toss them in the car, and idle them for 30 minutes. then they ship them off to the dealer where they test driven by maniacs like me and you.

it only takes 30 seconds for cam lobes, piston rings, and bearings to develop their wear pattern.

Click to expand...

you must not be using moly rings... lol
They will take much longer then 30 mins unless you use some non detergent oil in there for a little while.

Also how many engines do they have to do? With as many engines they have to do they have to be as fast as possible. So Im sure there is certian fine line that they try to stay at with quality vs quantity.

 

W

wytstang

Mustang Master

Mar 14, 2004

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Summerville,SC missing South Fl. weather :(

Mar 25, 2004

#12

• Mar 25, 2004

• #12

I have heard its a good ideal to let the engine rev up and hold it to 2000 rpm's for about an 1 hour than change the oil and it helps the parts some what set in. just a thought

 

tmoss

Gettin Wired

Founding Member

Jun 28, 2001

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128

Saint Louis, MO

Mar 25, 2004

#13

• Mar 25, 2004

• #13

You don't want to idle a new falt tappet cam to ensure the cam (and upper valve train) gets adequate oiling.