how to break-in a new car?

[Sky]

Interesting find....

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
hmm could this be true? I heard some new demo cars from dealers are abused before the break in period and still sold later on with no engine problems... what would you do to properly break in your new car?

[hjr]

everyone and their brother has a method of breaking in an engine on a new car. Basically, do what the dealer tells you. Some engines come pre-worn so some vehicles dont even need to worry about it,

[GTS Jeff]

well when it comes down to it...

id rather trust the engineers that created the engine than some internet celebrity to tell me how to break in an engine.

[A2VR6]

Well I would just read the owner's manual. All the info is right there.

[rage2]

hehe, one of the best secrets of making a more powerful motor... the hard break in. I've done this on my cars, and they're all factory freaks. It's all about the hard breakins! Coincidence? :D

I read this site last year, and was shocked that someone had let the secret out :).

[Moe Man]

i hered vtech motors dont need break in but i think that is bs, you should drive the car under 80 kmh till about 5000k in even go more than that i say. why floor a new car anyway,that is pure dumb

[ryder_23]

80km/h :confused:

so i cant go the speed limit on the highway? you gotta be joking me
5000k maybe no track time before that, but 80km/h?

you can go down a hill at 80k, without even using the engine...i go more for rpms...cause some cars can do 80k, without the engine even breakin a sweat

[JAYMEZ]

lol , maybe going over 80/Mi is bad lol

[rage2]

Actually, according to an AMG tech in Germany that I talked to, he says motors don't really need to be broken in anymore. Well with the AMG motors there's zero break in, it's done at the factory, then run on a dyno to ensure it makes the HP that it's advertised at. It's the tranny and the diffs that really need to be broken in because they don't run them at all. Even then, I was told not to exceed 120mph... meaning there's a huge margin of safety.

If you think about it, why would a manufacturer trust the consumer to break in the car? I mean, if cars would break by driving them on the street by overenthusiastic folks, there'd be a LOT of warranty claims that they'd have to pay out. Doesn't make sense :nut:.

But driving it easy for 5000km? Man must be on crack to do that... talk about overkill! My breakin procedure involves driving no more than 50% throttle and no more than 4500rpm's for 500km. Within that 500km, every 100km I would do a WOT run from 0-100. After that, it's open season. This is what I did on my SLK 320, and I was faster than every other SLK 320 I've raced.

I used to have a Mazda 323, that car was driven hard the day it came home. An abused car. It was a 92hp base model with an automatic. My buddy had a base one with manual, and it pulls on him easily.

[Khyron]

Yah the key for breakin seems to be to not keep it at a certain RPM for a long time (which is why cruise/highway is bad). You want to hit all the levels of the rpm band. I think I was under 3500 for 500, under 5000 for 500, then start working her.

Hrm wonder if that's why my Jetta is also a freak.

Khyron

[rice_eater]

Originally posted by rage2


But driving it easy for 5000km? Man must be on crack to do that... talk about overkill! My breakin procedure involves driving no more than 50% throttle and no more than 4500rpm's for 500km. Within that 500km, every 100km I would do a WOT run from 0-100. After that, it's open season. This is what I did on my SLK 320, and I was faster than every other SLK 320 I've raced.


that's very similar to how i was told to break in my engine after the rebuild... keep under 4000ish, about half throttle and varying rpms for about 1000kms. did some paranoid oil changes as well to run out all the assembly greese. after 20km, 100km, 500km and 1000km. I could still see some greese in the oil even after that. granted that i also got a new head, the car was WAY faster even on the lower compression pistons.

however in the mopar book the procedure they recommend is pretty much identical to the link posted, except it was done on the track rather than the dyno :dunno:

[freakin]

Has anyone else had any luck with a similar 'hard' break-in procedure?

[boostfed]

Originally posted by freakin
Has anyone else had any luck with a similar 'hard' break-in procedure?

I've done close to a dozen motors using a "hard" break in method. 367" SBF for my brothers race/street car, 348" LS1, 383" LT1, 284" 4V Ford Mod Motor, Sleeved D16, Sleeved B18C5, My B16, 557" BBF, 499" Mopar, and a .040 over GN motor. I helped assemble these for a bunch of friends, relatives, and coworkers. My B16 is daily driven hard, i've put 30 thousand KM's on it in the past few years. The LS1 is a power adder motor, low leakdown after 15 thousand HARD racing and a few street miles, the GN sees 25+ pounds of boost daily, and the Mopar is currently residing in my Dad's Roadrunner, in which he just came back from an over 6000 KM road trip when he drove down to San Francisco, with almost zero leakdown and it's a blower motor. Personally I'm a big fan of it. The rings seat great, you get great compression, and low leakdown. Factory methods do work fine (I have a 92 Ranger with almost 290 thousand on it and it doesn't use a drop of oil) but I think the hard breakdown works better for high horsepower motors.

[///M3]

Ya my friends brother did a hard breakin on hes A4. He took it in for servicing and they threated to take away his warranty. They thought he had engine mods done.

[benyl]

I took my car to the track at 1800 kms.... before that, I just tried to keep it under 6K part of the the time and under 4K most of the time. No oil used at 3400kms so far. Now I beat the car regularly.

[illeagle]

So, do these rules apply for a rebuilt motor? can i do a 'hard break in' on a rebuilt turbocharged engine?:dunno:

[boostfed]

Originally posted by illeagle
So, do these rules apply for a rebuilt motor? can i do a 'hard break in' on a rebuilt turbocharged engine?:dunno:

As long as you reringed it and honed it you need to break in the rings, and you can do a "hard" break in. The motor I did for my brother was a turbo motor and we broke it in hard on the engine dyno and it ran great.

[Moe Man]

bagg the shit outa it :thumbsup:

[freakin]

^^^ That's what I wanted to hear. I don't think I can wait 1,000 KM's before I get put it to the floor.

[jdm_eg6]

What about Imported Motors from Japan? ones that sit in a shop for a few years before they turn key again?

[CelicaST-162]

Originally posted by jdm_eg6
What about Imported Motors from Japan? ones that sit in a shop for a few years before they turn key again?

Hence the name Used JDM engines, theyve probably been driven hard by people in Japan already. Best bet is to drive it hard right away because some engines sit so long that rust builds up in the cylinders, driving it hard will get rid of it. In my case I have a JDM 7M-GTE in mine, ran it hard day 1 and the top of the cylinders have not much carbon at all.

[Annoyingrob]

That was only a 2 year old bump......:thumbsup:

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Better to bump than start a new thread. But yea, run it good. I had oil leaks in my old 88 accord with the f20... I was the first person to run it over 4k in 04... it stank for a month, but it actually started to run better. It pulled great, but it leaked oil like nothing, and I think it had a blown headgasket too =\

[msommers]

It's funny how many guys say they bag on their cars. And in all honesty, flooring half the time isn't a bad thing, as long as you're not bouncing off the redline limiter constantly. We had to take the head off of a buddies celica, and I was watching for this thing to be torn apart. Everything looks soo clean, no f'in carbon build up anywhere!!

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Even bouncing off the rev limiter isn't bad, because it's there for a reason... If it's removed, or raised, then it might be bad, but personally my b16 LOVES being up @ 8k... it's third gear in my transmission that doesn't =\ *shakes fist* stupid synchros...

[95EagleAWD]

Originally posted by msommers
as long as you're not bouncing off the redline limiter constintely.

At least once a day. :D

[msommers]

Originally posted by 95EagleAWD


At least once a day. :D

God I can't spell there! Good thing I have an excuse of being extremely hung over today:nut:

[BigMass]

hard break-in is for the engine, not the rest of the car. Stuff like the clutch, the brake system, the tranny, they need proper break-in. That means no clutch drop launches from 6000 RPM. No threshold braking from 180 km/h, no drifting. However, periodically redlining your engine smoothly is recommended. Even after break-in you should redline your engine regularly. You will have a healthier engine then one that has never been above 3000rpm

[PremiumRSX]

I did a 50/50 type deal for my car.
Easy break-in like manual says but only for about half - 3/4 the time, after that it was good game. Hard break-in for remainder, then synthetic oil all the way.

[hussein]

On my pathfinder I did a hard break in, and it feels like it has a bit more get up and go than the other one's I've driven. It has a VQ35DE.

On my mom's, she NEVER drives agressively, and always in the lower RPM range, and it just doesn't seem to accelerate like mine.

:dunno: Her's is a 2002, mine is a 2003, but same engine, so I don't really think that there is that much a mechanical difference, but its possible. I also use Mobil 1 synthetic, she doesn't.

[eur0]

ls/vtec or whatever had a good post about motor break ins. Putting it in 5th and accelrating up to xxx, I will see if I can find it.

..Or at least I thought he did

[eur0]

my break in procedure on a new fully motor is this:

-run motor till up to engine temps (cheap for leaks)
-once it's up to temp find a long stretch of road with no lights(deerfoot towards airdrie)
-once on this road i will leave the car in fifth gear and drop down to 40-50kms/hr and then apply 50-65%throttle till it reaches about 110kms/hr.....once it reaches that speed i will let off the gas and let the car cruise till in gets back down to 40-50kms/hr....i do this a total of 15 times (while tuning for perfect or almost perfect air/fuel ratio)
-after the 15 pulls straight back to the shop or garage and change out oil for new oil (of course check for leaks)
-then you are ready for 700-1000kms of driving Miss Daisy....no revving past 5000rpm and a couple full throttle runs up to 5000rpm every couple hundred kms.....and also never hold rpm at on steady pace...always have variable rpms..either on the throttle or off....
-after the 700-1000kms of daily driving we do a re-tune of part throttle and now do full throttle tunes...and then straight to the dyno.....

This is how i have always broken in my motors.....when i do my 700-1000kms i like to drive it a little bit harder than usual.....i think a more aggressive break-in is better......

I also did the same break in on my 2005 Suzuki GSX 600 but every 200kms i would raise the rev limit 2000rpm till i got redline which is like 14,000-15,000rpm after that changed oil and since then it's run really strong with no problems......(TRACK DAYS ESPECIALLY )

[Darkane]

Hard break in works. My built D16 right now.. I broke it in like this:

highway 22x second gear 2000-4000RPM WOT
third gear 2500-5000WOT
fourth 3000-6000WOT

Let it all come back down with engine braking.

Did that for 40kms or so. Then my VTEC ecu came in then I did it again to 7200 RPM.

Now motor has 7500kms, runs like a champ and does 180compression in each cylinder with 9:1 pistons!

[CokerRat]

....I'm waiting for some people to step up and admit that they went against the mfr's recommended break-in procedure, the thing drank as much oil as gas, and you got rid of it after 4 years because "the mfr built a POS".

Seriously, if a hard break in was safe and effective, why wouldn't the mfrs adopt it? Think they're a bunch of dummies over at Porsche, BMW, Honda, Toyota, etc?

Their 1,000,000+ performance engines every year with warranty implications and more importantly their credibility on the line, vs your 1 engine that you can't even measure against an identical car, let alone hope to prove it statistically.

[95EagleAWD]

^^

Modern engines don't even need a break in, really. The machining tolerences are so good, that "breaking in" and engine really does jack shit.

[Police]

when your engine gets up to +100 000K its all going to be worn out, more for you hard break in'ers. There are still no proof conducted to actually prove hard break-ins work. I call:bullshit:

[theken]

theres no proof that a mfrs break in makes them last longer either get your head out of your ass

[CokerRat]

Originally posted by theken
theres no proof that a mfrs break in makes them last longer either get your head out of your ass

Ah, it's obvious you know more than the experts at the major automakers in the world who literally have billions of dollars on the line affected by their reputations for long-term engine reliability. How silly of me to doubt you, Mr. Lingenfelter. Excuse me for blindly following good practice like the lemming I am.

"...but a guy on the internet told me it works!" :banghead:

[962 kid]

Originally posted by CokerRat


Ah, it's obvious you know more than the experts at the major automakers in the world who literally have billions of dollars on the line affected by their reputations for long-term engine reliability. How silly of me to doubt you, Mr. Lingenfelter. Excuse me for blindly following good practice like the lemming I am.

"...but a guy on the internet told me it works!" :banghead:


reading > you



Originally posted by rage2
Actually, according to an AMG tech in Germany that I talked to, he says motors don't really need to be broken in anymore. Well with the AMG motors there's zero break in, it's done at the factory, then run on a dyno to ensure it makes the HP that it's advertised at.

If you think about it, why would a manufacturer trust the consumer to break in the car? I mean, if cars would break by driving them on the street by overenthusiastic folks, there'd be a LOT of warranty claims that they'd have to pay out. Doesn't make sense :nut:.

[CokerRat]

Originally posted by 962 kid


reading > you

Originally posted by rage2
Actually, according to an AMG tech in Germany that I talked to, he says motors don't really need to be broken in anymore. Well with the AMG motors there's zero break in, it's done at the factory, then run on a dyno to ensure it makes the HP that it's advertised at.

If you think about it, why would a manufacturer trust the consumer to break in the car? I mean, if cars would break by driving them on the street by overenthusiastic folks, there'd be a LOT of warranty claims that they'd have to pay out. Doesn't make sense .


Go read it again, junior, and see the part I underlined. AMG engines apparently undergo a different procedure than most other cars and I'll bet the owners manual for that car will have a reduced or eliminated break-in procedure. I'm not saying it's needed for every car delivered to the dealer, I'm saying I'd follow whatever the mfr specifies -- not what some guy on the internet told me a dude at AMG said.

Jesus. I guess I knew everything about anything when I was 16, too. Anyway I'm done on this one, go ahead and break 'em in hard if you like. If you're wrong, you'll be the one explaining to the potential buyers that she burns a little oil. I have a feeling I won't be buying any used cars from you in my life so I won't lose any sleep over it.

[Police]

Original Post Removed. (Please read the Forum Rules and Terms of Use (http://forums.beyond.ca/articles.php?action=data&item=1) before posting again, or risk getting banned).

[Annoyingrob]

Originally posted by CokerRat
Seriously, if a hard break in was safe and effective, why wouldn't the mfrs adopt it? Think they're a bunch of dummies over at Porsche, BMW, Honda, Toyota, etc?


I think they would rather have a customer pay for maintenence 100,000km down the road, then pay for needless warranty work now when someone doesn't bother changing their oil 500km after braking it in hard.

[kevie88]

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