"breaking in" the engine

[DGthe3]

Taking care of an engine is always a good idea. But never driving a car to its potential is a shame to the engineers who worked on it. And while modern engines may not need to be broken in the practice never hurts

[Mr. Wyndham]

What can being careful do, besides waste a few miles of potential fun?

I say take it easy on any car for the first 500 miles, or however long after that it takes the brakes to become naturally soft(if you've ever driven a brand new car: you know what I mean)....as in, a 500 mile road trip doesn't count :p.

No high rpms...which means naturally, no quick acceleration all the time. But I don't understand what a sustained speed can do to an engine that's harmful...

Whether it actually does anything...that's how I treat all my new cars...and will continue to do so.

[KILLER74Z28]

Part of this is true and the later is BIG TIME BS… The truth comes from the days of hydraulic lifters. Most all hydraulic cams and lifter have a brake in period of about 30 minutes, and in that 30 minutes you want to vary your RPM’s from 1500 to 3500, staying at one RPM for only a couple of minutes at a time (up and down, up and down). Bet you could never find that in your owners manual... Once your 30 minutes is up, change the oil and drive it like your going to normally dive it… So yes, if you have a heavy foot, drive it that way. If you putt around like a sissy everywhere you go, then putt you sissy. If it’s going to brake it’s going to brake… All you are doing is delaying the inevitable. If the engine was put together right you should have no problems (excluding catastrophic failure due to inferior parts/over revving like a jackass, Oh, and of course spontaneous human combustion, poor uncle Jed…) Then once you reach 500 miles on your new power plant, change the oil again.

Nowadays, most engines come with roller cam and rockers so they don’t need a brake-in period, drive it like you normally would drive it… Like I said, If its going to break, it’ll break, babying it is only going to delay you’re catastrophic failures at 500 and one quarter miles…

[Mr. Wyndham]

the LS's have hydraulic lifters....don't they?

[Cubanaso]

I've been through this with my RX8, and per Mazda they don't want you to drive at the same speed/rpm for extended periods of time or maxing out the RPM's (9K in the RX8) for the first 500 miles.

What did I do? I followed the easy break in plan of a major rotary engine expert which was even more conservative than Mazda's....give or take 500 miles.

What I actually did, was avoid the same speed/rpm for long periods of time for the first 1K and I never hit 9K (I didn't go over 6K) until I hit 1.5K. I agree with what some have said...go easy on the car for that first 1-2K then let it lose. It pays off...

[EllwynX]

Originally Posted by Cubanaso

I've been through this with my RX8, and per Mazda they don't want you to drive at the same speed/rpm for extended periods of time or maxing out the RPM's (9K in the RX8) for the first 500 miles.

What did I do? I followed the easy break in plan of a major rotary engine expert which was even more conservative than Mazda's....give or take 500 miles.

What I actually did, was avoid the same speed/rpm for long periods of time for the first 1K and I never hit 9K (I didn't go over 6K) until I hit 1.5K. I agree with what some have said...go easy on the car for that first 1-2K then let it lose. It pays off...

If I had to take it easy for the first 1000-2000 miles... I only put like 500-600 a month on my car. That's a long time to have to break it in and be careful. LOL

[SoFlaZ]

Originally Posted by KILLER74Z28

Like I said, If its going to break, it’ll break, babying it is only going to delay you’re catastrophic failures at 500 and one quarter miles…

That is exactly my thoughts, while maintaining variable speeds and avoiding high reving.

[2001ragtop]

Originally Posted by Dark Knight

When i bought my firebird i bought it brand new. For 3k miles i didn't go above 60mph. Here it is almost 7 years later and 185k miles and the only thing that has went wrong with the car was the fule pump went out. It just goes to show if you take care of something it will last ya. So yeah..if I were you i would take it easy for awhile if you want the car to last a long time.

I also bought my car new. I waited a little over 2K miles to ever punch it hard. I have 167,000 miles now (7 yrs later), the only engine problem that ever happened was one bad coil pack. (4.6L ohc V8 ford). I don't know for sure if waiting helped or not. The engine felt EXTREMELY tight when it was new. That was one reason I waited.

[KILLER74Z28]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

the LS's have hydraulic lifters....don't they?

TAG, I think I need your little bloody head-banging icon…

Yes, but they are hydraulic roller lifters. Good question...

[TAG UR IT]

Lol...since I like this one so much, here ya go...

[Mr. Wyndham]

Originally Posted by KILLER74Z28

TAG, I think I need your little bloody head-banging icon…

What did I say?!?! :eek: :o

[Dunk31]

WOW. I have heard the whole you have to break it in for the first... yada yada yada. I bought my RSX Type-S new and broke it in just a little different. As soon as I pulled off the parking lot I ran it through all the gears pretty hard. Now I didn't redline it or try and blow the motor, but I drove it harder then I expected to drive it. Just for the first few miles. For a couple reasons:

1. Because if it's gonna break it's gonna break. Might as well catch it while it's under warranty.
2. Because you don't want to break your car in and then drive it harder then you broke it in. That can't be any better then running it hard from the start. The components aren't gonna be used to your normal driving.
3. Because you're "breaking the motor it" not "babying the motor in".
4. Because I HAD TO!!! It may have been a ricer, import, what ever you wanna say about it. I never claimed it was fast. Only that it was "quick". I miss that car, it was a blast to drive.

[camaro1]

Originally Posted by Dragoneye

the LS's have hydraulic lifters....don't they?

yes but they are roller,, roller cam engines do not need any break in time,, run them hard right away,, you will not hurt anything

i have built several roller cam engines for my vehicles and i have no problem starting a new engine, running it through a couple heat cycles and then run it wide open