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Hmmm...

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

Interesting read.....

he actually makes sense... (even with my lil knowledge)

but i dont know if i'm willing to be the test subject... i know easy run-in doesnt damage the motor... not sure if i'm willing to test the contradictory theory... lol...

Any1 building a new motor? wanna BLAST it from the get go for us and let us know if it breaks????

Thats the thing, his theory makes alot of sense...

think about this though, we would normally do a motor break-in of approx 1000km, and there after we start going all crazy... and the car doesnt really start giving it's true potential only after some 3-4k on the motor...

Thats my 2c on it...

Now can i go ahead and run the motor in like this???

ok i will but you can pay half if it breaks

deal... I'll pay half for the "Toasty sammiches" we eat from across the road from JDMTuning while we watch JX Fix ur FKup... lol...

NO , NO! we pay half/half for everything!! but now i am confused on how to break the motor in! what would you do! plant it till 7000RPM?

maybe plant it till 6500RPM>>> that way the motor feels Vtec, but not to it's peak... and not every gear, just the 4th/5th...
remember, while is says tramp it, it'l be best to do it at a variance and not go for it at every robot...

thats my new technique after this read...

Don't believe everything you read on the Internet... This guy doesn't know what he's talking about.
Who are you going to believe? Some grease monkey that probably doesn't have st 8, or ALL the automotive engineers in the world that actually design the engines?

Sure, many racing cars/bikes aren't run-in gently because they simply don't have the time to do it and they regularly rebuild the engines, but that doesn't mean it's a good idea if you want the engine to last a long time.
It might make a little bit more power to begin with, but it will definitely reduce the life expectancy of the engine if you run it in hard.
You might not immediately realize the harm you've done to your engine, but then sometime down the road you'll be surprised if your motor starts to show signs of wear sooner than other similar engines.

An engine's break-in has to do with much more than just the rings...
The components of the engine need to be gently heat cycled for a substantial amount of time before you hammer the car.
This heat cycling helps to work-harden the surface of the metal. Why do you think brake disks need to be run in gently? For exactly the same reason.
Anyone that studied metallurgy on University level should know this. If not, they obviously didn't do too well in the course.

Would be nice for sum to try and see how far it goes???

I know my corsa that I bought from GM, I never worry about break-in... from the time I left the dealership I hammered car...

bottom ended up being replaced 75000km later... (replaced with a Recon from

when I got it back, they said no need to break-in... I then decided on my own, I would do a break-in but that only lasted 400km, then was back to everyday style of driving...

I dont really know how to feel about it being stronger or anything.

But isnt it also but common sense, that whilst u drive ur car hard, dont high rev every gear, every minute the day...
1 - fuel
2 - It's like abusing the most precious thing u 'say' u care for...
3 - there are other driver's on the roads, so drive for them too...

my additional 5c....

Exactly. Your original engine would probably still be running fine if it had been broken-in gently.

If this were the case then i doubt for eg BMW would put a 2000km run period on the new e92 m3`s....

or it could've broken at 105 000km, like most cars just outta warranty and then GM would've said it's my indaba's...

Precisely. They don't just require a 2000km gentle run-in because they want to be funny...
It's because they know how necessary a gentle break-in is to the longevity of an engine.

That's still more than 75K km.

But seriously, modern petrol engines are designed to last at least four times as long, provided it's been broken-in gently and serviced regularly as stated in the owner's manual.

Point noted... good to get all round view on these subjects...

believe a guy who worked on 300 engines...or the manufactures who BUILT millions of engines...

Nice topic....
If not a bit of a controversial one,

It depends on the motor and overall setup, the properties of, the rings, sleeves, the bearings... blah blah.
The hone type and pattern, the clearences of the motor.

I would not have the heart, to go flat foot out of the dealership, BUT i believe there is some truth in "some" of what he says and I have some first hand experience with it

IMO, a NA car should never be run-in "lazy"
I have seen ALOT of cars smoke because of lazy run-in, the rings and everything else should be seated with LOAD under "combustion" pressure, more than anything else.

I'm with you on this Siraj, i second this comment.

When I worked at Toyota, for what ever little time that was...
I was involved in maintaining the electronics of the hot bays.

This is where the brand spanking newly assembled never started before engines get mounted up and started, fresh off the assembly line.
There method of testing was to start the engine and first note for proper operation of oil pressure, map and other sensors, system cooling etc. etc. etc.

But once up to operating temp. and all was well...they would rev the hell out of them.
sort of like... idle for a few seconds, then flat out to about 6500rpm and back down, then up to about 7000rpm and back always varying the rpm limit, never staying at any rpm for more than 5 seconds.
They would keep at this for about 15 minutes, and then just let them idle for an hour to ensure all is good.

When I asked why they do this they said it was to ensure that the rings "bed in" well.
However this was never under any form of load what so ever, maybe the transmission if you consider that load.

Maybe this guy is refering to custom or race built engines where carefull attention is paid to tolerances, rather than the mass produced engines most people come in contact with from the dealerships?

Ive been careful up to 300km but Ive never waited for 1000km before planting my right foot

I agree, when I had my new rods and pistons installed the car was driven home and then staight to the dyno next morning where it was checked correctly and then promptly pushed to its max.

I mean isnt there a diference between a mass produced car and a hand built motor? Im just saying, not exactly a resident genius on any of this. The Laskey Tuning house in America also says to dyno straight away, and they have built some amazing cars!

Ive been around the Nissan/Renault plant several times, and the times that I was there was always a car/bakkie at the end of the assembly line that was imediately put on a rolling road and put through its paces (not exactly top end or any sort of flat foot driving, but they did put the motors under heavy load?)

As I say - I dont know as much as most of you, just talking from experience.

This should be done, before tuning a fresh built motor, or actually in any case... very important



factory clearences, hone patterns and the latest materials in todays mass produced cars etc, is very different from the pushrod, steel fords v8's....

So...
Here we have it then?!

Our manufacturers do put engines through a hard "hot test" first start and drive after assembly.

Has any manufacturer ever told anyone not to drive there new car hard or to allow a run in time?

Could a soft run in be recommended for an everyday common overhaul where we can get cheaper, slightly inferior quality parts and engineering for the rebuild?

Thats the KEY, to any build/re-build I guess
I suppose the above is not an option........

What I do know, is that a motor WILL be "ready" at a VERY early stage/age should all the above be in check, i would not worry/had to know, about the converse.. especially as a means of compensation

I guess we have to put ALOT of trust/faith into the engineering and parts

There's a big difference between the factory letting the rings seat on a rolling road for a few minutes and someone driving the hell out of a new car from the get-go onwards.
The manufacturer already gave the rings an initial seating on a rolling road, so there's absolutely no reason for anyone to try and redo it.

As mentioned earlier, on a metallurgical level there's a LOT more at stake than just the seating of the rings, that's why all car manufacturers require a relatively mild break-in.
After all... the hundreds of engineers that actually designed the engines know MUCH more about engines than the guy that wrote that "hard run-in" article or anyone else on this forum for that matter.

I will NEVER buy a car from someone if I have reason to suspect he drove it off the showroom floor and proceeded to give it a hard run-in.

Running an engine very hard during break-in will allow temperatures to rise too high, resulting in glazing.
Drive it around mid rpm, never keeping the revs constant for long periods (take the back roads to work and avoid the highway if possible).
Don’t labour the engine by using full throttle at low rpm.
And use normal mineral oil during the break-in and replace the oil with another good mineral oil halfway through the run-in to get rid of any metal particles.

Very strong words doode... if we are 3rd owner to a car, we would never know how hard the 1st owner drove it...

Some interesting comments...

That's just the way I feel about it. I will also never buy a pink car or a car that's had the snot driven out of it, or if it wasn't serviced regularly. Some people might not really care, and that's their choice.

True, you won't know. There's nothing you can do about it.
Some people won't be honest about it either. It helps if you're good at reading people and know how to subtly ask the right questions (but it can only work if you're the second owner). It also helps if you know the previous owner (for more than one reason).

Wish people could just take care of their cars, like how they would want to regularly eat,drink or CR@P...
I mean, it isnt so hard to wash,service or drive decent....