Breaking-In an Engine...What'm I missing?

[Slick1]

Anyone?

[armysig]

Originally Posted by Slick1

Anyone?

You're fine. Just vary the RPMs and give it a good lead foot every so often.

[SSE 4 2SS]

Originally Posted by keving2873

So what about decelerating and dropping through the gears? I am at 1175 miles and I have been down shifting as I come to a stop but I never let the rpm's jump higher than 3,000 when slowing. I am also on the brakes the whole time while downshifting. Is that kind of shifting going to be bad?

This is about the last thing you want to do to a motor you're breaking in, it causes pressure under the rings and tends to make them float... Like Darin says, hard acceleration, no decceleration..I still throw mine into neutral for long slowing periods, and never use engine braking,

[jamie]

I broke mine in semi hard. First 500 miles no wide open throttle launches, but once underway the sky's the limit. After 500. I drive it like I drive every car I have. Some would say abuse, I say spirited. However I do not do things like burn outs etc, because I think its just kind of dumb. Unless you are heating them up to drag, why waste em? Don't worry too much, these new motors don't need too much of a break in anyway...

[Pollock]

I drive mine pretty hard I just do not shift very hard or dump the clutch yet. With a little over a 100 miles I did some hard take offs and ran it up to 6500 RPM. Whats the big deal about engine braking over 4000 rpm. I have not did it but I do not see the big deal.

[Slick1]

Originally Posted by armysig

You're fine. Just vary the RPMs and give it a good lead foot every so often.

I told my wife to get on it when she drives it and I took it out today and scared myself (in the fun good way) with it. My plan is to have some more fun tomorrow and over the weekend and get the oil changed on Monday.

[Iron Lung Jimmy]

I'm so pissed because I followed the owners manual's recommended break-in procedure and now my car is real slow.

I wish I had instead followed the advice of random people on the internet and beat the shit out of my brand new car to teach it to be fast. Oh well, too late now. Live and learn.

[jehartley]

Read your owners manual. It tells you the only break-in procedure you need to do.

[Njja]

I always break in my cars carefully, and treat them like I paid for them, and they have always treated me very well also.

I guess time matures you, I always leave my vehicles stock, I don't try and squeeze out extra horsepower with add ons that require computer modifications and can void warranties.

If I want more power, I will buy the car that offers it.

My current rides are 2005 SSR, 2011 2SS/RS Camaro (enroute to dealership),
2011 Shelby GT500

[camarobrah]

Driving a new car slow allows the owner to understand it. Remember, your the first real life driver. If it has somwthing wrong you'll hear it, feel it, and stop before catastrophic failure. I've seen idiots at dealers do a prep and literally add break fluid and oil and ruin motors.

Also, just like one person says it has to do with the rings and preventing honeing. You know.how hot your motor gets at 6k rpms? The transmission and rear end are moving quickly and are being heated straight off the line and with having thousands being assembly line built you don't have.time for the tedious quality control that you have building race motors. I recommend following the manual for warranty reasons, assuming shit hits the fan early.

I suggest just drive easy. You ever see how a horseshoe is made?(maybe bad example) you heat it, cool it, heat it, cool it etc. After a while what happens ( internal engine is hotter than 200* BTW)? It shapes the metal. As far as liability goes assume the dealer like I mentioned above didn't check the oil from the.factory and sold it to an old woman....shed fry the motor assuming she could drive like she's evading police!

Also forgot to mention that not all motors are built the same. Race motors are usually sleeved and either aluminum blocks with iron sleeves or have irol cast blocks. You gotta remember that not everything on your motor will expand and contract as hot and cold permit. They're not memory metals...if they get too hot and shape wrong well game over.

[Runnin SS]

I've been in everything from high power dirt cars to drag cars to high power street cars and let me tell you. Every time we built a motor for power all we did is run it to make sure it was running properly. Checked timing, oil and fuel pressure, temp and that was it. We had many dirt motors that we would build, wrap in plastic after a 5 min. run in and then put it in the trailer. Most of those motors first really ran when they hit the track. Alot of these motors would go a full season running on the ragged edge every night. My grandfathers theory was, start it up and if its running right off the bat give it hell, very little breakin. To this day the only failures I've ever had with motors has been because I've pushed it too hard or the tune was off. So I guess I will continue to drive mine like a raped ape. That's all I've got folks. Flame on!

[kmcd]

Originally Posted by Black5thgen

C5's have been out since 97, why would you need to break the engine in?

I've seen you drop that line a dozen times...and it's still funny!