Respect the Break-in Period?

[BMWAF]

I respect the break in period but I prefer to break it in a different way. A long time ago I read a compelling site online (I looked but couldn't find it) written by a race car/bike mechanic and his method just made sense to me.

His method was pretty simple. Take it relatively easy day to day but from time to time, as the time passes, smoothly rev the car right out to the limiter and then let the engine slowly reduce its revs back to being suitably calm. This gives the engine varying loads to deal with in a relatively gentle way. I think this is especially true with cars that have an overhead cam - It seems silly to me to never engage the DOHCs for the first x miles/kilometers!

This has worked far my cars so far but, lol.. YMMV.

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[SD_MK]

Beat the dog shit out of it.

 

[NitroYellowMKV]

Ya with my MT i have been giving it the beans, but I let it warm up for a few minutes before even getting over 3k rpm, luckily for me my exit out of the community is filled with speed bumps and takes 3-4 minutes. But vary the RPM, don't hoon it cold, I will change the oil at 1k miles, again at 5k and intervals of 5k after that.

 

[SD_MK]

Ya with my MT i have been giving it the beans, but I let it warm up for a few minutes before even getting over 3k rpm, luckily for me my exit out of the community is filled with speed bumps and takes 3-4 minutes. But vary the RPM, don't hoon it cold, I will change the oil at 1k miles, again at 5k and intervals of 5k after that.

For your case, i'd do 500 miles soft just for clutch break in purposes lol

 

[NitroYellowMKV]

For your case, i'd do 500 miles soft just for clutch break in purposes lol

Ya I have not done any launches or dumps of some sort, nothing crazy on the clutch as that actually should be broken in

 

[kaj]

A bit of gentle boost and decel to seat rings has always been the way I do things. I know it's old school, but I don't think engines have changed that much.

 

[suicidaleggroll]

as the time passes, smoothly rev the car right out to the limiter and then let the engine slowly reduce its revs back to being suitably calm. This gives the engine varying loads to deal with in a relatively gentle way.

Load != RPM. What you just described lets the engine run through its RPM range, but does nothing for varying loads. Load is throttle/boost, meaning heavy throttle and engine braking. You can't give the engine varying loads while staying out of the throttle, those are mutually exclusive.

 

[J29DB03]

I’m just going to leave a response I gave previously in a thread about oil.

 

[kyle9]

Only thing you need to do is vary the rpm’s. Give it a rip but don’t use cruise control for the first 1k miles if possible.

 

[zrk]

as that actually should be broken in

Just like the engine.

 

[Zcarmenb28]

Just got my new ‘22 Supra 3.0 on Saturday. Let my wife drive it home from the dealer. With about 25 miles I took my son for a ride in the back country roads, I did several ~80% throttle to very brief wide open throttle runs from 2500-5000ish rpm, once hitting 5500. They need pressure in the cylinders to properly bed the rings and that comes from the high throttle loads. I did pretty much the same process with my ‘21 ZL1. Didn’t romp on it; but definitely went ~80% to WOT to around 4500 (a few times to 5000) rpm many times in the first 100 miles or so. It is a strong running LT4.

I don’t think these (or any engines) should be babied for 1000+ miles. I also don’t think they should be seeing multiple redline pulls in the first 100-200 miles. I told my wife just don’t go past 5000 rpm when she drives the Supra for now.

 

[FLtrackdays]

I never “abused” any of my track cars and they have all been incredible! I typically sign them up for a track weekend as soon as I can.... Currently 200 miles on mine (due to hurricane delay). I'll be breaking her in properly this weekend at Sebring. Can't wait!!!!!!

 

[speaser]

Well I almost made it to 1200 miles.

Challenged on the interstate by a modified BMW 3-series. Kept taunting so I dropped her down to 3rd, waited for him to go and floored it. Pulled away easily.

1095 miles ... she'll be fine. I gave her a pat on the boot before I put her to bed.

 

[GoodCake]

Haha can’t wait till Toyota replaces my motor. It blew up after they tried rebuilding it to combat oil consumption. Now I’m gonna give it a proper break in the previous owner did not.

from what I’ve gathered, owners who drive it like they stole it from day one don’t have oil consumption issues on those 21’ cars.

How did the engine fail? What did they install incorrectly?

 

[Zcarmenb28]

I follow a specific process for breaking in engines that high performance engine builders use. Early on (50-100 miles) you want to build some pressure in the cylinders to help the rings properly seat. Essentially, you make several runs up to 75% of the redline starting at medium throttle, working up after a few runs to WOT, but only up to 75% of redline. This has worked well thus far for my Mazdaspeed3, 2018 Mustang GT, ‘21 Camaro ZL1, and my ‘22 Supra (3.0). All high performance engines in their own right. That Speed3 engine was pretty sophisticated for its day (2007 model). Highly boosted 2.3 liter making 263 hp. Back then that was a really high output per liter.

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