Engine Break-in

you know it home slice

 

After I got my truck I kept the RPMs low.. but I always think people probably test drove it like I did... pushing it hard. :/

 

Race the hell out of it, that's what I did. My truck always pulls more than my cousins, which he babied it.

 

I went easy on it for the first 50 miles. Heck, I drove it around the city, and around the lake, at varying speeds under 50 mph for a couple of hours before I hit the highway to go home.

After 50 miles, I occasionally did some hard acceleration runs. Raises the cylinder pressure and helps finish seating the rings.

Up through 500 miles, I paid attention to how I drove it, and kind of babied it a little bit. I'm at 2000 miles now, will probably do an oil change at 2500, and I just drive it 'normally' now.

 

Just hit 2500 today. Did a "normal" break-in (didn't baby it, didn't thrash it).

Took it on its first true trail today. This thing was a mess of rocks and washout....the damn truck never even needed 4hi for chrissakes. I got a good ways in (a couple miles) and then brought her back out testing out all the toys...locker, ALSD, Hill Descent Control just to make sure they all worked properly. The locker takes a little cuddling to get to go on and off, but nothing serious.

None of this is necessary though, that's what kills me - the Taco ate it all up in 2hi without blinking....and it was UPHILL going in!

These trucks are amazing. I'm kind of scared what it'll be like once I lift it and get some true A/Ts on there.

 

Your post gives me hope that my Prerunner will be fun on some light trails.

 

I don't think you'll have any trouble.

This certainly wasn't hardcore stuff (no 3 foot ledge climbs), but it wasn't gravel either. 12" rocks and ruts were common, and this was all on dirt and larger broken rock (say 6"x6"x6" chunks). It was a pretty fun crawl.

 

I have read about this 'hard' break in on every bike, snowmobile, and vehicle forum as it creeps up for discussion from time to time. Here's my opinion:
-ask wife, spouse, or partner from which store they bought the brand new aluminum teflon frying pan. Write the name of the store down.
-when wife, spouse, or partner is away, put frying pan on stove and turn the burner up on bust so that it glows orange. Make sure frying pan is extremely well heated.
-run cold water in kitchen sink. Allow 4 - 6 inches to gather.
-put red hot frying pan in sink.
-watch pan warp.
-make your way to the above mentioned store to get a new one before wife, spouse, or partner gets back home.

 

Your point?

 

That's a funny question, because it seems when you go to buy a new vehicle and your on the test drive you got some salesman saying step on it. This thing has tons of power. I always tell them I wouldn't normally do this with anything I buying for myself so why do it now. I've built performance motor for my 71 duster and I broke that in slow. Running it at 2500 rpms for 20 mins. Cool down then first 200 miles low rpms. The car has had the same motor in it for 16 years with several passes down the drag strip and day to day driving on street. That motor runs 12.50 in 1/4. Just my 2 cents.

 

That's a funny question, because it seems when you go to buy a new vehicle and your on the test drive you got some salesman saying step on it. This thing has tons of power. I always tell them I wouldn't normally do this with anything I buying for myself so why do it now. I've built performance motor for my 71 duster and I broke that in slow. Running it at 2500 rpms for 20 mins. Cool down then first 200 miles low rpms. The car has had the same motor in it for 16 years with several passes down the drag strip and day to day driving on street. That motor runs 12.50 in 1/4. Just my 2 cents.

 

motors are broken in from the factory. - I break my motor in hard BUT for short periods of time with proper cool down afterwards. I don't go wot for 5 miles on the highway. I'll go wot for a 1/4 than cruise at 50mph for 15 min.

 

Its true that practically all motors have been "factory run" saving the engines from being eaten alive by various shippers hammering engines that were not broken in at all( this is primarily "in the old days").
It also saves the manufacture $$$ if the idiot buying the vehicle doesn't give a darn about doing things correctly( proper warm up and no wot for a number of specified miles.) After all 500miles comes along very quickly and in general terms you can "put your foot in it" after that.

Building or rebuilding an engine from scratch is expensive for the most part, as guys who do this always buy good fairly expensive performance parts, wanting to get the most out of new engine. Of course the best thing for these engines is to have them "run in" on a dyno , very few of us can afford that, so the next best choice is to follow the proper break in rules by the manufacturers, as all the makers of cam's , rods and pistons provide lubrication and break in rules. They should be followed to the letter, as they don't want to see their products blown up.

So you have two completely different scenerio's , one that has a engine that has been run in at the factory therefor seating the rings and a engine thats really a virgin and needs much more "care and feeding".
When doing a test drive with a salesman, I doubt that they would encourage any high rpm trips, normal test drives and small road trips hardly give anyone a chance to abuse the vehicle and if you abuse it why the heck would you buy it?
We recently added a new car to our household, a 09 Subie Imprezza, 5spd, a great car for my S.O. and good mileage and great in the winter , here in N.E. When we picked up the car, the very knowledgable salesman, told us "keep the rpms under 4 grand "until you have a 1000K on it.
Recently, a friend of mine had a engine built by a professional for his street rod. The engine was a hemi in the 600hp range. All of the best parts available, he received a detailed two page sheet on break in procedures. Naturally, he follow the directions to the letter.

Sorry to get on the soapbox here, I just cannot see the need for pushing an engine and components when there is no proper break in.

Jeff, 06, V6, SR5, 6spd

 

All I know is after doing a easy break in and changing the oil every 3,000 miles, when I sold my last Toyota it was still running strong with close to 300,000 miles on it...

 

I don't know if they still recommend it but Toyota used to use the "Hard Seat" method they'd say to go thru the gears full throttle (no bullshit) a few times to hard seat the rings which makes sense really,heat the rings quick so they seat quick & start the "wearing cycle" that will hopefully result in a few hundred thousand miles of good compression & combustion, also I think that if a motor is going to grenade on you it'll happen during this period,i.e; inferior bearings score & burn up,cams go flat, improper building causing engine seizing,rods sticking thru the block,all this happens quick, you get the idea....

 

What is the procedure used at the factory?

 

Being from a family of engineers, my father being a machinist/ engineer for GE for 35 yrs, i have learned the following. Engines, no matter how clean the machining, are dirty. The "break-in" that is done at the factory is meant to seat the bearings and rings as well as seating the valve train (valves, seals, cam lobes, bearings, etc.) The factory usually runs the engine with break-in oil as stated. The length of time is not the same as puting 500miles on your truck. There is still quite a bit of "dirt" or metal particles that are shed from continuing the seating process. The main reason for proper SLOW break in is that you need to constantly filter the oil. Inside all oil filters there is a spring acting as a pressure valve. If the oil pressure/ volume becomes to much for the filter it will bypass a percentage of the oil. A good rule of thumb is the pressure relief kicks in around half of the RPM range or lower at full throttle. For the first 500miles if you run half the RPM and dont "gun it" even if you do it below 3k rpms and dont drive until the truck is warm, the bypas will not open and you will filter ALL of the oil. Any dirt that may be in you engine can be re-cycled through the engine and act like fine sandpaper on the inside of your bearings if the oil bypasses the filter. To confirm this, i broke my tacoma in super-slow and changed the oil at 600 miles and i never went higher than 3000rpms. Then i took a 4in grinder cut open the filter and pulled apart the paper element. You would not beleive the amount of crap that was in my filter from little bits of RTV sealant to visable flakes of metal that look like glitter all from machining and seating a new engine. Its quite scary the amount of crap in there. The oil that i took out though, looked clean enough to use again so the filter did its job. Break em in slow you wont be sorry.

 

So drive it like ya stole it right off the showroom floor!