Do cars/trucks need to be "opened up"?

Afternoon, men.

I'm Darkside. First post. I know you're happy for me.

My truck is the 2012 Magnetic Access Cab 4.0L.
Consider me introduced! Yup.

Ok, question for the group...

Is it better for the life of a vehicle to baby it at all times, or to open her up and rev it to 5k every now and then? I've gotten many different opinions on this question.

So, gentle, slow accellerations or the occasional jackrabbit? Both? neither?

Thanks.

 

i have no honest answer, but most of the time i baby it.

i will every once in awhile hit it hard if the truck has been sitting for a little while.

 

I say open her up and burn that carbon off!

 

When she is knew I wouldn't open it up till the second oil change so the engine gets broken in. Mine is at 220,000 km so I don't care as much anymore ill open it up once in a while. I find with the transmission shutter I've had since day one that opening it up helps with it.

Don't open it up in anything below 0c unless its been running for a bit.
If you need an oil change soon don't open it up
Don't open it up right after turning it over give the engine a minute to circulate.

As long as you maintain it properly then it shouldnt matter. It's fun to open it up these trucks can move. I've opened mine up a lot since getting it and still runs as good as day one

 

I believe it depends on how far you usually drive. If you just do rather short trips (1-10 miles) I believe it helps to once in a while take an extended trip. This brings the whole system up to operating temp which will dry out the moisture created during the heat/cool cycles of short trips.

All that to say I drive mine 9.5 miles one-way to work. 12 hours later I go the same distance home. I don't believe it is a long enough trip to "keep it clean." So I loaded up the trailer with a yamaha rhino and went 130 miles to hunt. Kept it in 4th most of the trip since flat spots are few. When I filled it up I calculated 11 mpg. A week later drove the same route going home, with the additional weight of a moose, and got over 15 mpg. That's not the same as OP's "opening it up" I know, but I think the loading it up and making it work helps to clean it out.

 

There is no harm in running an engine at a high load for reasonable periods of time...Most trucks run at high load a good percentage of operating time.

On the other hand, I normally operate between 2k and 3k on pavement unless I am pulling a load up an incline. On the other hand, I often will operate at greater engine speeds, in 4hi on our local gravel mountain roads.

Howard

 

Drive it to the limit (I do), use synthetic fluids, keep up on all maintenance and the truck will serve you well.

I tow 5 days a week. I floor it at least once a day, go to local dirt track to race, drive through desert, you name it. She has 142k miles on the clock, doesn't burn or leak a drop of oil and always starts right up. I use 10w30 Castrol Syntec Edge Titanium and OEM Toyota tall oil filter (Toyota makes two kinds of oil filters for the 1GR-FE). I change my oil every 5k miles.

 

My experience with driving is that in the course of time you will need to open err up every now and then... baby it sometimes... and do so called normal driving most of the time.... youre' vehicle should last for a couple of hundred thousand miles.

 

I bump off the rev limiter fairly often. Less so now that I am getting used to the short first gear and supercharger. I have about 6000 miles on it now.

When we build engines and put them on the dyno we bring everything up to temp and them load the snot out of them.

I have seen fresh engines allowed to idle pile up quite quickly. These are larger Diesel engines mind you.

There is no damage from opening it up once in awhile. However every engine has a certain number of revolutions in it. The more time at higher rpm the fewer number of hours on it.

Just my 2 cents and it is probably worth both pennies.

 

Light throttle = better fuel economy but I don't care. I stomp on the gas just to keep up with traffic.

 

Yes, for a while I didn't give it full throttle and my truck started to shoot out some carbon when I started it... So, went on the interstate, opened up on the On Ramp A couple times and the carbon smoke went away.

 

There are enough 55 mph roads that I will run 1st through 3rd at redline a couple times a week...It just feels good to have a manual and do that...

 

Indeed, I just luv getting this truck angry every now and again. Can't even imagine what she'd be like supercharged.

9months and already at 18500 miles

 

They are made to be run for sure. I have been told by a mechanic I trust that for the first 1500 miles be real gentle and up to 5000 don't go crazy. After that it's game on.

 

Gotta stretch her legs every now and then

 

...and Spread em too...

I have just over 1K on my new ride...I'm breaking her in real gentle~like for the first few thou. After she's broken in I can't wait to hit that free way.

 

Smiles per gallon > Miles per gallon

 

After a nice break in period, say 1,000-3,000 miles, cylinder pressure needs to be high enough to seat the rings fully, and, um.... it's fun going fast. First oil change then floor it.