Are the engines pre-broken in or not?

From new you are breaking in more than just the engine.

 

I'd expect to find fines in any new engine. It's hard to say what they were from. machining operations or break in. I don't give a shit what the engineers say. I wasn't running that oil to 5k or 10k.

We have to remember that lots of people become engineers, and a number of them barely graduated college. Those are the ones that become yes men or women.

 

Sorry, I get my filters from Amazon. Oil from Walmart. Cheapest around. I thought I typed it but I must have forgotten to mention that

 

Dude....what do you do for a living?
The standard ratio for people who start an engineering degree vs those who finish an engineering degree is 8:1. However, those seven out of eight who couldn't cut it go on to finish college as teachers, accountants, biologists, chemists and physics majors.
Engineers are not the smartest guys in the room... far from it....but they know how to follow the rules whatever they may be.

 

I’ve driven 4 Toyota trucks into the ground 350k plus on all of them and 2 had 400k didn’t break in single fucking one all running when i got rid of them. Just follow the manual op if your worried about it you’ll be just fine.

 

That's good to know. Everyone commenting seems to think I was worried. I'm not - I was just curious about whether or not they break them in before we buy them, since the guy at the dealership today said they did.

 

Got ya. At the factory they do not put them on a machine and run the engine for xxx miles or hours. They will usually assembly just spin them up to make sure all the rotating assemblies are working etc. Then in they go. I’ve been to the factory in SA it’s pretty cool. Enjoy your truck.

 

Pretty sure they never start the engine until the truck is ready to be pulled off the line and parked for shipment. If you see a truck with 1.8 miles on it at the dealership, then that is how many miles the engine has been run.

 

You're giving your profession too much credit, engineers fuck up all the time.

https://www.newcivilengineer.com/la...g-errors-revealed-in-final-report-14-11-2019/

 

Civil engineers? Really? They fill holes and level dirt lol.

 

As to "following the rules"....the truly SMART folks know when to BEND the rules, based on book knowledge, combined with street sense & real world experience. I'd MUCH rather have a person with good common sense than somebody with just a 4.0 GPA.

[spoken as a ChemE x 22 years in the automotive supplier industry before I got bored & said F'it, switching to a "low stress, carefree" 2nd career as an ICU RN (with 19 years of volunteer EMS under my belt before making the switch)].

That being said, I change the oil in my 2019 Taco every 5000 miles. Oil is cheap.

 

Changed my oil at 5k for peace of mind. Had some metal flakes...nothing that I really worried about and I think 10k is fine but it's my truck and I wanted to spend the $30 on the extra change.

 

I think my first oil change on the Tacoma was about 1500-2000 miles and again at 3k. I always change my oil and filters at 3k or sooner on all my vehicles. However, I haven't driven the Tacoma much (10,500 miles since buying it new in 2017), so I usually change it once a year at minimum. It's cheap insurance.

I also babied my engine and brakes until it got 3k miles, but I'm planning on keeping this truck for a while. It's a good idea to change the differential fluid earlier than recommended too.

 

For the price of some good oil and filter plus some of my time, I did mine at 1000 and at 5000 mile intervals after that. I spend alot of time on farm roads so I go with the more agressive schedule.

 

I'm at 3k now and may change at 5k or 6 months.
I did notice a big difference in the truck after 1800 miles. Seemed broken in all around. Everything was stiff before that.

In Vermont I wonder if you never changed the oil in this truck what would go 1st? The engine or the Frame?

I changed my 2010 at 2500 miles and every 5k after Mobil 1.
11 years later the engine ran perfect but
The truck at 109k looked salt worn.

I'm gonna try to wash this one more often but I'm not getting my hopes up!

 

To add...

The only thing that really needs “breaking in” are the rings, which are pretty much broken in within the first 15 mins of the engine running. Now, if you DO find bits of metal, this is normal; usually some metal is left over from the manufacturing/drill/tap process.

In fact, babying the motor during the ring break in period can cause future problems and excessive oil consumption if they don’t seat properly. The only time I would consider a break in period to be beneficial is after a engine rebuild when you don’t have those tight tolerances.

 

500 miles, do first oil and filter change. Small engines, 5 hours and oil and filter change.

It's always amazing to watch how much ''silver'' is in the oil from break in running. I have cut open several filters and almost all had casting swarf in them.

It's cheap as hell compared to what any decent engine costs these days.

And new filters are usually a total PITA to replace and they don't get easier with time.

It's also good to get under your new ride early and do some inspecting for anything amiss.

 

Toyota doesn’t use any additives in factory fill oil like Honda. This would mean any OCI prior to the first 5/10K would solely remove any possible contaminates left over from manufacturing. Not that there would be any in the first place, but incase there is. The break in period is mainly to vary the RPMs and no hard acceleration/braking to set all of the moving parts in the engine.

 

Doctors can kill only one patient at a time. Engineers can kill thousands at a time.

Takeaway-engineers can make mistakes, and they don’t make or assemble the parts in your truck. I do like your allowance for first oil change between 100 and 10,000 miles depending on owners desire.

 

Arizona must have been hot today. In the Sacramento area, we hit 110 today. AZ must have been 120….Stupid hot for this early in the summer. Sorry to derail thread OP.