vtak2nr

Hi all

long story short, basically i recently had my piston rings changed, 1 piston + crank rod changed, and cylinders rehoned. this is on a b16a turbo

the shop put a 5k rev cut on the car, told me to drive around for 500kms (310miles), change oil then go for my dyno tuning

i have about 90 miles on it and im noticing it puffs oil. start up is fine, idle is fine, but only sometimes when i take off from stops, or give a little gas(boost) ill see some smoke out the back.

im just wondering if this is normal during the "break in period"

blackeg

i think the shop had the wrong approach to the break in. rather than limit the revs and power, you want to throw the power at the engine. you gotta throw heat and heat cycle the engine as early and often as possible in the beginning. that heat expands the rings on the cyl walls and finished off the sealing that was begun on initial startup.'



to answer your questions, yeah you can see a bit of smoke, but it should be clearing up the more you get on the motor (with a good tune of course)

EsotericImage

iTrader: (8)

Oil changing schedule:
Startup - 30w non detergent, change after warm up
after 20 miles - your favorite non-syn
after 100 miles - your favorite non-syn
after 500 miles - your favorite non-syn
after 1000 miles - your favorite non-syn/synthetic (it is now safe to run synthetic)

You should stop seeing metal shavings in the oil after the 100 mile oil change. I strongly recommend using a magnetic oil drain plug for freshly built motors. You don't want all those shavings being pumped to the bearings, cams, or splashing on the cylinder walls...bad. Don't worry though, they will be there, no matter how close the clearances are.

Now for the break in. Try to vary the revs as much as possible, with alot of short blasts. It is very important that you let the engine "brake" itself by just letting off the throttle and letting the vehicle slow down on it's own, while in gear. This creates a vaccum in the cylinder and forces the rings outward, which wears down the peaks in the cylinder's fresh hone. Do this for the first 20 miles, and then proceed to beat the **** out of the motor, up to it's maximum rev range, as long as it is tuned accordingly. As long as the bearings are within spec and the rod bolts were torqued correctly, there is NOTHING to worry about.

I guarantee you WILL NOT burn oil using this break in method. If you do, you probably have leaky valve seals or bad rings/cylinder hone, or maybe possibly even other major problems with alignment of the sleeves themselves.

https://honda-tech.com/forums/all-motor-naturally-aspirated-44/how-build-%22reliable%22-lsvtec-b20vtec-1676914/

Runnerdown

I disagree with that oil changing/ break in schedule. Do you do that when you buy a new car with a new engine? It's a waste of time and money. I have used synthetic oil for break in also. Its a complete myth thats it's not good to use on a new engine.

The rings will seat rather quick if you do it right, you shouldnt be seeing a lot of smoke. Maybe just a touch, but generally it should not smoke at all.

EsotericImage

iTrader: (8)

^^
yup,
Every new car ive owned. And saw shavings. a few times even used a magnetic pick out tool and dragged it in the oil pan to to check. doesnt help with aluminum, but i try to drag as much as i can. last break down of a b20 block had a decent amount of shavings on the screen.

red96turbols

New vehicles don't have 0 mile engines from the factory. They are all put on an engine dyno and technically broken in before the consumer even gets the vehicle. So I disagree with your disagreement. I don't do it THAT frequently, but I do change the every 500 miles with a 0 mile engine until I get about 1500 on it then switch to synthetic and run the vagina off of it. My engine puffed smoke only while cold during break in process and it was a marginal amount. If it smokes longer than 1500 miles I would start looking into the builder who assembled the engine perhaps he didn't line the oil rings up proplery.

Runnerdown

Every manufacturer breaks them in on an engine dyno? What's the procedure and run time? Have you been to a factory? I have. Do whatever works for you, I won't argue about methods. But its the dumb myths and old wives tales that bother me.

And seeing shavings inside the engine means it straight up wasn't cleaned good before reassembling. A little metallic glitter in the oil is the worst you should be seeing.

red96turbols

Customer came in two days ago with a 2012 Subaru WRX for a synthetic oil change with 2800 miles on it. If what you say is true, there should have been metal shavings in his oil which there was not which leads me to believe they do not ship a motor without firing it and running it on a dyno. Maybe you missed that part, but on How Its Made, they did a walk through of a lambo engine assembly plant in which every motor was run on the engine dyno for a pre determined amount of time.

Ford F-150 raptor engines are torture tested before they are shipped out of the factory for each engine... Either way, I've seen 400 different threads on different forums and write ups with different magazines that all show different ways to break in an engine, so to each his own. either way, change it a couple times, no one likes metal shavings floating around in their fresh bearings and new turbos, do they??

Runnerdown

If you see metal shavings there is likely major trouble. I said that a slightly noticeable metallic glitter should be the worst you see. If you are literally pulling metal shavings out then either the engine has major problems or wasn't cleaned well enough prior to assembly. Are you forgetting about the oil filter too?

Every manufacturer has a different way of testing engines before installing them at the factory. I'd bet that most do a brief mechanical test lasting no longer than a minute or two. 98% of them dont run on some sort of dyno to simulate a lot of miles or change the oil 12 times. In the world of mass production they don't do what's unnecessary or wasteful. A tv show about a lambo, raptor or limited edition corvette engine does not represent the majority of factory engine testing.

red96turbols

Makes sense, not every manufacturer would test every engine, but then they would also have a quality control issue if they didn't atleast fire them up before installation right?

Either way, when I did my new build, I had actual small slivers of metal coming out as well as in the filter (I cut the first couple filters open.) That all stopped after the 2nd oil change. I changed my oil right after start up, but not by choice. The machine shop left a oil galley plug loose and it spun itself out and dumped all the oil out after start up. Then I changed it at 200, 600 and 1000 miles with valvoline ND 30w oil. After that I switch to Mobil1 Sythetic but recently switched to Rotella T6 5w40 due to Mobil1 would lose its viscosity after about 1500 miles and oil pressure at idle was at about 10psi which I didn't like. With the Rotella it stays steady at 20psi at idle and 80-90psi at full boost and doesn't drop after hard day of driving. Which this is all irrelivent but wtfe right.

ls_on_boost

iTrader: (5)

New motor put in the car pull plugs turn over to prime motor with oil replace plugs start car let car get to normal temp while checking for leaks no leaks put on trailer and str8 to dyno for tuning the tuner will seat the rings while on the dyno thus ur break in process

Turbo-LS

iTrader: (4)

Don't even need to take out plugs just unplug the distributor and crank it till oil light goes off.but I see where your going with that, no load at all.

This is a high debatable topic for break in, I can say from lots of experience, the rungs seat quickly when don't correctly, after that there is no breaking in an engine and it doesn't need a million oil changes. I've always broke in the rings with rpm and load variation. After that let it eat on the Dyno while tuning. Nothing else in the engine needs to break in, PERIOD. If its going to blow it will blow if it's going to last it will last that's it .

I've always done a dimple ring seating and then broke it in hard and never once had a single issue. I don't even change my oil after breakin. I go 2000 miles and change it. I generally change my oil every 2000 miles on my turbo car due to fuel contamination. Synthetic should not be used at first IMO but after ring seat process synthetic is fine to use.