i have driven my car for 820 miles so far and will continue my journey for 1000 miles today. (but my goal is 1500 miles)

i drove my car like a sane motorist during this whole time and for the record, i used endyn's (i know, i know) break in procedure with certain RPM zings at an interval of 15-20 miles.

i drove the car through the city for about 550 miles. then i drove it on the freeway every once in a while from 550-820 miles. and i'll continue to drive it on occasion on the freeway up to 1000 miles. but, when i did drive it on the freeway, i would downshift to fourth gear after letting the speed drop from 70-60, very often.

so my questions are: would driving on the freeway the way i drove it, during break in be bad for the engine? and my goal is 1500 miles. so if i drove long distance and downshifted occasionally (the way i'm doing it now) and exited on occasion as well, would that be harmful to the engine?

sorry for the long post.

 

rings are usually fully seated after 250-300 miles or so.....

edit: unless you have like darton sleeves or other really hard iron sleeves, then it takes 2-3x longer to break in. golden eagles sleeve material allows for fast ring seating.



[Modified by immortal, 1:37 PM 3/3/2002]

 

hmm, why does everyone recommend at least 1000 miles then?

 

remmended break in period for motor is 500 miles. I guess whoever told you 1000 was playing it safe.

HTH

 

Should the break-in procedure be highway miles or city (stop/go)miles?

I'm going to be getting my car done soon.....my friend said 3K miles. However, this is for a fully rebuilt motor, not just pistons/rings, etc.

Can I just get on the highway and drive for 3K miles?

I'll drive to Florida from NJ or something. Hehe...and I'm being serious!

 

city stop go miles it should not be higway miles.

Go figure i never break the race car motor in its called dyno and thats it. go figure

but anways for street car use the stop go procedure no full throttle bonzai runs.

 

you are doing things the right way. What you want to avoid is steady state conditions, such as cruise control. You need to vary load, rpms while on highway routes. You're doing fine. Make sure you do a compression test and valve adjustment after the break in period to assure yourself that everything is in spec.

 

the ONLY thing that needs breaking in is the rings. thats ALL you are doing when breaking in a motor.

 

You can also speed up the break in process by installing the pistons w/o oil. Just a small amount of wd-40.

 

thanks for all the help guys. so, i will continue my journey for the magical 1500 on the highway with various speeds and loads then. is 1500 good or is a little too extreme?

 

820 miles
you're rings are as seated as they are gonna get.

 

to me, it's about doubly cautious. In reality, the rings break in within about 45 - 1hour 15 minutes of operation (depending on ring type, cylinder wall type, and piston to wall clearance), and the bearings are pretty much ready to go after about 15 minutes of operation. But there's nothing wrong with overdoing it, you're just prolonging the fun

 

LOL. fun it is not. it would be funner if i could go buck wild with my leaded foot