Ok so i am building up my gsr, going turbo with 9:1 cp pistons, forged rods, all the goodies,but im at a standstill on the break in period, some people reccomend to run it hard off the bat, and some say you have to break it in gently......what methods have you guys used?

 

i havent built an engine .. but from what ive read/come across on HT i thought a good break in period is at least 500 miles .. *shrugs shoulders*

 

i was under the impression 500 miles of mellow driving

 

I read on Laskey's site that you shouldn't "break in" a freshly built turbo car. You should trailer it to your tuner and have the tuner break it in while he's tuning so nothing gets fucked up.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by haveaniceday &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i havent built an engine .. but from what ive read/come across on HT i thought a good break in period is at least 500 miles .. *shrugs shoulders* </TD></TR></TABLE>

I thought 500 miles was for a clutch break in.

 

i read first 50 miles drive it like yuo stole it to really set the piston rings in...common sense tells me not, but can anyone clarify this?

 

i know on the omni man b16 DVD he reved his car to 9k in the first 20 minutes that he had it running.

 

This is from the March 2006 issue of Motor Trend magazine; I'm unsure of the veracity of the info. contained herein since I haven't yet had time to do any research on most of it:

<U>Break-in, Schmake-in</U>
Spare the whip and spoil the engine?
By: Frank Markus

I vividly remember the first weeks spent driving my one and only brand spanking new car. It was a 1986 Dodge Lancer Turbo five-speed that I custom-ordered with all the futuristic kit: digital guages, trip computer, and the "door-is-ajar" lady. I took delivery with only a single "2" glowing in the odometer and babied it for the recommended break-in period. The magic number (600 miles) blinked as I eased up to a stop sign. To celebrate its matriculation to automotive adulthood, I launched with a wide-open-throttle clutch-drop wheel-hop flourish. That 2.2-liter turbo ran like a German train for the next 150,000 miles without burning oil.
So you can imagine how my eyebrows arched as I recently read a Web site advocating a radical break-in procedure that involves lots of big throttle openings within the first 20 miles of operation in order to boost performance and improve durability.
Motoman's logic (mototuneusa.com) is hard to dispute. He notes that machine tools leave ridges and peaks in new or freshly honed cylinder bores, and the piston rings polish them off while conforming to the precise shape of the cylinder. He asserts that at light throttle openings there's insufficient cylinder pressure to force the rings out into full contact with the cylinder wall, which leads to uneven wear that allows exhaust to blow by the rings and contaminate the oil. The site suggest that improved compression can boost power by between two and 10 percent. Motoman claims his procedure works on all four-stroke engines, though he admits most of the 300 engines he's tested power air-cooled motorcycles and snowmobiles. Could beating on a brand-new car engine boost its performance? Are manufacturers simply hesitant to recommend a full-throttle break-in out of fear of drivers exceeding speed limits?
For answers, I rang up long-time GM engine guru Dave Lancaster, and he agrees that in smaller, low-cost air-cooled engines (which expand and contract more as temperatures change) such a technique might indeed pay off. But the micro-finished bores, high-tension rings, and precision-build tolerances in today's automotive engines yield excellent ring sealing from new, so any change in power output attributable to such a radical procedure would be miniscule if measurable at all. He notes that power and fuel economy generally improve throughout the break-in period as friction diminishes in all moving parts. Ford's engine durability specialist Mike Herr concurs with all the above as do the engine R&D experts at Honda.
Motoman counters by arguing that the fine machining and high-precision build quality of modern engines serve only to shorten the window of opportunity to "seat the rings," making it even more important to do the heavy-duty accels right off the bat. But if his procedure works, why don't manufacturers perform it in the plant on a dyno, especially on performance engines like the handbuilt Corvette LS7 and supercharged Northstar? They would, but Lancaster and Herr confirm the only engines that get such treatment are those undergoing torture-testing during development to ensure that the Motomans of the world won't ring up big warranty claims.
My final problem with these Web claims is that they seem unverifiable. Since no two engines-especially smaller, cheaper ones- produce equivalent power fresh off the assembly line, it's impossible to attribute small performance differences to a break-in procedure. So it's your choice: Follow your owners manual recommendations (which usually entail gentle driving at varying engine speeds and no towing for between 300 and 1000 miles); or pursue Web logic in hopes of gaining a racer's edge of added performance.

 

when I got my motor back from Jotech...he told me to drive 500 miles on it street driving...not highway....before I let VTEC engage but I hear all sorts of things.
just don't do anything stupid like race anyone for a while...if you miss a gear and over-rev it...you may f it up

 

just get it tuned ASAP before you rev the hell out of it or you'll probly be buying new internals. because if its running lean your pistons are screwd.

 

i read an article talking about driving it hard
n downshifting n letting it rev down alot to set the new piston rings tight after properly warming it up.

dont start it unless u plan on letting it warm up n drive it hard.

i think this 4 motorcycles but pistons are pistons
but ur car is turbo so u should get it tuned first


http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

when i rebuilt my z6.. not really rebuilt it but put new rings and honed the cylinders.. i followed the instructions in the chiltons HONDA BOOK for my car.. the motor was good.except the fact taht i didnt replace the oil pump wich was going out.. haha oh well stupid single cam anyway haha 1 of 6

 

i hav bilt hundreds of engins and all were broken in hard..start it up,,let it idle at 3000rpm for 20 minuts,,then off to the dyno for puls and tooning..or if stok rebuild i do sum 3rd-4th gear pulls to seet the rings,,then change the oil and thats it ,,done..

 

ok heres a really good/respectable site that tells how to break in a motor. this guy has years of experiance and builds motors every day. heres the LINK.

http://importbuilders.com/breakinarticle.htm

 

things do need to be lubricated and make seats before you start beating on the motor. 100 miles is usually enough for everything. if you baby it too much, the rings wont make a good seal. its good to heat it up, drive it to half of its potential for 15 minutes, let it cool down, repeat. 5 or 6 times.

 

let it run at a high idle for around 10-15 minutes(1500 rpm). then take it out on the high way and gently get it up to speed. and just drive in differant gears 3-4-5 at differant rpms. dont really need to go over 65-70 mph. do this for about 500 miles. put regular natral oil in it for the first 300 miles then change it, run it to 500 and change it again. this change is the time to switch to synthetic if you want to go that route. dont boost past 4 to 5psi during break in, remember this period of driving is "seating" the rings. i have done this with every motor i have built, its always turned out well. my budy is on this site his s/n is drift4jesus i think. he works for a performance engine builder. he turned me onto this method of break in. track him down for any other questions. im sure if he reads this he will chim in.

 

ej8-y8 is on track. The only thing I do different is drop the oil after the first engine warm-up. The engine itself is the best washing machine there is. Use the cheapist oil you can (it only has to last 15 minutes). Then put in a "better" quality oil and follow ej8-y8's instructions. This came from a local engine builder that builds sprint car engines. He also recomened to make 6 to 8 full throttle runs from 30 MPH to 50MPH. completly close the throttle on the decell. This will suck oil past the rings for lubrication inbetween WOT runs, then drive normally. There are 16 million opinions on how to break in an engine. This is what I used and have had good luck.