In the midst of building a B18a1 engine for a turbo application and have a question about engine break in. Here is a list of the internal setup for an idea of what is being ran in this setup.

LS block-81.25mm bore
Stock crank
Eagle rods
9.5-1 CR pistons by CP
As for all the other misc. parts

LS head
Stock valves
Crower turbo cams
Crower valve springs/retainers
Adj. cam gears

I am asking about what is the best/appropriate way to safely break in the motor, do i run it NA and do the engine break in procedure then install the turbo application and continue to further safely break in the engine. OR. Do I install the turbo application to the newly built engine and do the engine break in procedure then and then tuned?

Further questions welcome.

Will.

 

Either way will do. I broke my motor it for a couple thousand miles and then slapped on the turbo kit and tuned, but all my friends take it straight to the dyno. Either way u just want to seat the rings and it's good to go. I just tend to take the cautious route.

 

Just built my motor as well and fired it up three days ago. I used this method http://www.cccylinderheads.com/main.html, click on Tech then read the 85x89 build. At the end he gives his advice on startup and thats what I used. Only difference was I used Brad Penn Break in Oil. I havent taken mine to tune yet only fired it up the once for break in and now I'm waiting for the tune. I might take it for a drive to get some miles since I have the wideband to monitor everything. I installed my turbo kit in full and im using the basemap my tuner gave me on my chipped ECU.

 

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.

 

I would way rather do what you did, because it seems more proper.

Another question for you guys is what would be a better compression ratio to run with, 9:1 or 9.5:1 (which is fairly close to that of a stock LS)?? 9:1 seems to be fairly popular so i am second guessing my CR selection by CP.

This is just a DD around the city and such. So i'm not looking for an insane build. Pretty much my goal is to have an average basic Turbo built motor with great power.

Thanks guys.

Will

 

i assembled my engine, slapped my turbo on it, drove straight to my tuner and got on the dyno...100% success.

 

have a nice day