I was told to prime the motor, then start it and let it warm and from here should I do another oil change when it is warm or drive the car hard for 50 miles and then do the oil change. And do you guys recommend hard break ins or in the middle or soft? Thanks

 

prime the motor before the first start. start, let run for 5mins while checking for leaks or any issues, shut down, change oil, drive NORMAL for 50ish miles...there's no "special" way to break in the motor, I just wouldn't beat on it right away.

 

People told me that the cross hatch on the cylinder walls seat the rings and if you drive it soft or normal it will wear off the cross hatch and the rings will never get a perfect seal. Anyone else?

 

You might really want to google this. There are a lot of theories that are valid and regarded true.
It is very easy for some cylinder wall finishes to be too fine and have to be broke in VERY quickly, that is to say just after warm up or the rings may never seal like they should. This is for racing engines mostly and are broke in on the dyno or at the track right after a tear down.
There is an excellent read out there about cycle motors that really sums up the argument and objective. Lots of pics and facts to view. He and others claim that right after a new motor is warmed up, several very hard pulls must be preformed to get the rings to "RUN IN" to the cylinder and establish the seal. This is very popular and has been documented well.
Search more for your particular needs. If this is a stockish motor, just be nice to it for the first hour then change the oil and drive as desired.

 

Ive read a lot of the articles, including the motorcycle one.

Ive always run my engines in hard.
You want lower grade oil, thats not too good at friction reduction. This can hamper run in.

My last one went something like.

Crank with injectors unplugged to get pressure up.
Start up (with mineral oil in) run on ramp for few mins, make sure nothings leaking.
Short drive to quiet road (less than half a mile)
Then start runs up to 5k, let it engine brake back down, then 6k, 7k etc. The point of letting the engine brake is this expands the rings out to fully bed them in.

You dont have that long before the honing will be worn down, and any bedding in will be over.

Thats how i run my personal engines in. Im a tech, for a few brands over the years. I run engines i build at work in similar, but not quite so brutal, as they arent as high performance generally.

 

Everybody is going to have their own theory on break-ins, but i guess it depends on the build and use for the motor. As for myself, i prefer a harder break-in. I usually do as follows:

1. Prime oil. I usually disconnect main relay and distributor and then crank til oil pressure builds

2. Start motor and hold at 2k rpms til radiator fan cycles twice

3. Change oil

4. Drive car somewhat harsh. Not redlining or at full throttle, but consistent pulls up into the rpms. Usually drive around for around 30 minutes or so.

5. Change oil

6. Drive however I want. Beat on it, cruise it, or whatever.

However, I'm sure build tolerances and ring gaps probably make a difference in how your break-in should go, but Ive used the same method on both factory rings and aftermarket rings. I also use just plain old castrol gtx 5w-30 for the first 2 oil changes and then switch to synthetic for the 3rd