There are quite a few opinions on this, so I'm setting up a poll, because frankly I'm not so sure anymore.
Break-in period have been in the range of 500-1500 miles easy drive. But from what I was told, remanufactured engines had to do a 500 mile bench run before released. So for those who have ahd new engines, what is your experience, and please post any bad experiences in particular.
It seems that the break-in period, long or short does not have any (or have been reported to have any) ill effects of any kind. So let's poll the communities knowledge and settle it once and for all.
I believe this information will be very usefull towards improving the long term reliability (is that an oxymoron) of the FD. Since all of us have or will be doing an engine replacement during the ownership.

 

Unless you rolled your car right off the showroom from Japan, there's no break in needed, contrary to popular belief. Think about it. When rebulding the engine, your replacing side seals, apex seals, and coolant seals. Pieces of metal and gaskets don't need to be broken in. Demetrios K "breaks" his motor in on a dyno at 28lbs of boost with over a year on it. No break in needed. Stock apex seals too. If you have a reman, its just that remanufactured to meet mazda spec's. Its not new, sometimes you'll have a new rotor or housing, but even then its not an issue.

 

Agree w/ Ernie.

Only real reason to break one in is if you replaced the bearings.....and thats if you didn't clearance them.

 

Disagree!!
You should break in your engine, why? Well think of it this way, if you are getting a reman, you think they put the time in to match all the exact parts up from the same motor, what ifs a rotor is bad and they use a new one or a different one, then the rotor and seals need to be put into to prober groove. This is just how i am looking at it! I do agree with the bearing, i would just not boost for 1000 miles and then let it open slowly!! This is what i did so i might be a bit bias!

 

i'd like to see some more feedback on this one myself. i'll be breaking in a new engine soon and it'd be nice to know how long i have to drive easy on it, to get everything set

 

I tend to go the route of making sure break-in is performed on any engine, whether rotary or piston. Every manufacturer and/or rebuilder of motors I can recount also recommends a break-in period.

All of the seals on Mazda's rotary engines need time to seat just like piston rings in piston motors need time to seat. Not doing so can result in blow-by which could lead to power loss and excessive oil consumption. The bearings, in any motor, as was already stated, also need time to break-in.

As for a specific time period I can not say for sure. Opinions vary from manufacturer-to-manufacturer and person-to-person. Personally, I would think that longer would be better.

Kyle

 

It is really interesting to see two completely opposit school of thought. Does anyone have any kind of concrete prove on the result of no break-in.
I think we can all agree that light driving on a new engine will certainly not hurt it in anyway.
So far the majority seems to favor 1k or less.

 

All of the seals on Mazda's rotary engines need time to seat just like piston rings in piston motors need time to seat. Not doing so can result in blow-by which could lead to power loss and excessive oil consumption. The bearings, in any motor, as was already stated, also need time to break-in.

bingo

Ernie T....sorry, dude, but you're wrong, at least for a street engine where durability is desired.....proper break-in (about 500 relatively easy miles of constantly varying the engine speed and quick bursts of hard throttle) benefits any engine in this respect

if you can prove me wrong with an ASME or similar peer reviewed article from a professional journal, step up.....but you can't, you are just going by hearsay from dragracers

true, racers don't break in an engine, because they don't have time to screw with it and they are constantly rebuilding the engine anyway.....the initial power loss is probably less that 5%, but the longevity of the engine IS significantly affected by improper break-in ....I've seen it time and time again in jap motorcycles where the owner "breaks in" his new crotch rocket at redline and then the motor starts having significant oil blowby after a few thousand miles (lugging the motor and being too easy on it during break in can be every bit as bad)

the enemy of any new motor is excessive heat....as new metal parts mate to one another, there is alot of added friction produced until the surfaces "bed in".....it's just like installing new brake rotors and pads....do you go out and stomp on your new brakes from 100 mph? if you do, you're stupid

any street engine, rotary or not, benefits from proper break-in.....period

 

Start with full synthetic motor oil (good for turbo longevity).

-First 500 miles, run up to 5 psi boost
-After 200 miles, motor can be dyno-tuned
-After 500 miles, run up to 10 psi boost
-After 1000 miles change oil, run boost as high as you've set your Apex Power FC for

 

If you read my post I said the motor was over a year old with over 50 dyno pulls and a year of drag racing runn 25+ lbs of boost. With no blow by. You guys forget, these are NOT piston motors. By design, the rotory has far less moving parts. ITs not rocket science. What do you think, slabs of steel need to be broken in. Ya....I have some swamp land in Nebraska for ya too. My motor had no official break in. And low and behold, no blow by.....imagine that....You post on what you've heard. I post on experience with what I know.....Sorry it is you who are wrong......

 

how can you tell if you have significant blow by in a rotary anyway? the things belch so much oil in normal driving

I'm betting your apex seals could have sealed even better than they did

congrats on the 10s anyhow

 

Really?

Well most rotor owners I know really recommend to use Mineral oil. Yet a couple workshops swear by Synthetic. Personally I'd stick with Mineral, especially since in an e-mail from Mazda they themselves recommend NOT to use synthetic oils.

Why do you suggest synthetic though? Just curious.

 

because technology has advanced quite a bit since mazda put the disclaimer on synthetics. the crazy stuff about the oil not burning properly is absolute rubbish. look at the higher end synthetics and their ash content. . . along with their flash points. much, much better than dyno juice. synthetic is the only way.

do a search for this. . . i cant remember the keywords, its like synthetic vs. conventional or something. cant remember, but there is a chart that i got from amsoil that had some tests of different oils on there. of course amsoil was rockin, but others like mobil such shined a bit. check it out.

paul

 

Start with full synthetic motor oil (good for turbo longevity).

I've always read never to use a synthetic for break-in, it's too slick and can result in "glazing" of the metal wear surfaces, just use dino for the first 500 and then dump it and put in your fave synthetic

 

recommends starting with sythetic oil, IF full synthetic is what you plan to use during the life of the motor and turbos. He doesn't recommend mixing dino and synth, bad combo in Dave Barninger's opinion

 

I'm a noob with this break-in issue, but I'm about to go through my 1st.... I would think that if there's ANY chance of benefit, I might as well take the extra precautions. This is $3-4k, and 2-4 weeks w/o the car.
Just my though

 

I've heard both sides of the story, but since I paid my good money to Pineapple, I just broke it in anyway. No one has ever said the proper "break-in" ruined their motor. Vary the RPMs and lay off the boost and wot. I started mild boosting after 1k.

 

KDR Performance Inc. recommends starting with sythetic oil, IF full synthetic is what you plan to use during the life of the motor and turbos. He doesn't recommend mixing dino and synth, bad combo in Dave Barninger's opinion

sorry, but Dave is wrong....synthetic is completely miscible with petroleum oils, and you aren't mixing them per se, anyhow....the reason you do not use it for break-in was already stated, it delays the break-in process and may cause "glazing", especially of piston rings, but I would suspect the same thing could occur in a rotary

run dino for 500 miles, dump it, put Mobil 1 15w-50 in and nail it I've read at least 12 or 15 articles on break-in procedure and that's the overwhelming consensus

you know what they say about opinions....the idea is to get a consensus from the "experts"

 

What if the experts are just experts in making opinions

 

in some cases, that's all it is....especially when it comes to topics like evolution, ha

but in terms of engineering related issues, where there is considerable "hands on" experience and a significant collection of data, a general consensus can usually be reached

what is "science" anyway, but limited human perception and interpretation of reality?

sometimes it's way off

 

O.k, o.k, let's not stray too far off topic here. This was started as a thread to gather and provide information. Let's not turn it into a debate.
It seems that more than 50% of the votes (out of <50 votes) goes to 500 to 1K mi of break-in so far. So where are the rest of the FD owners?

 

I just had a reman put in my car and noticed bits of metal on the dipstick even after the first oil change so I would think some break in is important just to ward off any possible damage these bits may cause under heavier than normal load/stress levels. I changed my oil after 400 miles and participated in a track weekend event so my example is not the best and common sense tells me that was not an ideal way to break in the engine but I'm also not sweating it. IMO changing the oil at 500 miles then again at 1000 would be optimal anything more would be a waste and anything less probably would just give you some premature wear on the housing which would reduce compression just a little but running loose is not always a bad thing either.

 

Two more weeks, Fritzy, and the "she-beast" will be ALIVE. Kim Barninger built and ported the motor, so the car will be the "she-beast" I hope the snow melts during Feb...I need to pack on 1000 miles before I can wack any Z06es at my March Putnam Park event--(can't wait as I wring my sweaty palms )

 

Manny,
Is she still in recovery following surgery or up and around? I'm going to a couple of events in FEB and I will probably freeze my *** off its been a cold winter this year. Let me know how she's running when the break in is concluded.
Fritz

 

Recently installed a new/Reman motor... Breakin period? 500miles... haven't had a single problem