View Poll Results: What is your break-in period
Break-in? What break-in?
14
9.46%
500 mi
40
27.03%
1000 mi
53
35.81%
1500 mi
21
14.19%
> 1500 mi
20
13.51%
Voters: 148. You may not vote on this poll
New engine break-in period
The way I've always done it -
- Jumper F/P and GND in diagnostics box to run fuel pump, run it for a minute to look and smell for fuel leaks. If it's all sealed up, continue.
- Crank engine with EGI fuse pulled to build oil pressure. If you have good oil pressure and no external leaks, continue.
- Put in EGI fuse and start the car. KEEP IT RUNNING, sometimes it can be grumpy and not want to hold a good idle, especially if you changed a bunch of stuff. Have a buddy watch for problems - leaks, fire, etc. If it's all good keep it running/idling for 15 minutes until it gets totally up to temperature and shut it down.
- Let the car cool all the way down and top off coolant. Change oil and filter now, that will get any junk out of the system from the rebuild process. I typically use cheap oil for the first fill since it isn't going to run for long.
- Drive the car under 4000 RPM and no boost for 500 miles. City driving, you want varying RPM and load as much as possible.
- Drive the car with a bit higher RPM and some boost for next 500.
- At 1000 miles change oil and filter and go for it, consider broken in at that point.
Done this with every motor I've ever built, zero problems. The break-in period also gives time to make sure everything is good, if something is going to leak or have a problem it's during that initial period.
For oil I run 20w50 Castrol GTX or Valvoline VR1. In colder climates you may want to run 10w30.
BTW convert miles to KM for the break-in. I would also listen to whoever built the engine, if they want you to do something specific, do so.
Dale
- Jumper F/P and GND in diagnostics box to run fuel pump, run it for a minute to look and smell for fuel leaks. If it's all sealed up, continue.
- Crank engine with EGI fuse pulled to build oil pressure. If you have good oil pressure and no external leaks, continue.
- Put in EGI fuse and start the car. KEEP IT RUNNING, sometimes it can be grumpy and not want to hold a good idle, especially if you changed a bunch of stuff. Have a buddy watch for problems - leaks, fire, etc. If it's all good keep it running/idling for 15 minutes until it gets totally up to temperature and shut it down.
- Let the car cool all the way down and top off coolant. Change oil and filter now, that will get any junk out of the system from the rebuild process. I typically use cheap oil for the first fill since it isn't going to run for long.
- Drive the car under 4000 RPM and no boost for 500 miles. City driving, you want varying RPM and load as much as possible.
- Drive the car with a bit higher RPM and some boost for next 500.
- At 1000 miles change oil and filter and go for it, consider broken in at that point.
Done this with every motor I've ever built, zero problems. The break-in period also gives time to make sure everything is good, if something is going to leak or have a problem it's during that initial period.
For oil I run 20w50 Castrol GTX or Valvoline VR1. In colder climates you may want to run 10w30.
BTW convert miles to KM for the break-in. I would also listen to whoever built the engine, if they want you to do something specific, do so.
Dale
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