[Die$eL]

Hi all

My new motor should be ready by month end.

I'd like some advice on running it in.

How many km/miles to run it in?
What oil to use?
How to drive during run in?
How long before first service?
How long before re-torque of the head?
Anything else?

I have heard that during run in its better to use a slightly thicker oil.
I'd say run in period is 1000kms, then do service and re-torque.
During run in, i plan on using low boost and not driving at full throttle.
Then something my dad had said was to drive to 120km/h and then leave the accelerator (in gear) and let it drop to around 70km/h and repeat. (not sure why, he just said its good to do so)

 

[cyclehead]

I recall advice to use slightly thinner oil, not thicker. The advice to coast in gear is supposed to "seat the rings" -not sure I ever understood that bit of advice either.

 

[tecaholic2]

I've heard everything from take it easy, to drive it like you stole it. I'm not too sure a lot of these ideas even apply to a modern engine. I don't think there's even such a thing as break-in oil any more either, but there once was.

I think what matters is if it's a well built engine. I'd just drive it normally, but not hard, keep a close eye on everything, and change the oil after a few hundred miles. I think that's important to remove any contaminants left in the engine during the build. How far is up to you, but I would probably do it after 500 miles or so, not more than 1,000.

You might look in the Owners Manual if you have one and see what Mr-T had to say about breaking it in when it was new. They know more about their engines than any of us do.

 

[T-bone]

000000000

 

[Die$eL]

Thanks guys

Its a rebuild motor.

 

[Gts*Jason]

Why would the valves need to set in?

 

[T-bone]

000000000

 

[dev]

Thanks guys

Its a rebuild motor.

It will break just fine. Just make sure you invest in lots of oil.

 

[nocoolname]

Since it's a rebuild, I would run some average dino oil in for a few hundred miles, then oil and filter change. If there is a lot of metal in the oil, do another oil and filter change about 500 miles later. The second change should yield little metal in the oil, then switch to your normal oil and go from there. Like t-bone recommended, the castrol is good stuff.

On driving, I would vary the load as much as you can, and probably not redline it until you get some miles on it. If you don't care about longevity, drive it like you stole it from start-up. I've broken bikes and quads in by riding them like I stole them, they performed very well, but I planned on tearing them down every couple years also.

 

[SuperWhiteGT4]

I've heard all kinds of things regarding oil type and driving styles, etc.

The only thing that stays consistent is to change your oil and filter a ton for the first several thousand miles while checking the outgoing oil for the signs of break-in.

 

[lushman]

I'd like to state for the record - I am not a professional in this regard -

I did read an article several months ago that talked about break in period. It explained that the reason for the differences in opinion (gentle for 1000 miles, or drive like you stole it) stems from the generational changes in technology.

From what I remember, gentle was the old way, running it hard is only a recent development. I think the biggest misconception that the article talked about was how long to 'run it hard' for, and that most engine builders give it a few hard runs to make sure all the gaskets seal etc, after which it's 'drive as you would daily'.

Now, I've put a lot of iirc/from what I remember/disclaimers in this post... so don't take anything I said too seriously. I have an idea of where the article might be, I'll try to dig it out tonight to see if I can find you something more concrete...a publication name, article name, author, date etc.

Good luck with your build.

 

[Die$eL]

my motor put a rod through the block (was turbo with stock internals)
i bought a second hand 1zz from a guy who was replacing his with a 4age turbo & nos.

ripped the engine apart and bought new pistons, rods, valves, rings etc.
head is going in for recon next week or so
fitting new oil pump, water pump, cam gears, timing chain etc. basically replacing everything on the motor.

costing around R30 000 (South African Rands) = $3 938

that is parts and labour.

 

[driftingsw21]

Don't use Synthetic oils!! Use cheap dino stuff for break in. Better yet us brake in oil Royal Purple makes it.

 

[southerneditor]

The article lushman references above is an interesting read. The author says that with a modern engine, the best practice is to run the engine hard and max out RPM frequently. The idea is that heat expands metal, and in the early period, you want to get the piston rings as hot as possible, getting them to achieve their tightest fit. Then you're good to go.

The MR2 owner's manual says to avoid high RPM and always vary RPM for the first 1000 miles.

I did it the way the manual recommends and have no oil loss issues.

 

[T-bone]

000000000

 

[kaustein]

I bought many new cars. Some would say if you going to run it hard, start from the first day. Some had a 500 mile break-in period. Whatever you do, drive car easy until it warms up.

 

[dogbreath]

The last new vehicle I bought was my bike. For the first couple hundred miles nothing above 7k. After than until 600 miles, it was ECU limited to 9k. After that was removed, no other restrictions. 7,000 miles later, all is well. Not a drop of oil consumption no matter how hard I ride.

 

[dev]

There are many different schools of thought when breaking in an engine but what is poorly understood is the mechanism of the break in and therefore you get loads of misinformation.

The purpose of an engine break in is to have many of the moving parts that have that come into contact with each other seat together as it's probably the last part of the machining process. During the break in most engines will become more efficient as time goes on because fiction gets reduced from metal to metal contact.

Another part of engine break in that is critical is the cross hatching on the cylinder walls in which it's edges needs to shaved off to form a good ring seal. If you try to break in an engine with synthetic oil what happens is that the edges gets smoothed over which is called glazing and it can actually increase oil consumption. This is why it is a good idea to vary the RPMs and load up on the rings about 300 miles during the break in so that these edges gets shaved off and good ring seal can be attained.

In my opinion if it is a factory engine I would drive it normally and not worry about any "break in" because the tolerances are going to be more exact. I wouldn't beat on it but there is nothing wrong with driving it at high RPM for brief periods of time. Just make sure you drive it like you would any other time and you should be fine.

If it is a rebuilt engine then I would worry about the break in and I would go easy on it so that the valve train gets seated for the first few hundred miles. Then I would start loading up on the rings not by driving the piss out of it but varying the RPMs and driving on hills.

A rebuilt motor's tolerances as well as the machining is not going to be upto Toyota standards and human error is very high so I would try and break it in crossing fingers that the motor will last 30-40k .

In regard to "breakin oil" I think it just proves Royal Purple is Rice.

 

[lushman]

Ok, found the article. Aug 2011, D-Sport, #105. It's the "All engine tech issue" and has a picture of a purple RB26DETT on the cover. That issue had a bonus mini-magazine called "Engine Blueprinting". On page 22 of the insert Michael Ferrara. His suggested approach is controlled aggression: 3 fourth gear dyno pulls, or 3 five to seven second WOT drives on the highway. He talks about the 'pulls' being full, steady and strong. Beyond that, driving like you stole it may be detrimental.

He further suggests 6 tips for break in
1) use a break-in oil. For the record, I'm regurgitating here, so I'm not bringing out the dman flame suit.
2) prime the oil system
3) on systems that cannot be easily primed, use extra break-in oil on the valvetrain as it's the last to get oil
4) Ring quality and type of finish will establish how hard to run during break-in. Consult with ring manuf. and/or machine shop
5) Change oil after 30 mins to 1 hour of running, then again 200-500 miles
6) check to make sure engine gets oil in first 3-5 seconds of first start, and don't let it idle for first half hour of running; keep at 2000-3500.

Cheers!

 

[Die$eL]

Thanks for all of the info everyone

Ok, so here is what i did.

Used a slightly thicker oil for the first 200km. then changed to a semi-synthetic slightly thinner oil

Drove on the existing maps for the first 250km or so. Did not go into boost unless by mistake. The min boost spring doesnt allow to drop the boost to 0.
min was 0.4 bar which i only hit once my mistake...

then at 250km i took it to the tuner and we put it on the dyno and had it mapped. It made 253KW (344HP) at 1.1bar boost (18psi).


I am driving it at 0.7bar boost until i hit 1000km. i have not been driving it too hard. Just revving it up now and then. At 1000km i will change oil again but this time to a fully synthetic. Mobil1 0w40

Now, my concern. The car has done 850km on the new motor and has taken about a pint of oil. Also, at high rev it smokes slightly. Is this normal?