Poll: Which is better... drive hard or drive easy?

[Thatwouldbegreat]

I was speaking with the Mercedes Service Advisor about the 2007 ML-63 AMG when it was in for service.

He mentioned that some Mercedes had oil consumption problems since the cylinders have a hard coating [ a special low-friction cylinder wall coating called twin-wire-arc-sprayed (TWAS)]

Now I know that Mercedes had earlier problems with oil consumption or failed engines due to the use of conventional oil inseatd of synthetic.

[I think BITOG guys would immediately talk about engine oil approvals and specs like MB 229.5 etc.]

Coming back to the question of driving hard or easy. The MB service manager opined that the problem now is that not enough people drive the engine hard and generate the cylinder pressure needed to seat the rings.

Then there's the short trip and heating oil to the right temperature. And finally there's the 'Italian Tune Up' to get rid of carbon in the combusion chamber.

Now I never baby engines. I break engines in with a fair amount of ful throttle under load followed by full vacuum.

I drive full throttle to either near redline or peak of the torque curve daily.

I'm good, maybe fanatical about oil and service.

I've had great luck with engines runnig like new at all mileage, even super high mileage.

I'm gonna vote for 'drive hard'.

What do you guys favor?

 

[Sparkman]

I drive gently until at least the coolant is warm if not the oil, then I'm not afraid to WOT or generally work the engine hard.

 

[Johnny]

I guess that depends on what you drive, a Mercedes or a Yugo.

 

[buster]

Quote:

---

The MB service manager opined that the problem now is that not enough people drive the engine hard and generate the cylinder pressure needed to seat the rings.

---

TWBG, I agree that not enough people drive hard enough. The only cars I've owned that used some amount of oil were the ones that I broke in very gentle. The Dodge Ram I had, specifically stated in the owner's manual to do several WOT's during the first 500 miles. It was to help break-in.

Now I'm sure some engines it won't matter, but my next car will definitely get WOT.

I'm curious as to how you broke in your cars? You said WOT. If you buy a car with say 10 miles on it new, is it safe to floor it that early? I've read that you can put high load on the engine without raising the rpms very high. For instance, putting the car in 3rd gear, not quite lugging the engine, and flooring it from say 15 mph to 40 mph. Keeping the rpms no higher than 4k but putting heavy load on the engine from flooring it.

 

[SPITMAN]

"....I've read that you can put high load on the engine without raising the rpms very high. For instance, putting the car in 3rd gear, not quite lugging the engine, and flooring it from say 15 mph to 40 mph. Keeping the rpms no higher than 4k but putting heavy load on the engine from flooring it."

That is the correct proceedure to seat new rings. yOU Want combustion pressure not high rpm. With high rpm (upper third of the engine's safe rpm range) there is the potential of ring flutter.

 

[06VtecV6]

The question for me, and ultimately for everyone here at BITOG has evolved to, What oil will Allow my car to be run harder versus which oils will just make it hard to run. So it's which oil will...

1. Make it easy for your car to run hard versus
2. Make it hard for your car to run easy

That's the real question. Any oil will run your car and probably protect but which ones will make it easy for you *to* run your car hard!?

 

[JohnBrowning]

RPM's are not dangerious once the engine is up to operateing temp. It is a good idea to put some load on the rings. I will not hesistate to get close to redline dureing break-in but lugging or low speed loading should be avoided in my opion. Use the same shift patern as normal just use slightly more agresive throttle application. 3/4 throttle should be sufficeint I like take off in first normaly then once I hit sececond go to about 1/2 throttle then when I hit third go 3/4-WOT until I am going about 60MPH then engine break down to about 20MPH then down shift to second and repeat 2-3 times then drive normal for a mile or two then repeat.

I am partial to Motune-usa's site and break in recomendation. His idea's are how I came up with my break-in method. If I can not do that because of a long HWY drive I try to drive agressively in terms of throttle from the dealership to the HWY with as much acceleration and engine breaking as I can fit in safely. When the HWY trip is over I try to repeat.

I will say that sustained high rpm's on a new engine is or can be a bad thing! So the old school recomendation of varying speed and RPM should be followed if a long drive home ont he HWY is unavoidable.

 

[mdocod]

I am a firm believer that engines should be broken in with a decent amount of WOT up to a decent RPM, then engine braking back on down, (like in 2nd and 3rd gear). I would maybe drive the first 50 miles kinda gentle to let things get moving, but after that I would let er rip..

I'm also a firm believer that an engine that is not driven hard enough throughout it's life, will develop severely caked ring packs, and dirty combustion chambers.. This is a major problem with Northstar engines and I attribute it to all the slow drivers to buy them. Seems 90% of people who drive Cadillacs, have no interest in getting to their destination. Most of them have also had their left blinker on since 1987. (not their fault, they can't hear it, lol)

 

[badtlc]

For those that do drive easy, would AutoRX maintenace help prevent inceased consumption as he engine gets older?

 

[mdocod]

probably yes.

 

[wileyE]

Depends on the cylinder material, ring material and ring geometry?
That's the falacy of a generic break in recommendation like moto-tunes web site, and why the subject has been debated for eon's.

Typically you have an iron bore (soft) with a hard chrome faced ring as the 2 mating parts. Breakin happens easily no mater how you do it. On silicone nickel coated cylinders or wire-exploded coating like the MB in question the bores are very hard, and high spots in the hone lines are harder to break off (or wear away). Compared to a iron bore it does take more pressure or time to wear them away". Depending on the compression ring design would indicate if increase combustion pressure or rpm is better at "pushing" the ring harder into the bore. For example many modern compression rings a semi trapezoidal, they use a bevel cut that interacts with the upper ring land to "mechanically" push the ring outward as the piston descends downward. There is very little effect from combustion gasses. In this case rpm will push the ring harder than load. With a dykes style of ring the opposite would be true, high combustion pressure pushes the ring. Just trying to say that there is no generic best breakin, the engine and parts in question have to be considered. I do agree with the mechanic though about the MB, most engine don't get used very hard.

 

[SigShooter]

I have a 05 Camry Se with the 3.3L V6 and I run it hard just about every day. It is such a sweet sounding engine, I love to hear it sing. I am currently using Castrol GTX 5w30 and with no oil consumption.

 

[buster]

wiley, great post, thank! Do you happen to know what type of rings Honda's have with the 2.4L engine?

 

[forcedtalon]

Its a good idea to take it easy at least untill the coolant is up to temp. In the winter months it takes longer and I dont drive far enough were the oil gets to safe full throttle temp.
In the summer I drive hard and the engine loves it.
Engines are made to work and you are doing saving anything by driving easy.
It really #@$%! me off to see these guys with there new vets driving them like its a honda. That engine is made to be driven hard. Grow some balls or buy a honda.
For example 2 cycle engines are bet on harder from the time there started to the time there stoped than any motor I have seen and they last forever.
I agree as well 85% of engines out there dont get driven hard enough.
Carbon collects in the ring lands and causes the rings to stick and blow by and poor gas milage occurs.
Driving hard would not alow this to happen because of the added clylinder pressures blows all that #@$%! out the exhaust or blown by the piston.

 

[double vanos]

I try to break my cars in by taking them to the Texas hill country...around San Marcos, Wimberly, Bastrop etc.

Lots of hills and twists and turns that allow one to break the whole car in...engine, transmission, clutch, suspension..basically the whole dam car gets a workout.

For the first 500 miles I keep a lid on the rpm's at 4000. After 1000 miles I allow 5k rpm and at 2000 miles time for the first oil change and then....Katy bar the door!!!

I have 2 schools of thought on how hard I drive my cars. My 4.3 V6 puts up such a fuss at anything over 3500 rpms I just work the sh!t out of it on the torque curve - plenty of full throttle, it's just that, that engine is such a cacophony of noise at anything over 3500, who can stand to listen to it? It has a manual trannie so doing such is easy.

Now my 330ci went to the hill country too..same program as the truck except after the break in period I spare it no mercy. Why should I? It has 2 liters of oil for every 1 liter of displacement so there's no stress there. The rev limiter is visited every time I drive it and I try to hit 100mph everytime I have it out. It is overdriven and overmaintained and at 96k it drives better than new.

The only part of my cars that gets a break is the A/C compressor - if the ambient goes over 95 degrees I try to hold the BMW down to 5k rpms....BMW compressors are kinda expensive.

Cheers all!!

 

[Jake07SEv6]

Prior to buying my vehicle I read a few articles of how to break engine in...so i followed this procedure by driving my V6 honda hard off the lot. So far I check my oil right after an oil change and before...seems I don't have any oil consumption.

 

[Thatwouldbegreat]

Quote:

---

"....I've read that you can put high load on the engine without raising the rpms very high. For instance, putting the car in 3rd gear, not quite lugging the engine, and flooring it from say 15 mph to 40 mph. Keeping the rpms no higher than 4k but putting heavy load on the engine from flooring it."

That is the correct proceedure to seat new rings. yOU Want combustion pressure not high rpm. With high rpm (upper third of the engine's safe rpm range) there is the potential of ring flutter.

---

During break in , I don't punish the car. I do vary RPM and after I'm sure the engines warm I do the third gear WOT like in the mid rpm range followed by full vacuum.

After 500 miles I start revving the engine a bit more freely. After 1000 miles , drive it like I stole it.

I wait until the engine is warmed up before I drive hard.

I might add once I picked up a new car in Denmark in the mid 80's.

By the time I got to the German border and the Autobahn, the engine had over 100 miles or more.

I checked under the hood and then proceeded to drive all night from ther Danish border to Switzerland at full speed.

Car always ran great!

 

[Merkava_4]

Quote:

---

I drive gently until at least the coolant is warm if not the oil, then I'm not afraid to WOT or generally work the engine hard.

---

I agree 100%

That's the right way.

 

[mitchcoyote]

I have some good memories myself of the Autobahn.....

 

[deven]

Quote:

---

RPM's are not dangerious once the engine is up to operateing temp. It is a good idea to put some load on the rings. I will not hesistate to get close to redline dureing break-in but lugging or low speed loading should be avoided in my opion. Use the same shift patern as normal just use slightly more agresive throttle application. 3/4 throttle should be sufficeint I like take off in first normaly then once I hit sececond go to about 1/2 throttle then when I hit third go 3/4-WOT until I am going about 60MPH then engine break down to about 20MPH then down shift to second and repeat 2-3 times then drive normal for a mile or two then repeat.

I am partial to Motune-usa's site and break in recomendation. His idea's are how I came up with my break-in method. If I can not do that because of a long HWY drive I try to drive agressively in terms of throttle from the dealership to the HWY with as much acceleration and engine breaking as I can fit in safely. When the HWY trip is over I try to repeat.

I will say that sustained high rpm's on a new engine is or can be a bad thing! So the old school recomendation of varying speed and RPM should be followed if a long drive home ont he HWY is unavoidable.

---