What not to do with a new engine.

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
Just a good video that dispels the myths out there.

That's whether or not it actually does dispel the myths out there. There is still far from anything resembling a consensus on engine break in, except for some very narrow points in some very specific scenarios.

 

[StevieC]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Just a good video that dispels the myths out there.

That's whether or not it actually does dispel the myths out there. There is still far from anything resembling a consensus on engine break in, except for some very narrow points in some very specific scenarios.


I disagree, there is a lot of data out there but no one wants to believe it because they would rather use special oil and old wives tales instead.

 

[Garak]

What I'm getting at is we have different engines that do, on occasion require something a bit different, and those are fairly well established. On a flat tappet rebuild with new cam and lifters, a high AW oil with no friction modification is ideal to start. That's coming from formulators on the forum.

On the other hand, we have owners manuals insisting we should leave the factory fill in there for 10,000 miles because of special pixie dust put in at the factory (that pixie dust is nothing more than assembly lube and whatever ordinary motor oil goes in the crankcase under contract to the lowest bidder), unless you have a Vette and don't want your filter to lunch your engine in a thousand miles, or have a BMW M.

I'm not going to put anyone on the spot, but right off the top of my head, I can think of two very well respected, highly educated members on this forum who do have differing views on break in, and both have more data than what the rest of us would know what to do with. The data the rest of us have is that many, many engines have lasted hundreds of thousands of miles on everything from gentle break in to hard break in, to change early, to change late, and everything possible in between.

What the OEM does has far more effect on engine longevity. Overengineering on one end or silly shortcuts and bean counting on the other seem to affect longevity more than any "normal" usage an original owner would be expected to subject a vehicle to.

 

[GMBoy]

Originally Posted By: Kamele0N
Originally Posted By: motor_oil_madman
Originally Posted By: SilverSnake
Good video. I have always laughed at those that recommend a "drive it like you stole it" break in. People who steal cars do not care what the long term effects are of abusing a new car. Break in periods for most new cars these days are minimal and do not impose any real burden on anyone who cares about their cars. My wife and I went to a Jaguar dealer recently and the sales rep "demonstrated" the performance characteristics of the car by showing us WOT acceleration runs and hard max breaking stops in a car we were interested in. We left the dealer and never went back. We ended up ordering a new BMW to be sure nobody else ever took the car for a test ride. I did the same for my 2016 Charger Scat Pack. Bought the car the day it came in off the truck with only factory and PDI miles. Told the dealer I would not touch a car test driven by anyone else.


Most new cars only have between 3 and 7 miles on them. Anymore then expect it's been taken for a test drive.


Most car odometers can be reseted (legaly) for two or three times...that is why you can get a car with 0 miles...

And new cars see a lot of abuse while they are on their way to your dealer...



This is not legal in the USA. All late model cars cannot be reset unless re-programmed which, again, is illegal to do that to show less than true miles. No new car will have 0 miles. If I saw a car on the lot with 0 miles, I would be very skeptical. We put an average of 2 miles on a new off the assembly line vehicle just at the plant. Add in transit miles and PDI and you should see 5-10 miles as a normal new car miles w/o test drives.

 

[4WD]

There is a difference = people who change oil early are often doing this as a preference … not the OEM recommendation
People who break them in harshly are also not following the OEM recommendation

However, in a small claims court (in a black box world) … know which one I’d rather be guilty of …

 

[Silverado12]

Originally Posted By: bullwinkle
I've only had 2 brand new cars, both manual transmission Toyota engined cars-did some up & downhill driving, no WOT, leaving it in a lower gear going downhill to seat the rings, neither one ever showed any oil consumption between OCs, AT ALL! Now if I was buying a new Demon, a Scat Pack Charger, or a Shelby GT-350 Mustang, it better not have been driven anywhere but off the delivery truck. I've seen what new car salesmen do to demos-it ain't pretty!


LOL my Challenger was a salesman's car for about 1,000 miles before I bought it. I don't even want to know...

 

[Jarlaxle]

My friend's Mustang probably got a pretty hard break-in: it was a police car! It was one of the strongest-running 5.0s I have seen. My uncle (mechanic and machinist) agrees: don't abuse it, but break it in hard. When he rebuilt the engine in his F-250, the first thing he did was hit some hilly roads with 2000lbs in the bed.

 

[StevieC]

As the OEM usually has to suck up warranty claims I'm inclined to go with what they suggest in the manual aside from Factory Fill oil change interval. That to me is just ridiculous, going a full OCI on factory fill. I will however keep it on conventional oil during this period if acceptable by the OEM and using the properly rated oil.

I have always driven the car mildly for the first few thousand kilometers varying the speed and with short OCI's, then switch over to a normal driving style with a reasonable OCI until I can verify with UOA's what is acceptable to this engine and ALWAYS using a high quality synthetic after the break-in period.

I have driven almost 2 million kilometers since I got my license (mainly because of my line of work) and I have had 0 oil related failures where this regiment was involved so I will stick with what works. Most of my vehicles live an extremely long life with 0 oil consumption. That wouldn't happen if the engines weren't properly broken in IMO.

Just my real world experiences...

 

[KrisZ]

Hard break in doesn't mean bouncing off of the rev limiter or spinning tires at every red light. My minivan saw the red line on my first drive home, but I took a longer route to make sure it was warmed up first. In the following days I drove it petty hard and used the manual mode to do some engine braking. I also dumped the factory fill at about 1000km.

Nowadays, the van sees pretty much 100% short trip, city driving duty with the exception of some weekend trips with the family. It hardly ever goes beyond 3k RPM. The tail pipe has no black soot on it and the oil level stays the same. I'm happy.

 

[WyrTwister]

Originally Posted By: Garak
Originally Posted By: StevieC
Just a good video that dispels the myths out there.

That's whether or not it actually does dispel the myths out there. There is still far from anything resembling a consensus on engine break in, except for some very narrow points in some very specific scenarios.


Yous pays your money and yous makes your choices .

Personally , I am an old man and drive like one + plus I try to drive to save gas and the brakes . Which I suspect saves the engine . I try to watch far ahead , and coast to a stop , when ever I can .

Best of luck to all of you ,

 

[Cujet]

And yet police cars and taxi cabs seemingly last forever with no special care what so ever. Regardless of the type of vehicle used.

 

[johnachak]

Same here! Brakes and tires last much longer than when I was younger. I also believe in taking it easy the first 500 miles or so, a short change interval the first change and changing the oil before 25% on the OLM. Normally 30% and I use full synthetic Dexos one approved oil.
Have a great day everyone.
John

 

[ndfergy]

Good advice in the video. That's what I've been doing for years. The main takeaway is don't flog it but don't baby it either. The majority of new vehicles I've purchased have been at year end. With the risk of starting in bypass, after possession I run the vehicles non stop for an hour or so then change the oil and filter. After a 1000 km I change it again. Works for me and I've never had a vehicle that excessively burns oil. That includes two 2az-fe engines.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: StevieC
As the OEM usually has to suck up warranty claims I'm inclined to go with what they suggest in the manual aside from Factory Fill oil change interval. That to me is just ridiculous, going a full OCI on factory fill. I will however keep it on conventional oil during this period if acceptable by the OEM and using the properly rated oil.

Of course, as I've mentioned before, they don't want to be calling people in for their first service at 1,000 km these days, either. Like I suggested, we don't see a lot of big issues no matter how people break in their vehicles, so there's no real reason to worry, and no warranty liability.

The taxis lasted long and fairly comfortable lives, being driven fairly gently, all things considered. Some were former police vehicles, which often got a pretty hard break in, too. There was a fairly reasonable mix, with some taxis having been bought new, some being bought used from the cruiser pool, all sorts. Generally, the engine was never the week point in vehicle longevity. Our longest lived engine was a small block Chevy Impala going over 1,000,000 km. All it needed was a cam and lifter, but every small block Chevy needed that in those days. When it was retired, it was probably consuming about a litre or two over a 10,000 km OCI.

My point, at least for most engines, is that it's pretty hard to do an "improper" break in these days. If you run out your OCI to full length, I doubt it will hurt. Change it in 1,000 km, it won't hurt. Change it in 100 miles and replace the oil with a high zinc break in lube, it won't hurt. Just don't drive it off a cliff or go straight to red line when it's -40, and it should be a suitable break in.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: WyrTwister
Personally , I am an old man and drive like one + plus I try to drive to save gas and the brakes . Which I suspect saves the engine . I try to watch far ahead , and coast to a stop , when ever I can .

Personally, I'm actually one of those that does a fairly easy break in. I'm just not terribly convinced it's significantly better than anything else (aside from obvious abuse).

 

[Propflux01]

I vary the RPMs, as much as I can, the first 500 or so miles. To me, there is nothing wrong with full power, as long as the RPMs are kept low. I'm not talking about a redline to redline run, just a full throttle til about 4-5K max, then done. The rings need a full seal, and also a full vacuum seal as well. I give them both, and between both cars and bikes, it has worked flawless for me. YMMV.

 

[Schmoe]

Nice video.