i know everybody has a diff opinion im just going with the theary i think make most sense>i will keep every 1 posted
necro posting… but…
theres a few people that have not chimed in on this discussion who i think theyre opinions would be greatly appreciated. they know who they are. but im about to have a fully built motor with aftermarket everything and machine work. my MAIN concern is the break in period. i was told from the beginning that the first 1000mi is supposed to be easy driving below 4k then it w/e after that. but after reading around theres a lot of people saying that the piston rings wont seal properly without a heavy load and this and that wont seal properly and i need to take it over the entire rpm range.
one person on here said that the conclusion is that there is no correct way to break in a motor but im sure there is a wrong way. can someone please give me a straight forward answer as to how this needs to be done?
My builder/tuner told me that he prettymuch agrees with this break-in procedure: (Found here: http://hondaswap.com/general-tech-articles/build-reliable-ls-vtec-85477/)
"Initial startup process for new cylinders/rings:
Fill the motor up with 30W non detergent oil (quality does not matter). Just buy the cheapest you can find. Also, pick up the cheapest oil filter you can find (usually Fram). Check the dipstick periodically to see when the oil pan is full. Try not to fill higher than the upper most dot on the dip stick. It should be around 4 quarts (remember, you need a little extra oil for the vtec oil line).
Fill the motor with a 50/50 mixture of coolant to water. Believe it or not, the more water this mixture has, the cooler the engine will run. But, you need antifreeze in colder climates to prevent coolant freeze/expansion, as well as to prevent the water pump and sleeves from corroding.
Now, disconnect the ecu and turn the motor over for roughly 30 seconds to build up oil pressure. This is the easiest way to ensure you will not be injecting fuel and spark into the cylinders. Reinstall the ecu you will be using.
Fire the motor up and check for leaks. Make sure the oil pressure light extinguishes immediately. If not, turn the car off and troubleshoot. Let the car reach full operating temperature. Immediately begin to tune the car for a 14.1-15.1 AFR. The closer to 14.7:1 the better. That’s it. For the rest of the tuning, I’d suggest a street tune first then tune on the dyno, but every tuner has his/her own ways.
Oil changing schedule:
Initial - 30w non detergent
after 20 miles - 30w non detergent
after 100 miles - your favorite non-syn
after 500 miles - your favorite non-syn
after 1000 miles - your favorite non-syn/synthetic
You should stop seeing metal shavings in the oil after the 100 mile oil change. I strongly recommend using a magnetic oil drain plug for freshly built motors. You don’t want all those shavings being pumped to the bearings, cams, or splashing on the cylinder walls…bad. Don’t worry though, they will be there, no matter how close the clearances are.
Now for the break in, try to vary the revs as much as possible, with alot of short blasts. It is very important that you let the engine “brake” itself by just letting off the throttle and letting the vehicle slow down on it’s own, while in gear. This creates a vaccum in the cylinder and forces the rings outward, which wears down the peaks in the cylinder’s fresh hone. Do this for the first 20 miles, and then proceed to beat the shit out of the motor, up to it’s maximum rev range, as long as it is tuned accordingly. As long as the bearings are within spec and the rod bolts were torqued correctly, there is NOTHING to worry about."
On mine, once the car had reached operating temperature (15min of idling & blipping the throttle) I drained the oil and refilled it. Just to make sure there wasnt any crazy debris or excess metal shavings. then I hit the road with it.
The motor is basically broken in within the first 20 miles. Waiting until 1000+ miles is pointless, the motor is already broken in. You dont need to beat on the motor, but make some passes up through the powerband and let the motor ‘idle’ itself down. When my tuner builds his own motors, he puts the cars straight on the dyno and tunes them ASAP with no road time/break in. The dyno session basically is the break-in period.
As long as the car is properly tuned (Or at least a good basemap), it was assembled correctly, and you’re getting good oil pressure… Them you’re good to go as far as getting on it and taking it through its entire RPM range.
Just dont ride at a certain speed/rpm for very long… you want to fluctuate the RPMs and constantly vary them.
I’ve read people that say its recommended to use ND30 oil for the first 500-1000miles. My tuners take on that was, all the ND oil does is help the rings seat correctly. The rings are fully seated after the first 20-50 miles. After that, the ND oil isn’t needed. After, just run a reliable 10w-30 and call it good.
Now my tuner didnt create that write-up, but he said that it is a pretty good process to follow. As I said, most of his motors he breaks in straight on the dyno and gets them dialed in asap. He’s built many many many motors, and his own car runs low 9s in the quarter mile, he knows his stuff. he had my brothers B16 on the dyno, pushing 10k rpm with less than 500miles on the motor. It went on to make 198whp and is still running strong.
Like you mentioned, everyone has their own take on how to break in a motor… But I felt totally comfortable breaking my motor in using the above process. If it is built correctly, reasonably tuned (basemap’d) and is getting proper oil pressure, there’s not much to worry about.
Ive read posts of people saying they went 2,000 miles without hitting vtec, staying at 4k rpm and below, etc etc… then they are surprised when their getting somewhat poor results when doing a leakdown test within the first 5,000 miles of the motors life. The reason being is the rings weren’t broken in right away. Sounds stupid, but you need to show the piston rings what they’re gonna be capable of and how they’re designed to be driven. If you baby them for the first 1000+ miles, then you start romping on it, the rings arent used to it and its sort of ‘shocking’. Right off the bat they need to be rev’d on and BROKEN IN. Like I said, it sounds odd but it makes sense to me.
I look forward to hearing other opinions though, always interesting to see other points of view.
wow… thanks man. that eases me a lot. the only questions i have is:
what is nd30 oil?
what does non detergent mean in the context of oil?
im going to have a datalog set-up on my ecu, so when do you think ill be getting proper readings on my datalogs during the break in? immediately or after a few miles?
since you said that your tuner puts brand new motors on the dyno and uses that as the break-in, that means i can start getting my car tuned immediately correct?
As far as I know, the reason behind using ND oil for initial start-up and the first few miles is because regular oil has detergents in it which allow particles to be ‘suspended’ in the small crevices and areas in your motor.
Non-Detergent oil doesn’t allow these particles (ie metal shavings in a newly built motor) to build up, it ‘flushes’ everything down and keeps it in the oil pan. Thus when you do your first oil change (Did mine after the initial start-up) most of the metal shavings should be drained out and not pumped through the motor. Do a couple searches on Google and I’m sure you can find more info on it.
You will get proper Air/Fuel readings right off the bat so, if you don’t have a reputable basemap on your system, you indeed need to start tuning immediately to attain an A/F ratio that is safe for the motor. The last thing you want is to be rich/lean to the point of detonation. You need to get it somewhat close.
But yes, you can fully dyno-tune a brand new motor as long as its built correctly and have no worries.
i think i can say ive never seen non detergent oil before. but i see what your saying. thanks for the info…
Bringing back an older thread but I wanted to share what I know. I would have to agree with unified112. All of this talk about driving a motor for a certain amount of time and taking it easy or not boosting etc is non sense. I was actually very surprised at how many people posted up responses like that. It is very simple. You need to seal the rings immediately with the proper mix. Once you get that mixture right you should be romping on it full throttle to redline to seat the pistons. That is pretty much it. There essentially is no “break in” from what I understand. You just need to seat the pistons. Also, if you have some “close” basemap and you start romping on it you are probably not going to seat the rings correctly and all of your hard work building the motor will be in vain. The easiest thing to do is make sure the car starts, idles and doesn’t leak. Shut the car off right away, tow it to the tuner. Put it on the dyno, seat the rings and that’s it.
Holy old thread bump!
But I agree with only a few in here, there really is no break in period. It’s funny to see the differing opinions on this, if ever in doubt next time you’re at the track as the old school muscle car guys or others making some decent power.
There is no 2k or 6k mile break in period, WTF? Who comes up with this stuff.
Especially with forged internals, start the car, let it run and get up to operating temperature, voila, rings are seated and fine!
Change the oil to get out all assembly lube, etc and you are ready to go!
Turbo vs non turbo startups means nothing. A turbo is load based and as long as you are not hammering on the throttle before you get it on the dyno with a tuner it will be basically NA.
When I got my last setup together I tuned AF and timing on a base map while driving with a friend. Then took the car 30 miles to get exhaust work done and then 40 miles to get to the tuner. Made it there safely driving very conservatively.