Break In 2005

[Doctony]

I understand that many of us have already discussed about breaking in the engine "hard push" VS "easy going".

Well.... could the experts/knowledgable persons out there, esp people in the racing industry or anybody who knows much about the mechanic comment on both methods?

i read the motoman's website earlier. i just got my car today and am trying his method. i hit the lift roughly 10 times today, do you guys think this is too rough for a new engine? and on the delivery, my car has already done almost 50 km.... a bit wierd too, any comment? this's over "golden period: first 20 miles". what the hec should i do?

next quiery is how long should i continue using the high revs? in the motoman's website, he mentioned about the motorbike, so i don't know if those figures apply to our cars.

i apologize for being repetitive here but any comment will be greatly appreciated.

thank a zillion :)

[BlackRolla]

This is what I've been told by the salesman where I bought my Sportivo from. He himself has a Corolla Ascent. He hammerred his car from day one and told me to do the same. The result for him is that he'll race any stock ascent and beat it everytime. He has been doing the same for every car he bought and same result everytime. So that's coming from a guy who has tried this method on every car he bought.

Then again he could be talking sh!t.

I myself hit lift as soon as I left . Couldn't wait to feel the lift!!! OH WHAT A FEELING.....SPORTIVO! :P

I'm not sure if it made any difference though.

I've never heard of someone trying this method and ruined the engine. For me, other things may have gone wrong but not with the engine.

[SILVABULLIT]

Coming from a motorsport background and the fact my uncle builds race engines(circuit) if you run an engine in gently and never get up it it will turn out to be a bit of a slug. On the other hand you don't go and thrash the crap out of it banging it off the limiter with 100km's on the clock. when running in a race engine, the method used is the same as I use on a road going car but over a slightly longer period.

Apon on of my uncle's customers getting an engine built it gets run in the car first. Fast idle usually for about 30 mins to run cam in if cam is new. Otherwise it gets run in for a short period of time with some minor tuning and adjustments. From there it goes to the track where the owner does anywhere from an hour to two hours of track work not flat out but at varying speeds. Starting off keeping revs to half, short shifting for a good handful of laps then pitting for a check for leaks, timing, fuel adjustments etc. After that the driver goes out and increases rev shift point for another half hour or so until they physically feel the engine start to loosen up. At this point they then begin to use full throttle for short bursts on the straights obviously monitoring all guages etc.

By the time 2 odd hours have passed they are lapping under full throttle but at the same time not pushing it to it's limits. From there it goes back on the trailer to the dyno where the fine tuning and set is completed and the car is now ready to race. This can be applied to driving your street car but you use the kilometres travelled as a guide. Break it in gently but varying your pace. Hitting lift is fine(I know I did!!) but not bouncing it off the limiter. I did about 500k's before i started to really open it up. With the way modern engines are built these days run in times are a lot shorter than say a holden red motor out of an EH. By the time 500km were on the clock I was hittng lift regulary as well as just driving normal and car feels fine.

Ultimately if you could get on a race track and just do lap after lap increasing your pace as time goes it would probably be the best and easiest way to run a car in in a controlled environment. You would then feel when your car starts to loosen up and then start to push it that little bit harder.

That's my way, if you like it then great if not then do it your way. Not twisting any body's arm here or say this way's right or wrong but merely offering my opinion!

Cheers SILVABULLIT :D :D

[MR22ZZ]

You're in Christies Beach right???

I've got just a few words for you... Piggot Range Road to Clarendon, Kangarilla Road to Kangarilla, Bull Creek Road to Strath/Goolwa turn off, Goolwa to Victor Harbor, Victor Harbor to Yankalilla/Second Valley (the road that goes through the valley from the western side of Victor near the High School) then back down South Road around Sellicks Hill and cruise on home (maybe a run up the old Willunga Hill Road for good measure!!!)

This was my run in track plus a few drives around Clarendon, Cherry Gardens and Blackwood area. My folks live in Aberfoyle Park and I used to work at SOLA down a Lonsdale so know these roads backwards, inside out, and upside down!!! My everyday drive was Lonsdale Highway so I wanted to vary it up a bit by taking it through the hills as often as possible.

These roads are great because they have a good combination of sweeping bends and open straights, though the Bull Creek section of road can get busy with motorbikes, use your entire rev range in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, vary the revs in other gears and give a good combination of driving styles, but like Brendon said, don't thrash it though.

Cheers

Dylan

[Doctony]

Thanks everyone for many useful tips much appreciated.

so let me summrise the all the fundamental things here.

1. Use theentire rev range in 1st, 2nd and 3rd, vary the revs in other gears and give a good combination of driving styles (warm up the engine completel before breaking in)

2. Hitting lift is fine but not bouncing it off the limiter - I presume occasionally, not often in the first 500 km

3. break in period is the first 500 km

one question folk --> do i need to change the oil at 500 km or i should wait? according to motoman's website, we should cahnge it at the first 20 miles but my tivo had 50+ km when i picked it up yesterday.

when i picked it up yesterday, i notice that there is a small rattling noise from the right side of the dash baord too. also the engine in idle has a small rattling noise - i think it should run very smoothly and quietly at idle, any coment on this? i will take it back to the dealer on monday and ask them to fix this.

dylan, i will try the route you mentioneed in the forum tomorrow..

cheers :D

[Buddha]

On the four new cars I've owned, I've always gone "by the book", i.e. gentle but varied-revs driving for the 1st 2000kms.

However, as I said on this topic previously, from my experience keeping the car serviced regularly (keeping the oil fresh especially) will make more of a difference than the method of run-in. My last 3 cars were new, but the first two were serviced very irregularly, while the third was always serviced by the book.

Where the first two were starting to feel tired at 80-90k, the third was running sweet-as up to 160k when it was traded.

I think the overall opinion on run-in here is almost a 50/50 split, with perhaps a slight leaning away from the softly-softly approach ... probably because most people here have a priority on performance ... if we were all Daewoo Matiz enthusiasts, we'd be back slapping awesome fuel economy rather than 1/4 mile times!

That's my US$0.01 worth, anyway! B)

[oz_viking]

Another break in procedure you could add, is to attend the Toyota Car Club cruise this Friday night. :)

The details haven't been posted yet, but I'll put them here when they're up.

[Blade Hunter]

Mate, in this day and age of engines, the only advice I can offer is drive it how it feels right. I gave mine a bit of a thrashing at first mixed with some grandma driving and some labouring uphill at 60 in 6th, I did this because it felt like the right thing for me to do with my car.

No matter what any of us says, we have run our cars in the way we have because we did what was right for us :).

Hope that helps in some way.

Blade

[Doctony]

Another break in procedure you could add, is to attend the Toyota Car Club cruise this Friday night.  :)

The details haven't been posted yet, but I'll put them here when they're up.

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Thanks everyone for the reply

All your comments are certainly helpful.

Thanks oz_viking, please me posted and I look forward to meeting you guys this friday.