Engine Break-In Method

[Spyder]

I am just about ready to get my engine back together.

Quick recap of work done:

Head;
New supertech valves. Evo behive springs and retainers. New Guides and seals. Resurface. Stock cams.

Block;
Resurface top and front. Re-hone cylinders. was bored .020" over. New Hastings rings. New ACL main and rod bearings. Machine shop modified the rods to better handle crush on the rod bearings. Balanced rotating assembly. Removed balance shafts with AMS kit.

Machine shop recommended using this for a break in oil.





They also recommend moderate driving for the first 500 miles with varying rpm on low boost. 5 lbs. Then change oil and drive regularly.

I have also done some research and found this site talking about breaking in an engine fast for more power. web page

Thoughts and recommendations?

Thanks.

 

[992gnt]

There are a million different opinions on how to break in a new engine. Personally, I have broken them in slow (500 miles, varying rpm, no long, steady runs), fast (car needs to be on-track tomorrow), 200 miles of highway driving in one trip hours after re-assembly, etc. I really think that after the first 30-60 minutes of running, all the new bits are familiar enough with each other, so I generally break it in how I am going to run it. I do like to change the oil after the first 500, and for that reason I don't use expensive oil right off. My suggestion is to do what you think seems reasonable and logical, there really is no wrong answer.

 

[Olson]

I started the car and let it idle for a few min and got tired of trying to keepi it running. I took it out and did a 1-3 pull and its been running great ever since

 

[EMX5636]

This is what I usually follow, and it has always resulted very well.

click

 

[Dan D]

I did very similar to the mototune link as well. That was 4500 miles ago and all is well with 9:1 wiseco on eagle rods.

I was breaking in a centerforce clutch at the same time so cocked my wastgate open to keep from building boost during break in.

 

[alansupra94]

Quoting EMX5636:
This is what I usually follow, and it has always resulted very well.

click



This has been recommended as well. I will be using some off the shelf dino oil for break in as I plan on changing the oil at 200-400-600.

 

[prove_it]

I like to use rotella oil. It's cheap as hell, works great and has a good amount of zddp in it. Did I mention it's cheap? I don't even bother with the synthetic stuff. I've seen it used in plenty of high power builds and never seen an oiling failure with it.

 

[Spyder]

Thanks for the info guys. As far as synthetic, the one thing that is common across all ways I have seen is they all say not to use synthetic to break in.

I am probably going to go with the hard break in method. When I took the engine apart, it only had 10k miles on it and you could see on the top of the pistons a TON of burnt on oil. If the pictures are correct in that link I listed, those pistons were a lot cleaner than what I took out of my engine.

 

[EMX5636]

Yea, no Synthetic (or even a blend) until 1k miles at least. I usually do a change (+1 about Rotella is good oil) after a few minutes, a hundred miles, 500 miles, then my final swap to whatever I want to run at 1k miles.

My setup still has great compression, nearing 20K miles with between 27-35psi since basically it was fired up. Even the aluminum rods seem to be perfect.