I am in the middle of rebulding my F20. I should be starting it up this weekend for the first time with the new pistons and rings. I have always heard that you should drive your car easy the first thousand miles or so to properly break in your engine. But I got to talking to my grandfather the other day about breakins. (A little back ground on him. He has one of the fastest and most reliable oval track cars in the area. He personaly built an 8000rpm 350ci engine that went 2 1/2 seasons and won 90% of races entered until the mains broke and the crank twisted. Most engines in the sport dont last 1/2 a season) ANYWAY when i asked him about break in, he said; i build it, let it run about 2-3K rpms for about 20 min. Change the oil and filter, then take it out to the track and run the dog mess out of it. Now i respect my grandfathers engine experience with out question. But i never really heard of it before. So i did my own research and this is a little of what i found.

http://www.ntnoa.org/enginebreakin.htm
"If the wrong type of oil is used initially, or the break-in is too easy, rings and cylinders could (read will) glaze and never seal properly. A fresh cylinder wall needs some medium to high engine loading to get the piston rings to seat properly for good compression but make sure you don't lug or overheat the engine. Use high quality, low viscosity oil (Valvoline 30 weight), no synthetics, too slippery. If synthetics are used during initial break in the rings are sure to glaze over."

Here are a few more sites, any thoughts?

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm
http://www.dansmc.com/engine_breakin.htm

 

interesting...

too bad i followed honda's instructions on the break in procedure.

 

Nowadays a lot of cars come with synthetic, no?

 

some cars come with synthetic fill from the factory. Oddly enough I think most new BMWs do

 

Most porters at dealerships do the hard break-in to every new car they step in. If only people knew how their cars were treated before they actually buy them..

 

yes, but they could be broken in at the factory, or they are using a specified formula(which sure as hell, they would share it with you )


<--soft, sissy break in type of guy