New Break In Method...

[SonicYellowWRX]

http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

My friend who has owned and tuned many cars in his day (Now has a BMW M5 and a Audi S4) uses this method to break in all of his cars. Its worked for him... but the method seems pretty radical, so I am a bit weary... what do you all think??? Should this apply to the WRX?

[pace]

Originally posted by SonicYellowWRX
http://mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

My friend who has owned and tuned many cars in his day (Now has a BMW M5 and a Audi S4) uses this method to break in all of his cars. Its worked for him... but the method seems pretty radical, so I am a bit weary... what do you all think??? Should this apply to the WRX?

This is effectively the method I used, as it is the break-in method we use for our dirtbikes after fitting a new piston and rings (every 20 - 30 hours of riding). Since I have never subscribed to the 'take it easy' approach for any vehicle I've owned, I had no problem doing this with the WRX. Other folks might not feel so comfortable.

I have not seen this particular website, but have seen near identical approaches documented elsewhere on the 'net.

-Pace

[pace]

Food for thought: My synthetic oil looks as clean after 3000 miles as when it comes out of the bottle. My WRX has nearly 25k miles total. I change the oil every 3k miles, but it's probably somewhat unecessary given the condition of my used oil.

I have heard of WRX owners who have black oil 1000 miles after their change..

-Pace

[PlatinumWRX]

The BEST way to break in a motor is to drive it the way you intend to dirve for the life of the car and change the oil. PERIOD.

-Jim

[SonicYellowWRX]

so the break in period of taking it easy for 1000 miles is BS??? I should just drive it hard after a proper warm up?

[pace]

Originally posted by PlatinumWRX
The BEST way to break in a motor is to drive it the way you intend to dirve for the life of the car and change the oil. PERIOD.

-Jim

There is some truth to that for sure..

Worse car we ever owned (forgot to put this on my list of cars in the other thread) was an '87 Celica GT. It was MINT with 25k miles when my wife acquired it. It had been totally babied by an old guy during that time. My wife loved this car.

35k miles later it was drinking a couple of quarts of oil per week. The bores, pistons, and rings were all shot.

-Pace

[pace]

Originally posted by SonicYellowWRX
so the break in period of taking it easy for 1000 miles is BS??? I should just drive it hard after a proper warm up?

You are not going to get a consistent answer on this one. Everybody has their own preferred method.

One thing is for sure: Get the vehicle up to operating temperature carefully. Then you want short heat cycles. Don't lug the motor for 30 minutes at a time on the Interstate at constant speeds and rpms.

-Pace

[SonicYellowWRX]

Hmm... well i guess break in period of babying the car is done with for me... gonna go see what this baby can do later tonight!

[campbell]

Originally posted by SonicYellowWRX
so the break in period of taking it easy for 1000 miles is BS??? I should just drive it hard after a proper warm up?

As a side note to this. If you have read the manual it says something along the lines of accelerate ONLY as fast as you need to. They give us the power in the car to get us out of situations where a quick burst of speed is neccessary. The manual says this stuff in a few spots about keeping the acceleration minimal...accelerate lightly until speed limit then stop the acceleration.

They don't know who they sold these cars to is all I have to say. I was somewhat nice to mine during break-in but it got quite a few high-revving, high speed chases during the first 1500.

[All8up]

My own theory is that you are breaking in the clutch. Every clutch has a break in window, including the factory one.

[GV27]

Originally posted by campbell


They don't know who they sold these cars to is all I have to say. I was somewhat nice to mine during break-in but it got quite a few high-revving, high speed chases during the first 1500.

Well, can't blame Subaru for your own lack of self-control!

Everyone I know has succumed to the temptation!

[dark_rex]

varyiong schools of thought here. i PERSONALLY think that the newer more modern engines of today are pretty much all set right off the line. many companies run the engine for a period of time before they are shipped anyway. i'm not sure if suby does this.

i kind of like the idea of taking it easy for a little while to assure proper sealing of the piston rings. this shouldn't take long though, and by 500 miles or so, you should start driving it like you want so the ECU will begin to log your style of driving.

i also think no matter the oil you are going to run, you should change it immediately after the break in, and switch right to synthetic. you'll encounter varying opinions here also, but in the initial phases of engine life, there is more radical conditions as you learn the new clutch, the ECU starts to adapt, and you complete the finishing machining touches on the block. for these condtions, higher viscosity rated lubricant is ideal.

don't switch oil weights once you've picked one. your engine will adapt to the lubricant it is introduced to. many switch weights, depending on weather. Stone Motor Parts has always reccomended you find the middle ground in your temperate zone, nd stick with it.

$0.02

i would do the reasearch, and form your own conclusions. then come back and tell us what you think.

dR

[PlatinumWRX]

Originally posted by dark_rex
varyiong schools of thought here. i PERSONALLY think that the newer more modern engines of today are pretty much all set right off the line. many companies run the engine for a period of time before they are shipped anyway. i'm not sure if suby does this.

dR

Mike, according to several Subaru Technicians you are correct. The rings need minimal time to seat. They are spun at the factory. Maybe 200 miles.

-Jim

[vcarbs]

This is what I posted on I-club a while back. The main thing I want to add is it is important to do this when the engine is freshly honed. The longer you run the engine the less effective is the method because too much of the crosshatch is already wore down.

>You probably didn't do any to minimal damage to the engine. In terms off best ring seal, you might of actually did some good. It depends on "how" you loaded the engine. When I break in an engine either on a dyno or by driving I do "cycles". I first let a new engine idle for a short time then vary the rpm's with no load for about 10 - 15 minutes. Let the engine cool a bit, then do 3 to 4 half throttle pulls(half of the rpm range) under moderate load after you get some heat back in the engine. Let it cool again, do three quarter throttle pulls under a heavier load. On the race engines do full throttle pulls. Drain the oil. The ring seal doing this method is remarkably better than just babing an engine. It doesn't scare the cylinder walls or piston skirts. Many moons ago when we could get only 3 to 4 good races out of a set of soft rings, we babied the engines, some even lapped them in using electric motors. But now with the hard rings you need to get that ring seal while the cylinder has a good crosshatch. The rings need to be under pressure on the fresh crosshatch cylinder walls to correctly seal them in. The no-load pressure of the rings against the isn't enough. Under load the pressure gets behind the rings and pushes the rings into the walls. On my car I babied it home, let it cool, warmed it up again, did 4-3k rpm pulls at half throttle(also let the car decelerate under load too), let it cool, did 3 three quarter throttle pulls to 5k, been babing it since keeping it under 4k, changing the oil at 500 miles, 1k miles, then as the owners manual says. If I can find it I will send you some documentations, give me a day or two. I would recommend changing the oil and break it in as recommended. It never hurts to change the oil often when breaking in a new motor.

[ProdriveMS]

When synthetics first came out, people were having all sorts of problms with rings failing to seal because of reduced friction in sythetics. The OEMs responded by honing their cylinder walls with a different pattern in order to compensate. And today, you have most cars comming off the assembly lines with synthetic oils in their crankcases. The Corvette is one example. So don't worry about running synthetics. The OEMs are aware that some people will drop synthetic oil in right after the first oil change and they design their engines accordingly.

I am still torn between which break in procedure is correct though. I remember back at Sam Gianino Racing Engines, they would run a new motor on the dyno for 15 mins to break in the cam and then it was followed by hours of relentless dyno pulls. Then again these were race motors that were expected to be torn down and inspected on a regular basis. I have a few F4i engines that need to be freshed up and run on the dyno at the Formula Lab, so I think I'll try both break-in procedures and see what I come up with. I should have the results by Thanksgiving at the latest.

I cannot stress this enough though. Be wary of what you read on the internet. It is filled with so much misinformation and rumors that it is almost impossible to know what is true, what has been learned(incorrectly) at another site then passed on, and what is just plain BS printed in order to help sell a product. For one, I don't believe that the only difference between those F3 pistons was the break-in prodedure. Don't show me a carboned up piston and a nearly brand new one then try and tell me that the only difference was the break in prodedure and expect me to not raise the BS flag.

I don't know about 20 miles, but I would strongly reccomend replacing the engine oil within the first 100miles of running on a brand new motor. Nothing puts more junk into the oil than running a brand new engine. Get that stuff out as soon as possible.

Alin