Re: New engine break-in etiquette

[Shawn C Meze <skerocdriver@juno.com>]

On Mon, 01 May 2000 15:23:47 PDT "Craig Williams"
<roccolister@hotmail.com> writes:
>Hey everyone,
>
>Now that I have my 2 liter 16V running, I wanted to get some feedback 
>from those of you in the know about the rules of breaking in a motor.



This is an interesting subject. I know of at least 3 "theories" about the
"proper" way to break in a motor. 


>So far I've put nearly 300 miles on the motor and I've kept it under 
>3500 RPM's. I changed the oil at 100 miles, too.


Good move. Id change it again at 500 if I were you. (I did with my new
motor) it might be overkill, but changing the oil and filter has NEVER
hurt anything. Its good peace of mind too. 


>What I'd really like to know is how high I can wind this baby up and 
>when I can do it. I'm thinking that I'll start hitting 5000 RPM's once I
get 
>500 miles on the motor, and go for 7000+ RPM's only after I've hit 1,000

>miles.
>
>Does that sound like a good break in schedule?


OK, heres my 3 known theories on breaking a motor. 

1) "Drive the piss out of the motor". 
(Ugg. I don't like this one very much. I advise not to do this.) 

2) "Drive the motor as hard as you plan on using it AFTER its broken in".

Most new VW's pretty much say this on the owners manual. They also use
something called "Break in oil" which they wont change until 7500 miles.
(Im not sure on the newer cars. I do know they did this on the A2's) Its
nothing more than 30WT dino. Interesting. 

3) "Drive the motor gently, low revs, smooth easy shifts, no WOT ever
until 2,000 miles". 
On a new motor I like the idea of driving it easy so that the bearings,
rings and other moving parts have time to seat and break in. I believe
this could result in longer engine life in the long run. On a fresh new
motor, its hard to drive it "easy" when you know there's more ponies
under the hood than before. Like a kid before xmas, one just cant wait! 
So I did my best to drive it easy and kept it no higher than 4,000 rpms
for the first 750 miles. More importantly, the throttle was at 50% or
less. I took it REALLY easy, simple as that. I had an autocross around
the 750 mile mark so the "easy does it" part went out the window. I HAD
to redline it, you understand. :)

That's me, do what you like. 


Shawn Meze
86' Jetta GLi   82' Scirocco GTi   81' "Project Scirocco FSP"
The Fastest, Quickest, Cleanest and
best looking Scirocco in all of San Diego!
http://www.Geocities.com/MotorCity/Speedway/1308/index.htm

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