Hi All,

What is the proper procedure for running in a new car. I've heard of numerous methods and
some contradict others. Ones I've been told are:

1. Drive gently for the first 100km.
2. Drive at all possible speeds, do not hold onto one speed for a prolonged time.
3. Drive normally and occasionally give it a boot.
4. Need to rev it under load (i.e. going up a hill) past 4000rpm.

Any suggestions from the gurus?

Ta.

Vlad

picsorban

picsorban

rofl :bowrofl:

1. Drive gently for the first 100km.
2. Drive at all possible speeds, do not hold onto one speed for a prolonged time.
3. Drive normally and occasionally give it a boot.


All these are good.. Give it some but dont flog it.. unless u wont own it in 2 years time.. :bowrofl:

They learn from the way you run them in.. :D

picsorban
Give me a break. Only picked her up on Wednesday. Will be taking some pics of her this
weekend.

View so far of the car:

1. Seats are higher then my old KS Verada XI.
2. Electric lumbar adjustment on the drivers seats are nice.
3. Nice black perforated black leather seats (front and back) and embosed perforated
steering wheel.
4. Much more powerful then I thought before driving it as I've driven my dad's TJII Exec.
5. Nice paintwork. Mines the saphire blue with pearlescent finish (goes from light blue (under
the sun to deep purple in the shade).
6. The auto dimming rear view mirror and drivers door mirrors needs to get used to as well as
a more packed in speedometer. On several occasions when I thought I was doing 80, I was
actually doing 90 (in a 70 zone :D).
7. The auto took two 15km driving trips to settle to smooth shifts.
8. For some reason, the rear seating width seems to be narrower then my old KS.
9. Nice sound system.
10. The recirculation mode needs to be set everytime I start her up.
11. Delay off headlight is a pain to use. Need to hold it in position two for 5 seconds to give
a delay on of 30 seconds. More for longer delays.

But overall. A damn nice car.

As for the 4th point in my first post, I was told this by a friend who recently bought a VZ SS.
He drove it up Glen Osmond road and reved it beyond 4000rpm. He says that if this is not
done, then the cylinders gets glazed over and will leak oil from them on.

thought you were not supposed to rev it above 3000rpm? no hard braking, no overly long trips (over 50km's) at any one time. basically just treat her gentle for 1000km's and then you gotta bring her in for a change from mineral oil to semi-synth/synth oil.

read the manual... it'll tell you everything you need to know about running in.

Drive it like you normally would day to day. You dont need to do anything special to run it in. Theres actually evidence that driving every where at the start with low rpms can cause seals not to set in properly. Ill have to find the article again to show you the pictures.

We got our '05 VRX last night, and ive just been driving it as i usually would, maybe even quicker then usual :D , no different.

Vlad, it'll say how it's recommended to run in in the manual that you got with the car.

I'd follow their instructions, they built the things after all.

Cars do need Running in, like all things that are new they need to be treated kindly..
I saw one guy thrap the nuts out of his Brand new BMW after he thought it didn't need running in and at the next Oil Change he had signs of metal fillings in his oil from thrashing it from day one causing excessive wear....

For the first 1000k's

1. Avoid Excessive Speed EG no faster then 80kph
2. Avoid Labouring then engine..EG Don't tow anything up hill
3.Take the corners easy to let the cars suspension wear in.
4. Take things easy..Just go slowly Try and keep the revs under 3750RPM max of 4000RPM.

After the first 1000 give it some quick Acceleration and Highway runs..

Running it in depends on how long you are keeping the car. (all within the first 200kms)

* If you want to get more KW's out of your engine, then run it in hard, never red line and dont use your 5th gear for the first 200km's.

When a car comes off the showroom floor there are small lips of metal on the pistons. These wear down to bed into the engine and cause a nice tight seal. If you baby the car it will wear them only a tiny amount and harden. Then if you boot it about too much you will get high wear and tear.

* Avoid Highway driving and long loads on gears.

* Never change into a gear and load it up (ie 4th gear running 1500 - 2000 revs)


If you want engine longevity, but will produce lower KW's.

* Run it to around 3500rpm before changing the gears.. Follow the above about highway driving and loading your engine..

I actually have a run in procedure for my car but they are a little different, but the same principles apply.

Cars do need Running in, like all things that are new they need to be treated kindly..
I saw one guy thrap the nuts out of his Brand new BMW after he thought it didn't need running in and at the next Oil Change he had signs of metal fillings in his oil from thrashing it from day one causing excessive wear....

Incorrect.. New engines will have metal shavings all the time as the pistons have lips on them to bed them in tightly and produce a better 'seal'.

Its always advised to have the oil changed after the first 1500kms..

Not when he lost compression on the 1st and 4th Cylinders..
I only Wrote Shavings as it sounds more polite then Chunks of metal

Not when he lost compression on the 1st and 4th Cylinders..
I only Wrote Shavings as it sounds more polite then Chunks of metal

Sounds like something was wrong with the engine when it came off the lien, if it was chunks.


Bain is right. Its best to run it in 'hard' to bed the seals properly. We get new cars every 15-25k and never baby them. We've never had issues with the engines, and never heard of issues when the cars move on. In fact due to bad planning my mums Grandis went 25k without an oil change, it still drove like the day it was new, but probably not the best idea.

sorry this is a little off topic, but i'm getting my engine reconditioned, and when my mate got his done he was told not to go above 80km/h or rev it too high. Is the "run in" different compared to a new engine?

just as you stole it lol

nah - but listen to bain - he knows!!! the nose knows!!!

Back of car (http://members.optusnet.com.au/%7Evbednikov/mypic1)
Front of car (http://members.optusnet.com.au/%7Evbednikov/mypic2)
Left interior of car (http://members.optusnet.com.au/%7Evbednikov/mypic3)
Right interior of car (http://members.optusnet.com.au/%7Evbednikov/mypic4)

this is extracted from an article in the US, I personally use this procedure, I have had great results from this method even though it is very "left field"

Warning:
This is a very controversial topic !!

I wrote "Break-In Secrets" after successfully applying this method
to approximately 300 new engines, all without any problems whatsoever.

Links to this article now appear on hundreds of motorsports discussion forums from all over the world. The reason is that over time, large numbers of people have done a direct comparison between my method and the owner's manual method, and the news of their success is spreading rapidly.

The results are always the same... a dramatic increase in power at all RPMs. In addition, many professional mechanics have disassembled engines that have used this method, to find that the condition of the engine is actually better than when the owner's manual break-in method has been used.

The thing that makes this page so controversial is that there have been many other break-in articles
written in the past which will contradict what has been written here.

Several factors make the older information on break-in obsolete.

The biggest factor is that engine manufacturers now use a much finer honing pattern in the cylinders than they once did. This in turn changes the break-in requirements, because as you're about to learn, the window of opportunity for achieving an exceptional ring seal is much smaller with
newer engines than it was with the older "rough honed" engines.

In addition, there is a lot less heat build up in the cylinders from ring friction
due to the finer honing pattern used in modern engines.

The other factors that have changed are the vastly improved metal casting and machining
technologies which are now used. This means that the "wearing in" of the new parts
involves significantly less friction and actual wear than it did in the distant past.


With that in mind ...

Welcome to one of the most controversial motorsports pages on the internet !!


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

How To Break In Your Engine For
More Power & Less Wear !

One of the most critical parts of the engine building process is the break in !!
No matter how well an engine is assembled, it's final power output is all up to you !!

Although the examples shown here are motorcycle engines,
these principles apply to all 4 stroke engines:

Street or Race Motorcycles, Cars, Snowmobiles, Airplanes & yes ...
even Lawn Mowers !!
( regardless of brand, cooling type, or number of cylinders. )

These same break in techniques apply to both steel cylinders and Nikasil, as well as the ceramic
composite cylinders that Yamaha uses in it's motorcycles and snowmobiles.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What's the Best Way to Break in
a New Engine ??
The Short Answer: Run it Hard !

Why ??
Nowadays, the piston ring seal is really what the break in process is all about. Contrary to popular belief, piston rings don't seal the combustion pressure by spring tension. Ring tension is necessary only to "scrape" the oil to prevent it from entering the combustion chamber.

If you think about it, the ring exerts maybe 5-10 lbs of spring tension against the cylinder wall ...
How can such a small amount of spring tension seal against thousands of
PSI (Pounds Per Square Inch) of combustion pressure ??
Of course it can't.

How Do Rings Seal Against Tremendous Combustion Pressure ??

From the actual gas pressure itself !! It passes over the top of the ring, and gets behind it to force it outward against the cylinder wall. The problem is that new rings are far from perfect and they must be worn in quite a bit in order to completely seal all the way around the bore. If the gas pressure is strong enough during the engine's first miles of operation (open that throttle !!!), then the entire ring will wear into
the cylinder surface, to seal the combustion pressure as well as possible.


The Problem With "Easy Break In" ...
The honed crosshatch pattern in the cylinder bore acts like a file to allow the rings to wear. The rings quickly wear down the "peaks" of this roughness, regardless of how hard the engine is run.

There's a very small window of opportunity to get the rings to seal really well ... the first 20 miles !!

If the rings aren't forced against the walls soon enough, they'll use up the roughness before they fully seat. Once that happens there is no solution but to re hone the cylinders, install new rings and start over again.

Fortunately, most new sportbike owners can't resist the urge to "open it up" once or twice,
which is why more engines don't have this problem !!

An additional factor that you may not have realized, is that the person at the dealership who set up your bike probably blasted your brand new bike pretty hard on the "test run". So, without realizing it, that adrenaline crazed set - up mechanic actually did you a huge favor !!

On the Street:
Warm the engine up completely:
Because of the wind resistance, you don't need to use higher gears like you would on a dyno machine. The main thing is to load the engine by opening the throttle hard in 2nd, 3rd and 4th gear.

Realistically, you won't be able to do full throttle runs even in 2nd gear on most bikes without exceeding 65 mph / 104 kph. The best method is to alternate between short bursts of hard acceleration and deceleration. You don't have to go over 65 mph / 104 kph to properly load the rings. Also, make sure that you're not being followed by another bike or car when you decelerate, most drivers won't expect that you'll suddenly slow down, and we don't want
anyone to get hit from behind !!

The biggest problem with breaking your engine in on the street (besides police) is if you ride the bike on the freeway (too little throttle = not enough pressure on the rings) or if you get stuck in slow city traffic. For the first 200 miles or so, get out into the country where you can vary the speed more
and run it through the gears !

Be Safe On The Street !
Watch your speed ! When you're not used to the handling of a new bike, you should accelerate only on the straightaways, then slow down extra early for the turns. Remember that both hard acceleration and hard engine braking (deceleration) are equally important during the break in process.