BUBBA

Actually, come to think of it, the mechanic beat the hell out of it before he turned it over to me and advised me to break it in easy. So perhaps he seated the rings before I even took over. I can live with that.

Critter

quickseat ftw... start it check for leaks with a 10-40. kill it after 10 min, cut the oil filter look for anything out of the norm. you will see specs of metal this is normal. Change the oil and 50% throttle to 2500 60 % to 3500 75 %to 4500 85 % to 5500 and 100 % to 6xxx. drive for 100 change the oil and check the filter again. then put whatever oil you want and drive it how you want.

30AnniversaryZ28

What about with an auto?

greenmachinedriver

imo the most important part of engine break in is vary the rpms constantly. never stay at one speed for too long. it also depends upon the rings used in the engine. i work on imports for a living at an infiniti dealer and the VQ35 engine can take up to 30k to seat the rings. usually the people who have ring seating issues are the manual trans owners and i belive it has to do with engine breaking.
i would not use engine braking and not get the rpms too high. youll be ok.

SS RRR

This how I broke mine in:

Strap car to dyno and set as free inertia
Start engine and immediately engage drivetrain
go from first until your 1:1 gear at 10% throttle to 45% before your redline
with car still in 1:1 ratio gear let drivetrain stop the rollers w/out engaging dyno drum breaks
shut engine off and let cool for approx ~10min
Start car and repeat process this time at ~70% throttle and between 45% and 100% of your redline
again while gear engaged let drivetrain coast to idle w/out drum breaks
shut engine off and let cool again for 10min
start engine and repeat again this time at 100% throttle to 100% redline and repeat coasting to idle procedure
Change oil and it is "officially" broken in.

RUFST

ok guys thanks for all your opinions.......i'm starting to see why engine "break-in" is like a** holes, everyone has one.

out of all the posts I don't think there has been one that is even the slightest simalar

-I brought my car home last nite after the builder done what he done to get it going, i did what he told me, i kept it below 4000 rpms...and varied from 1500-3000 driving and let when I'd come to a slow the engine brake itself mostly. When i got home from a 35 mile trip, a friend of mine said he saw or smelled no smoke, and it was not leaking etc....seemed to do fine, no misses etc.

now from HERE, when can I pedal to the metal???????? b/c it's killing me, a new engine and spec clutch and can't ***** to the wall it for HOW LONG?

thanks

Javier97Z28

Well the clutch definitely has a break-in. Follow that procedure and once your clutch is broken in you can drive ***** to the wall.

Like I said.. I drove mine ***** to the walls immediately after the engine was assembled.

dangalla

30k to seat rings

you must be the new guy in the shop

engine braking is a pretty important part of engine break-in, and i am pretty sure almost every book i have read has included that as an important part of the procces. i would be suprised if it did not say to do that in your infinity shop manual "accelerate to 60mph let off and alow the engine to slow you to 30 and repeat" or something like that

RUFST

if you don't mind me asking b/c i simply don't know but it sounds good......why is this important aside from accerlating, is it doing something diff. than what accerlating does for it

quickSS

The 1st part of the new engine break-in is to make sure the overall tune up is good. After you are confident the tune is good then you can go WOT.

I think it's prudent to go easy on it for at least 1 oil change is because that time is needed to make sure everything in the tune is perfect or is fixed/adjusted. So please don't stomp on it if the timing is too high, (engine rattle) or there is a vacuum leak, (computer adding gobs of fuel to fix lean). The engine break in is married to the tune-up process.

Actually I feel with the modern honing techniques and quality rings we have these days that the rings will be seated almost instantally. After 50 miles the higher tension rings will have put a lot of dirt into the oil so the more oil changes the better. Though the lighter tension rings like the Mahle will put almost no dirt into the motor.

Concentrate on a good tune, don't idle too much. That's it.

Karl Ellwein

RUFST

i like what you've said here, with all of this man I tell you, it's got me scared as h*** to even drive my car until after the 1000 mile mark and it's almost as if, if you don't do EXACTLY the right thing meaning one mess up of rpm's etc.. during this time...well forget it you might as well start all over and tear it dwn again. It can't be that dang tedious. This has got me stressed out to know end. I'm the type that HAS to have a perfect car or so I think that way. So that means i HAVE to do exactly what it takes. I'm not going to lye the trip home last nite was so stressful i couldn't even enjoy that my car was running after 5 months. And i'm not looking forward to driving it this wknd....either. I mean damn!

BUBBA

Well, just don't sweat it: Gear heads have been jabbering about how to break in engines since there have been engines. All this talk about the "honing" tedchniques, etc. Hey these things are built on an assembly line and nothing is going to be perfect, including cylinder honing. If there was some kind of magical break-in formula, you'd think that the engineers and manufacturer's would let you know exactly what to do and you wouldn't have to belong to a special site or club to learn the truth.

I once drove a brand new MGB the first 500 miles on a turnpike and never went over 50 mph. Why? Because I was 23 years old and that's what I was advised to do. Even so, it didn't seem to hurt anything. So don't worry about the small stuff. Some of these guys who broke their cars in ***** to the wall style, probably did the right thing. By the same token, they too will wind up rebuilding at one point or another----why do you think professional racers have the cars rebuilt after each race----and dragsters, even after each run.

How ever you drive your car for the first few miles, whether new or rebuilt is the way the rings are going to seat. You can't undo it. And unless, you really baby the thing to the point that you aren't working the rings and cylinders hard enough to seat decently, don't worry about it because you certainly aren't going to ruin your engine to the point that you have to rebuild it.

As far as running it and cooling it, I wouldn't worry about that too much. That, as I understand, is what you would do if your engine was heating up to the point that you are glazing the cly walls, thus preventing any kind of good ring seating. Maybe if you broke it in on a Chassis Dyno, I can see cooling it down since a non-moving vehicle is likely to heat up much faster than a moving one.

And...since the newer cars take less time/milage to seat the springs, in many instances these cars have already been driven a few miles, and you really don't know whether they were ragged on or babied anyway.

Bottom line: I would listen to the majority who claim that you should not baby the car OR beat the hell out of it, but you should understand that it is important to seat the comp rings correctly from the beginning in order to ensure a good seal and be confident that your engine will probably run better and last longer.

It's not rocket surgery, just do it and don't worry about it. JMHO

SS MPSTR

I also subscribe to the moderation side of engine break-in. I vary RPM and load, but have yet to go WOT on my new engine. I broke in 496 in my Chevelle the same way.

speed_demon24

New engines are broken in before they leave the factory.

RUFST

BUBBA.........i think you pretty much summed it up........drive it in moderation, you know pretty much how you'd drive a normal car under normal conditions i guess and it should be okay.

You know as I was leaving last nite, the builder knew I was kinda like "okay I'm kindly nervous now"....he looked at me and said "man just drive the thing"

--that's what i'm going to do