Break In Again?

[Awstryker]

So I'm off to a bad start with this car, first some one decides to key my car and now my engine decides to mess up. So my question is since the dealer has to replace my short block because of a DI failure at only 739 miles, do I have to start from the beginning of the break in process?

[suaveflooder]

Yes, break in again. How did you blow your DI's. Link?

[SigmaHyperion]

Yes. New short-block == new engine. At least as far as all the things you're trying to 'break-in' anyways.

[suaveflooder]

I'm curious how you blew a direct injector during the break in period (1st 1000 miles). You were supposed to keep it under 4000 RPM's. DI failure happens at 5200+ RPM's with fast shifts or quick on and off throttle.

Edit: In case you haven't seen the 1000+ threads on here about it yet, it is an issue with the factory tune. You CAN do it again.

[SigmaHyperion]

Originally Posted by suaveflooder

I'm curious how you blew a direct injector during the break in period (1st 1000 miles). You were supposed to keep it under 4000 RPM's. DI failure happens at 5200+ RPM's with fast shifts or quick on and off throttle.

Edit: In case you haven't seen the 1000+ threads on here about it yet, it is an issue with the factory tune. You CAN do it again.

Just because it's a "DI issue" doesn't mean it's that one. He likely has a completely unrelated issue given how quickly it came on and his sadness about having to re-start the break-in certainly indicates a severe lack of engine revs.

No matter what the car is, there's always some that just catastrophically fail right out the gate. Unfortunately the OP appears to have gotten one of those.

[cevin45x]

Can't be too sure. Some people break-in engines by revving high or redlining cuz its suppose to strengthen the seals. I know the manual says to keep it below 4k but some people believe redlining it is the way to go. I don't know which is correct but I'm interested to hear what the OP did exactly.

[mswhong]

You all do realize that what is stated in the manual is written by lawyers (maybe not directly but you get the gist)?

If you want more assurance, visit this page: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

The picture when comparing the two piston heads convinced me enough.

[Calidrifter]

^^^ I hope you changed your oil prior to following those specific directions.

[suaveflooder]

Originally Posted by SigmaHyperion

Just because it's a "DI issue" doesn't mean it's that one. He likely has a completely unrelated issue given how quickly it came on and his sadness about having to re-start the break-in certainly indicates a severe lack of engine revs.

No matter what the car is, there's always some that just catastrophically fail right out the gate. Unfortunately the OP appears to have gotten one of those.

Hmmmmmm. Couple things tell me it's been run hard. DI issue is one of them, which I've never heard of one that failed by just driving, although, I guess it could happen, the second thing is that he said "Break in again" as though his car was ALREADY broken in at 739 miles.

If he did drive the car hard, he is wise not to say that here on the forums. My opinion.

I could be COMPLETELY wrong, but looking at the positive side, it's one more case for Toyota to take a look at

[Shinryu]

Originally Posted by mswhong

You all do realize that what is stated in the manual is written by lawyers (maybe not directly but you get the gist)?

If you want more assurance, visit this page: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

The picture when comparing the two piston heads convinced me enough.

That site does anything but provide assurance. I've no place in saying whether or not the information is good or bad, but the presentation of a decade old site generator created site really hurts its feeling of credibility.

[markitect]

I think everyone is overlooking a major potential source of the failure:

Especially given that the seal is so hard to install without damaging it to begin with, it seems very possible that a percentage of the seals have damage coming from the factory.

Of course by the time the engine fails it is probably destroyed, and/or shot out the exhaust valves, so the root cause is unobservable. This coupled with the fact that a tiny tear would spread under engine conditions would mean they would need to do something drastic to check a lot of injectors on the factory floor to determine this. By a lot I mean an entire shipment, not the usual sigma six requirements, and by drastic, maybe xray, or a microscope.

[suaveflooder]

Originally Posted by markitect

I think everyone is overlooking a major potential source of the failure:

Especially given that the seal is so hard to install without damaging it to begin with, it seems very possible that a percentage of the seals have damage coming from the factory.

Of course by the time the engine fails it is probably destroyed, and/or shot out the exhaust valves, so the root cause is unobservable. This coupled with the fact that a tiny tear would spread under engine conditions would mean they would need to do something drastic to check a lot of injectors on the factory floor to determine this. By a lot I mean an entire shipment, not the usual sigma six requirements, and by drastic, maybe xray, or a microscope.

There is little to no chance that @CSG Mike hit the lottery and had that happen twice on two different engines

[Suberman]

Originally Posted by Awstryker

So I'm off to a bad start with this car, first some one decides to key my car and now my engine decides to mess up. So my question is since the dealer has to replace my short block because of a DI failure at only 739 miles, do I have to start from the beginning of the break in process?

Yes. The short block should have new rings installed upon assembly.

The "run it hard" school of break in is just wrong.

It is correct that gas pressure seals the rings. It is completely wrong that high combustion pressures seal the rings better or faster than observing Subaru's requirements. A few moments thought will explain why: the higher the combustion pressures with less than perfect rings the more blowby you will get. The higher the rpm you use the more ring float you will get. Both excessive blowby and excessive piston speed will reduce the effectiveness of the cylinder honing. The whole idea expressed in the link noted below is completely nuts and cannot possibly work.

To seat the rings you need moderate combustion chamber pressure and moderate piston speeds to give the cylinder honing a chance to seat the rings. As the seal gets better you progressively increase the combustion pressure by using more throttle. As the rings wear in you increase the piston speed to maintain the honing effect.

[Awstryker]

I did read the manual and as we'll read most of the break in threads here to have an idea on the process. I kept my revs under the 4000 rpm range and to insure I kept my foot off the throttle I added the snapshot thing from progressive, so I've been driving that thing like my grandpa extremely slow. Every now and then switching speeds on the highway but nothing to extreme like wide open throttle.