FRS Break-in guide

[brillo]

regardless of your choice of break in procedure, make sure the engine is fully warmed up before you do anything close to beating on it.

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by brillo

regardless of your choice of break in procedure, make sure the engine is fully warmed up before you do anything close to beating on it.

Yep. I always let my car warm up about 30 seconds before driving, and never take it above 3k rpms until its up to full operating temp.

[carbonBLUE]

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

Yep. I always let my car warm up about 30 seconds before driving, and never take it above 3k rpms until its up to full operating temp.

i never do that... ever... engine still strong 150k miles... lol :P

[civicdrivr]

Originally Posted by carbonBLUE

i never do that... ever... engine still strong 150k miles... lol :P

Im incredibly OCD, so that might explain it.

[carbonBLUE]

Originally Posted by civicdrivr

Im incredibly OCD, so that might explain it.

i do use mobil 1 gold every 3k miles though , that might have something to do with my engines health

[YukiHachiRoku]

It's 2012, and I have faith that the precision and oil technology of today has evolved in automobile manufacturing. Just drive the damn thing normally in everyday driving, and like that one guy said, get some rocks off on entering a highway on-ramp, and just drive like normal in city-traffic and try not to stay at cruising rpm's for long periods of time. Then get an oil change when your manual tells you to, it's not that hard people...

[DragynVyrus]

Being an actual mechanic, some of what I have read is just obscene... someone even(on here or another FRS forum I can not remember) said that pistons are round and being anything but it stupid, its called cam grind, so no they are not completely round... fact of the matter is that technologies in both oil and engine design have evolved to be quite amazing at this point in time. The fact is, everyone relax for a minute, is that your engine is already almost completely broken in if not completely broken in by the time you get it. This is due to partly to emissions laws and lots of those tards back in the day that wouldn't even know what an engine break in is. There is a pretty good chance they are moly rings. Because moly is so soft, the rings are seated and good to rock and roll almost straight after first start up. If they are chromoly, then they are still probably seated so long as they had it in a high load condition. So if anything, drive it in a loaded situation for the first 1000 and you're set.

Most of these methods about engine break in are from way back in the day where you actually had to break it in or else it would be a big steaming pile of crap.

[GMU-BRZ]

"Do not drive at one constant engine or vehicle speed for a long time,
either fast or slow."

So, maybe this is a stupid question, but what the hell is "a long time" for driving a car? 3 hours? 2? 30 minutes? If I'm driving somewhere that isn't right around the corner, I'm probably on a highway, which means I'm probably driving at a relatively constant speed. If I take the car on a 3 hour trip that contains sections where I go 50 miles on a highway, is it going to screw up my engine? Is it going to void warranty? I mean... they could have been a little more specific with that.

[Subaruwrxfan]

Originally Posted by GMU-BRZ

"Do not drive at one constant engine or vehicle speed for a long time,
either fast or slow."

So, maybe this is a stupid question, but what the hell is "a long time" for driving a car? 3 hours? 2? 30 minutes? If I'm driving somewhere that isn't right around the corner, I'm probably on a highway, which means I'm probably driving at a relatively constant speed. If I take the car on a 3 hour trip that contains sections where I go 50 miles on a highway, is it going to screw up my engine? Is it going to void warranty? I mean... they could have been a little more specific with that.

It certainly won't void your warranty since they weren't specific and it shows this isn't an exact science. Mainly, just don't use cruise control and you should be fine. I plan on taking my car on 2 or 3 highway trips of about 300 miles each during the break-in period. I'm just gonna vary my speed between 55 and 85 mph and combined with a stop for gas, on and off ramps, and the occasional stop or red light, I think it will be fine.

[ahausheer]

Ahhhh this old argument, my dear friend. Hard break in, soft break in, who cares. Show me a real scientific study of a real CAR (not an engine in a test cell) being broken in hard on public roads and vice-versa and then we will have an answer. Until then I trust what the good book says. Otherwise Toyota would simply say drive it normally. Remember kids you are not breaking in an engine or seals, you are breaking in an entire car. Maybe you will get 2 extra hp by breaking it in hard but, for example, the transmissions gears or clutch plates wont bed as well as they should have leading to a harsh shift feel 50,000 miles from now.

[SkullWorks]

Originally Posted by ahausheer

Ahhhh this old argument, my dear friend. Hard break in, soft break in, who cares. Show me a real scientific study of a real CAR (not an engine in a test cell) being broken in hard on public roads and vice-versa and then we will have an answer. Until then I trust what the good book says. Otherwise Toyota would simply say drive it normally. Remember kids you are not breaking in an engine or seals, you are breaking in an entire car. Maybe you will get 2 extra hp by breaking it in hard but, for example, the transmissions gears or clutch plates wont bed as well as they should have leading to a harsh shift feel 50,000 miles from now.

You have zero experience working on transmissions...and less with metal...I can tell, so you can stop now troll :happy0180:

[bimmerboy]

I usually break-in new cars with a gradual method up to the 1st 100 miles, focusing on both the engine/transmission, then do an oil/filter change.

0-20 miles - I drive the car easy, <50% throttle, varied rpms (no cruise control), shifting below 3500rpms

20-60 miles- Increase throttle usage to about 75%, keeping varied rpms, shifting below 5000 rpms

60-100 miles- 100% throttle usage, varied rpms, shifting at redline. I try to load the engine at low-rpms as much as possible
and like doing 15-60 rolls using 100% throttle in 3rd gear.

After all of this I swap out the factory oil with some synthetic and let her rip! Not sure if this is overkill or not, but makes sense to me.

[7thgear]

so have you ever tore an engine apart 50,000km after the fact to see what's up?

[carbonBLUE]

Originally Posted by 7thgear

so have you ever tore an engine apart 50,000km after the fact to see what's up?

torn apart my friends lotus at 5k 10k 25k and 45k my break in for my engine works well :P