Understanding Engine Break In

[Stvee]

Since this topic is relevant to a lot of new owners here, I wanted to post Savagegeese's newest video on engine break in. It's a good video on why it's important to break in an engine properly and why driving it like you stole it right off the lot isn't a great idea.

Sponsored

 

[J29DB03]

 

[SupraTR]

Thanks for sharing. This made me feel pretty good about how I'm handling break-in which is pretty much meeting in the middle. I'm effectively sticking to the break-in guidelines for 600 miles (at 200 miles 1.5 weeks in, started at 7) instead of the stated 1,200 miles. Plan to do an initial oil change to move to a quality 5W30 at 1,200 miles.

There was no way I was going to wait until 1,200 miles to let it rip and then even with my 600 mile plan the number of people that go with the the "drive it like I stole it" approach from day 1 made me feel like I'm being overly conservative. End of the day better safe than sorry.

Fully expecting this to turn into athread as any break-in/oil discussion seems to.

 

[Rocksandblues]

yawn

 

[Stvee]

Fully expecting this to turn into athread as any break-in/oil discussion seems to.

Most likely. There are a lot of people with no actual data spewing opinions about break in procedures they learned from their grandfathers friend's cousin's shade tree mechanic who built race engines in the 70s. Forgive me if I trust the engineers who designed the engine more.

This video essentially mirrors what the manual recommends, just in more detail. I wish it had mentioned clutch break in procedure though. That is arguably more important.

 

[ColonelAdama]

Thanks for sharing. This made me feel pretty good about how I'm handling break-in which is pretty much meeting in the middle. I'm effectively sticking to the break-in guidelines for 600 miles (at 200 miles 1.5 weeks in, started at 7) instead of the stated 1,200 miles. Plan to do an initial oil change to move to a quality 5W30 at 1,200 miles.

There was no way I was going to wait until 1,200 miles to let it rip and then even with my 600 mile plan the number of people that go with the the "drive it like I stole it" approach from day 1 made me feel like I'm being overly conservative. End of the day better safe than sorry.

Fully expecting this to turn into athread as any break-in/oil discussion seems to.

I ended up finishing my Supra break-in at 700 miles (no highway driving). I think 1200 is a bit excessive. Lots of other manufacturers with far more high-strung engines only recommend 500. I am at 1k miles now, and planned to do the first oil change at 2500 mi. I actually just threw a JB plus on it this week (awesome, by the way - even with MT) and I'm not stressing about engine wear. (We'll see about clutch...)

I drove my MK7 GTI hard right off the lot and never had any major issues, now at 80k miles and still daily it. It drinks about half a quart every 5k miles - pretty typical for those engines, maybe even on the low side. That's at peak 26 psi, FBO on stock turbo too, so I can imagine consumption would be better if left stock.

As you said, oil brand makes a difference. Oil consumption improved drastically switching from the recommended Mobil 1 (0W40... i think) to Liquimoly 5W-30.

 

[DrSupra]

I saw this go up and was thinking that I wish it was out three months ago when I got my car. Then I watched it and it was a summary of what a lot of people had said in here about varying the engine load, not causing drastic changes in temperature (cold hot cold hot) quickly, and waiting for everything to get up to temperature.

I still wonder some times if my break in mileage where a good deal came via highway driving was alright- I would never keep a constant speed and would vary between 2 and 4k RPM so the feedback I've gotten was that it was okay. Still, I imagine there's less variability in load between 50 and 80mph than when a car moves between 0 and 40mph (could be entirely wrong about that - I don't know). Common sense would tell me it took longer for the clutch to break in this way since the shifts were mostly into 4th, 5th, and 6th and occurred less frequently than in city driving.

Interesting points in the video about 0W-20...they've made similar points in a more general video they did about oil that makes me not ever want to go too hard on the car for an extended period of time on the stock oil, particularly in hot weather.

 

[AJRMKV]

I think he covered it at the beginning of the video…
The B58 is not a “high performance” engine. It’s mass produced, and doesn’t require much of a break in despite the blurb that’s in the owners manual.
I’m aware that BMW made the car, and they’re the experts and it’s there for a reason.

but I’m wondering if the reason is general liability

 

[3TMagnetMan]

???

 

[65sohc]

Years ago, as reported in Car and Driver, GM did a study on break in. They took three Corvettes. On one they just drove it without any particular attention paid to the fact that it was new. The second they followed a strict break in protocol, pretty much as described in the video. The third they drove hard from day one. Oil change intervals were the same and the engines were always brought to normal operating temperature, ie. just common sense. After 50,000 miles the engines were torn down and underwent extensive examination. What they found was that, in this specific study, there was no difference.

 

[Rocksandblues]

Years ago, as reported in Car and Driver, GM did a study on break in. They took three Corvettes. On one they just drove it without any particular attention paid to the fact that it was new. The second they followed a strict break in protocol, pretty much as described in the video. The third they drove hard from day one. Oil change intervals were the same and the engines were always brought to normal operating temperature, ie. just common sense. After 50,000 miles the engines were torn down and underwent extensive examination. What they found was that, in this specific study, there was no difference.

cute story.
link?

3 cars are not a large enough sample size
fwiw

 

[GR_Matt]

The discussion around heat cycling was interesting. It's a good reminder to wait until the engine and transmission come up to temp before WOT. This is good advice to follow anytime, but probably even more so during the break-in period.

 

[65sohc]

An N of 3 is definitely limited. As far as a link to the article, let me put it like this. I have been reading Car and Driver since 1968. Although the study was many years later, "links" did not yet exist.

 

[Rocksandblues]

An N of 3 is definitely limited. As far as a link to the article, let me put it like this. I have been reading Car and Driver since 1968. Although the study was many years later, "links" did not yet exist.

The tolerances, oil tech, even metallurgy is light years beyond engines that were pre internet age

 

[Kolme]

The tolerances, oil tech, even metallurgy is light years beyond engines that were pre internet age

Sponsored