Tips for breaking in a brand new engine?

[Olaf the Golaf]

Yeah, from riding the bikes i know that you need to vary the revs, but that's about it. And not redline it is pretty reasonable.

When i bought the golf the guy said the engines are run in already and there is no break-in period, which is why there is no break-in 1000km service or anything, just take it in at the usual 15K.

[Beaker]

I've built a few race engines and bought a few new cars,

Always run them in the same

- NEVER drive them cold - you have cast iron, aluminium, chrommolly, brass and a bunch of other metals in there all designed to have exacting tollarances at operating temperature, all metals expand at different rates - driving it cold WILL wear stuff premeturely its that simple - that goes for run in and afterward - it also applies to gearboxes and diffs - I love watching people warm up their race cars engine then flogging the crap out of them and then watching them halfway through the day replacing the diff. FWIW you won't glaze a bore by giving the engine 2 or 3 minutes to warm up.

- Drive it with load, but don't rev the crap out of it, you have tight tollerances everywhere and the oil needs to be able to clear the surfaces, at high revs you have the same oil pressure as at medium revs, meaning you are working your oil needlessly, change speeds, change gears etc give it a range of driving conditions up to about 800 - 900 km, then you can start to work it a little harder, after about 1500km you can start to flog the crap out of it if you like.

- Modern turbo's don't generaly need to be cooled down, having said that if you've just been flogging the daylights out of it, I would.

- Change the oil after 1500 - 2000km - it WILL be full of crap.

I know a few people I raced against who used to flog their engines from day one also believing the 'flog it or get a slug' theory - I can't recall many having more grunt, and while I've never had a DNF due to an engine failure some of them have.

Our Navara had 300000km on it when some prick pinched it. My Patrol has 150000km on it and the engine is like new, my VR4 had over 250000km on it when I sold it and it ran like a champion.

Run it in how you like, its your car, but I'll keep running in mine as above, I'm yet to have an issue doing it that way.

When I need to run in an engine, I normaly just take it for a full day drive, in my case I've taken the last four for a run down the Clyde Mountin to the coast, south along the coast to Bega and then home via the Brown Mountain. That is just about enough to run in a car and gives you everything you need in terms of terrain and speed changes and its a fun drive to boot.


I do agree that you need to give an engine a ahrd time occasionaly and that a vehicle NEVER driven hard will be a dog, but I save that for after the first 1K or so.

[JordanNaumov]

I've built a few race engines and bought a few new cars,

Always run them in the same

- NEVER drive them cold - you have cast iron, aluminium, chrommolly, brass and a bunch of other metals in there all designed to have exacting tollarances at operating temperature, all metals expand at different rates - driving it cold WILL wear stuff premeturely its that simple - that goes for run in and afterward - it also applies to gearboxes and diffs - I love watching people warm up their race cars engine then flogging the crap out of them and then watching them halfway through the day replacing the diff. FWIW you won't glaze a bore by giving the engine 2 or 3 minutes to warm up.

- Drive it with load, but don't rev the crap out of it, you have tight tollerances everywhere and the oil needs to be able to clear the surfaces, at high revs you have the same oil pressure as at medium revs, meaning you are working your oil needlessly, change speeds, change gears etc give it a range of driving conditions up to about 800 - 900 km, then you can start to work it a little harder, after about 1500km you can start to flog the crap out of it if you like.

- Modern turbo's don't generaly need to be cooled down, having said that if you've just been flogging the daylights out of it, I would.

- Change the oil after 1500 - 2000km - it WILL be full of crap.

I know a few people I raced against who used to flog their engines from day one also believing the 'flog it or get a slug' theory - I can't recall many having more grunt, and while I've never had a DNF due to an engine failure some of them have.

Our Navara had 300000km on it when some prick pinched it. My Patrol has 150000km on it and the engine is like new, my VR4 had over 250000km on it when I sold it and it ran like a champion.

Run it in how you like, its your car, but I'll keep running in mine as above, I'm yet to have an issue doing it that way.

When I need to run in an engine, I normaly just take it for a full day drive, in my case I've taken the last four for a run down the Clyde Mountin to the coast, south along the coast to Bega and then home via the Brown Mountain. That is just about enough to run in a car and gives you everything you need in terms of terrain and speed changes and its a fun drive to boot.


I do agree that you need to give an engine a ahrd time occasionaly and that a vehicle NEVER driven hard will be a dog, but I save that for after the first 1K or so.

Awesome post mate.

Looks like you and i are both waiting for the exact same car

[Guest]

This does not make any sense at all. Holding back or babying the car for 5000K. You gotta to be joking. To some people that is 6 months of driving. Just not realistic - most people will give it some stick in the first few weeks.

Sorry i meant 1000km's not 5000km
RUNNING IN A NEW ENGINE
Straight from the manual up to 1000'kms
Do not drive faster than 3 quarters of the top speed
Do not use full throttle
Avoid high engine speeds
Do not tow a trailer

From 1000km to 1500km
Speeds can gradually be increased to the max road speed or engine speed (RPM)

If the engine is run in gently the life of the engine will be increased and its oil consumption reduced.

[coastie]

Do not drive faster than 3 quarters of the top speed

Speeds can gradually be increased to the max road speed or engine speed (RPM)

So 3/4 of the top speed of the vehicles capability? ~ 150km/h or do they mean the legal limit of the road therefore 75km/h

[hoi polloi]

So 3/4 of the top speed of the vehicles capability? ~ 150km/h or do they mean the legal limit of the road therefore 75km/h

Guessing as the manual would have been written by Germans I'd say 75% of top speed... Which would still probably get you in deep **** in most places in Australia..

Regards,
Anthony.

[Coxy09]

So 3/4 of the top speed of the vehicles capability? ~ 150km/h or do they mean the legal limit of the road therefore 75km/h

lol, I think you would have a interesting time trying to explain that to the local constabulary there sharkie =p

[hoi polloi]

lol, I think you would have a interesting time trying to explain that to the local constabulary there sharkie =p

"But officer, you do realise we have some of the lowest motorway speed limits in the world..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_by_country



*still gets ticket

- Anthony.

[Coxy09]

"But officer, you do realise we have some of the lowest motorway speed limits in the world..."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_limits_by_country



*still gets ticket

- Anthony.

I notice they dont have Fiji on there, The national speed limit there is 80km/h, If ever you saw the roads you'd know why.....It is a shame about ours though, some of those roads you could easily do 150 on no problem. Ohwell, the day and age we live in i guess

[MIRSAD]

I am sure that this recording is not from Fiji ...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=voiNTM0UnVo

Can't see mileage ... if less than 1500km ... speed is not in line with VW instructions