SonofaBish

iTrader: (5)

My twin turbo project is almost done... soon the block will go out to be bored and new internals will be going in... my question is, what's the best method for breaking in the motor? I've somewhat always been a believer in the 'break it in hard' theory, to get cylinder pressures up and seat the rings. However, i doubt that "break it in hard" included 14lbs of boost.

So, do i want to:
1. have everything hooked up, and break it in for ~100 miles, breaking it in easy and staying out of boost?
2. break it in hard with the charge pipes unhooked (my fear is spinning the turbos too fast)
3. any suggestions? please help me out here.

Thanks

LTLHOMER

iTrader: (10)

Broke mine in on w2w's dyno with some 750+ pulls at a lackluster 7k.

Seemed like a good approach and those guys know their stuff so I'd assume that break-in isn't some scientific procedure.

SonofaBish

iTrader: (5)

no other thoughts?

GrahamHill

iTrader: (6)

Cylinder pressure is the best way to seat rings

hellbents10

iTrader: (10)

Agree'd on cylinder pressure. Get a load on it as soon as possible. Low boost low rpm load, get some miles on it and crank er up.

Zombie

iTrader: (2)

I drove my motor easy for the first 100 miles, kept the boost below 10 psi. Main reason was to make sure nothing was going to break, hoses, belts, etc. I wasn't worried about my motor that was built from the junk others had laying around lol. Later that day, after putting 100 miles on it, I was making 14psi WOT passes and have been since.

DeltaT

iTrader: (5)

Check out Jeff Hartman's excellent book on EFI tuning including FI applications. It gives you a step-by-step method of approaching the dangerous hi-boost areas safely. After all, if you break during break-in, what's the point?

The book is "Tuning and Modifying Engine Management Systems" and is the best $20 from Amazon I have ever spent. It will pay for itself. Also, if you don't have an onboard wideband controller, get one. It allows you to tune your own car. Again, pays for itself.

I broke mine in slowly while tuning, and it took until like 3500 miles for the crankcase vapors to drop off to almost nothing. Before that, I would get like a half cup of oil in the breather catchcan after 200 miles. Since then, I get like a teaspoon in 500 miles. And a warm compression test shows all cyls within 3% of each other. Put down 501rwhp through a 4L80E on an S-trim Vortech. In the middle now of an upgrade to a T-trim and FJO Racing Alky injection. Heading for ~625rwhp territory and up.

Jim

gametech

iTrader: (1)

I like your original "break it in hard" theory. IMO, 14#'s of boost will just get the rings seated quicker. The only thing that sucks is dialing in the initial tune may slow things up a bit.

coop5885

iTrader: (2)

mine got drove down the street from the shop, turned around and came back up the hill at 9lbs. it helped i already had the tune for it though. Doesnt smoke, or use oil.

SonofaBish

iTrader: (5)

any other opinions?

RW99

I've heard it said that break-in with dino (non-synthetic) oil is best, with a change at 1000 miles. Oil analysis would also lend you some peace of mind if you wanted to track that for successive changes at 3000 miles each... you should see the metals drop off. I kinda like the "hard break-in" theory after a couple hundred miles of easy going.

SonofaBish

iTrader: (5)

ok cool... I guess I will get a HP Tuners tune off of the database that has the same injector size as mine... and run it easy for about 100 miles or so.... Its about a 70 mile highway drive from where the car is to where the tuner is, so that will help break it in easy at first, and then i guess it can get thrown on the Dyno and run like hell....

Whistler

iTrader: (46)

We go easy on engines long enough to check for fluid leaks, flush any contaminants into the oil filter, and check for other potential problems. Once everything checks out we change the cheap startup oil out for good oil and give it boost.

Turbo V6 Camaro

for the V6

after the first oil change to get the gunk out of it i used gave it 17psi a few time really fast then took to the local 1/8 mile and ran a 7.39@95 and a 7.45@95

and about 6 other pass's on it

work great

SStolen

iTrader: (22)

Same here. I let the engine idle and rev it up to 2500-3000rpms for about ten minutes. Then I'll take it for a cruise through my neighborhoos for another 10 minutes. Come home and change the oil/filter right away; cheap oil still. Then I drive it for another 100 miles, change oil/filter with good oil/filter. Drive it for 1000 miles, change the oil/filter. Drive it 3000 miles, change oil/filter as normal. I didn't before because I didn't know but most guys tend to run 6.5 to 7 qts of oil with factory pan and stock size filter. This is because the power will cause your oil to slosh to the back of the pan under WOT. You want to run as little oil as you can but still keep oil pressure so if you can run 6 and not starve the engine, that is all you need. I don't recall losing oil pressure with only 5.5 but you never know I'm gonna run 6.5 to be on the safe side. 700lbtq+ can't be good for it.

ss53mech

Disclaimer-" I am not saying people should do this, it is just what I do"

Theory- the purpose of break-in is to seat the rings for good compression using the crosshatching on the cyclinder walls.

Procedure- Start engine, allow to run at cruise speed 2000-3000 for your typical v8. after warm up and the 2-3 min cam break in take car to street and perform multiple accerlerations from about 1500-4500 allowing to compression brake back to 1500 each time. Do this for about 10 minutes, return, shut down car, change oil/ filter while still hot. Replace with your choice of oil and filter, drive as you would wish to from then on out.

Catches- 1 car must have logging capability for constant monitoring by passenger.
2-this theory can be kind of hit or miss.

My take on this, I have used this theory on all types of engines, from motorcycles, to a n/a 488 big block, to a roots style supercharged 377 sbc, to single and dual slam honduhs. I have only blown one of them using this, and upon rebuild used the same procedure without issue. Every motor I have done this to has seated the rings in that first 10 minutes and maintained great and even compression. It is based off the theory of breaking in two stroke motorcycle engines. Like the top says, not saying you should do it, it's just what I do.

HUNTER02SS

iTrader: (24)

I was under the impression since we had hydralic roller cam's that there was no cam break in. Hydralic flat tappet yes but not our ls style cam's. i could be wrong?

ss53mech

No, you are correct, there is not cam break in time required for the hydraulic roller cam, but I normally still let it at cruise speed for sake of warm up and oil circulation. But it is a definate requirement of o/h cam engines.

JMBLOWNWS6

iTrader: (17)

Ive done the last 4 motors like this. Might not be the best procedure but it works for us. I use a good Dino oil. Run the engine for its first heat cycle and then the drain the oil and change the filter. Next I run it again for a period of 100 to 250 miles and we dial in the tune. From there on we pretty much run it up to about 70%. Once we get past the 400 to 500 mile mark, We pretty much go 100% with the engine. From that point on I change the dino oil every 1000 miles. (Just the way we do it) I dont switch to syn oils till 2500 miles or more in some cases. Ive seen some of these strokers take as much as 3000 miles to totally seat and crankcase reside. But you want to seat the cylinder rings correctly on a boosted motor. You dont want to run it NA and then slap the boost on it. Keep the cylinders in the enviroment they will be living in

DeltaT

iTrader: (5)

+1 for the JMBLOWNWS6 technique. It is almost identical to what I do. Old School? But with a lot of years of experience behind it.

Jim