Clayton_SE-R said:
Just a question. I see people always talking about breaking their engines in adn what not. How does that work exactly (as in what is the process), and what are the repricussions of not following those steps?
The most important thing to be worried about while breaking an engine in is the rings on the pistons not seating. Petroleum oil (non-synthetic) oil is suggested for breaking in a motor. Synthetic oil is considered to be too slippery to allow for proper piston ring seating. Most manufacturers say the break in of a motor should take between 1500-2000 miles. Race motors can get about 20-30 min at low RPM on a dyno.
There's a school of thought that says you should break in an engine by driving it hard. With proper engine warm up the idea is that you get the piston rings to seat as quickly as possible and reduce the chance of contaminating the oil with combustion gasses and other combustion byproducts. Driving an engine under load (high gear lower RPM) is a good way to do this. The idea here is that by driving an engine easy during the break in process you’re actually prolonging piston ring seating and doing more harm. The acid and combustion gasses that go past the rings to the engine oil can cause wear on other engine components and cause power losses in a motor.
All the "wear in" during piston ring seating usually takes place under the first few miles of the motor so it’s important to change the oil soon after you buy a car. Some manufacturers recommend that you change oil after 600 miles but I look at it the old school way. Oil is cheaper than engines. Most of you reading this probably have more than 100 miles on your motor but I would change the oil as soon as possible with a non-synthetic. After the motor has broken in at 1500-2000 miles its safe to switch to your favorite synthetic.
This is a highly debated topic, so break your engine in how you want. I broke my Altima SE-R in hard. We’ll see what the numbers look like when I put it on the dyno.
