just got my 2.1 back from machine shop and about to throw it back into car. was wondering whats the best way to break it in? i know everybody has heard of different ways. i will be breaking it in on the street. i was told to let it warm up to operating temp. then do short pulls and let the car gear down to seat the rings. all opinions are respected and appreciated. thanks in advance

 

I'd say just let it idle to operating temp and drive it NORMAL, soft, and easy for 1200 miles like you would break in a new car. So many mixed opinions on the net some people say to get on it and do a few pulls but there's a chance the rings may not seat properly and you'll be blowing smoke...

 

Start the engine, check for oil pressure, leaks, etc. Let it warm up and start WOT tuning.. Change oil sooner than later.

 

^ yeah i heard being easy is a no no. def not gonna be easy on it. but dont want to beat the $hit out of it either. well... not @ first anyways

 

Some pretty good info here : http://www.ntnoa.org/enginebreakin.htm

 

To the OP. You have the break in procedure correct. No WOT right away. Give it atleast a couple miles of letting the motor slow the car down with the pulls that you do.

 

What I did for mine... don't forget to disconnect your crank position sensor and crank the engine for 15 seconds in 3 bursts spaced 30 seconds or so apart to prime the oil system. Have your battery hooked up to a jump from another running car to keep it at full juice.

Start it off on high zinc and high phosphorus content NONsynthetic oil

When it starts up, let it warm up and head out and drive it on a local highway. Give it about 50% throttle on a highway, bring your RPM's up to about 6000rpm's and then get off the throttle and coast back down to 2800rpms or cruising speed. Repeat this process for 20 miles. Try doing it in 2nd or 3rd gear.

Head home and change your oil to synthetic high zinc oil. Your rings should be seated. Do not boost during this process, its ok to hit a few PSI, but no WOT driving and don't just cruise around. High RPM vacuum pulls will help seat the rings as close to perfect as possible. Once you finish seating the rings, then you can get into boost. I gave my car a grace period of about 100 extra miles just to be sure everything was spot on though before boosting.

 

http://www.cincystreetscene.com/foru...ad.php?t=36396

 

When I do my next motor, I am going to just go and fist the motor right away. I did the whole break in thing and I think it is all just black magic.

 

Did you have issues with your last motor? If not, the break-in procedure served you well.

 

I dont think these engines build oil pressure when cranking. If that's the case, you need to use an external pressurized source to prime the engine.

 

No priming of the engine is needed. Just make sure there is alot of assembly lube on everything when you put it together.

 

Disconnect cam sensor....crank over/ prime engine for maybe 30-45 seconds just turning key. Ok now you got fuel an half *** prime...good enough. Connet cam sensor crank over until till fires. Let idle for 5-10 min....top off coolant and oil during first 5 min....get all air out of cooling system. Ok turn off make surr no leaks or whatever....now go cruise for 5-10 miles bringing rpms up with no boost and let cars wieght slow you down no brakes really.
K now check vitals one more time then kick the hell outta her.

Did this 2 months ago on a BR 2.1 and shes happy as hell....purrs like a kitten...but makes ba power!

$.02

 

Hey,

I used Brad Penn Break-In Oil SAE 30 for the first 50 miles due to the high ZDDP, with an AMSOIL oil filter.
http://www.penngrade1.com/Products/H...ak-In-Oil.aspx

During the break-in perioid of driving it's all about vacuum and varying the RPM. I would go through 1st, 2nd and hit 3rd, hitting 4,000 RPM's each time, then just let off the gas, until I needed to down-shift to 2nd and then 1st to keep it from stalling. At the end, I would hit 1-2 PSI of boost for a second or two. I did this for 50 miles. It took about 3 hours.

After the first 50 break-in miles, I changed my oil to AMSOIL ARO 20W-50.
http://www.amsoil.com/storefront/aro.aspx

I changed the oil again at 300 miles because I swapped to the DBB FP Black. I then changed it before the dyno tune, and after the dyno tune.

In 1200 miles I changed my oil 5 times...most likely not needed, but with the amount of money I just dropped on the motor/head/turbo cheap insurance

Now I will probably change my oil once every 1,000-1,500 miles depending on how much I abuse it.



-Bink

 

DO NOT sit there and crank for that long. That defeats the purpose of breaking the motor in. You are "breaking the motor in" while cranking it and it is not starting.

If everything is right, car should start within a couple seconds of cranking, oil pressure will be there in a second or two and then you can start your break in.