Its amazing isn't it ? LOL
Then my other favorite, when people brings the racing engines as an exmple to the table ...

Anyway , me personaly just try to help those who cares, and they are new .
The rest... Everybody has they own preference. I try to help them with a safe approach.
But every body is entiteld to do what ever with they own ideas with they own cars.

Rob

 

hey Rob

I didn't say I recommend that URL nor anyone to follow it. All I said was: a friend of my recommend me this URL and that what I did. ;-) . And I didn't say I did it on the street or how I did right?

it's a controversy topic. most people take it easy but some people "drive it hard, like you stole it". If something happen to my engine near future, and I'm still on the forum I'll let you guys know. then we can all avoid the hard method. I guess. ;-)

 

It's not just the motor. That's one of the things that Rob was trying to explain. Yes, it can be argued that it's already broken-in after x-number of miles, perhaps even soon after being tested in assembly. But, but, but what about the rest of the car?

 

Hi FJF,

I'm not trying to argue. I totally agree with you guys about other aspects of the car for break-in. I'm sorry I brought up only the engine. IMO, most people prefer to break-in the car: break-in the engine.

I just got my Evo X I still have a lot to learn about this car. I'm sure you guys have a lot more knowledge and giving fantastic advices. I wasn't trying to give advice there I just said: here what I did....

Internet and forums like this basically give people what other people do, or most people do, and/or get advice and decide for themselves anyway right?

 

yep, and we hope you didnt took it a wrong way.
The net is here to learn. I do every day , but a same time i forget things. Its like a full buket. Something goes in, equal amount of things goes out.
That is doesnt mean my head is full , just a draining plugs are two low on both side LOL

 

i ALWAYS recommend this link for engine break in

http://www.novustechnic.com/breakin_1.htm

i think it's the most mechanically sound methodology for if you REALLY care for the car

 

it is definitely a good page to read.
I think the owners manual is good enough for a majority of people, this page is great for explaining why actually is important the brake in.

I like the section about the air cooled engines - race engines and the synthetic motor oil one.In overall is a great site. Like i remember my brother cross bike /air-cooled/ two stroke) needed a piston ring change after a certain amount of hour. And yes not needed any brake in, but we had to change them very often. which wasnt a probelm since the engine was designed for that. It was an easy swap.

The reason is i think the Owners manual is good enough , because it is easy to understand what you have to do and how long. This site would be more for a gear-heads to understand why .

thanks for sharing

 

I've never heard of anyone not following the break in running into huge problems. Also I've never had anyone explain to me why a cars parts need a break in period to settle.

If there was a sound mechanical explanation for the break in period I would tend to trust it more. Personally I think a lot of the wisdom of break in periods come from the 60s/70s when cars were a lot more fragile. It's basically a tradition that has stuck around for better or worse.

The only thing I've heard that somewhat made sense was to avoid heavy braking in the first few miles to avoid prematurely cracking the rotors, but again, I haven't heard of anyone who has been burned by this so called 'break in issue'.

If you want to play it safe, just follow the owner's manual.

 

I'm really not sure how the logistics of the process can exemplify a relevant sample.

In a roundabout way, breakin is similar to protecting fresh paint. When the car is painted, the (paint) manufacturer recommends ~120 days for the paint to off-gas. Meaning, no protective coating. Many body shops recommend 30 days and quite a few owners have followed that suggestion. There are times when 30 days are enough, like during a hot/dry summer, but most of the time it's too short a span. This results in unnecessarily soft paint as a best case and paint failure as the worst scenario. I know for a fact that thousands upon thousands of people will claim that protecting the finish immediately after a repaint had no ill effect on their cars. But, is the claim based in reality in a manner congruent with how other folks view good paint? Not so much.

Take a look at the link posted above.

 

"I've never heard of anyone not following the break in running into huge problems. Also I've never had anyone explain to me why a cars parts need a break in period to settle."


And you never will. Who will admit freely that he -her may caused a problem not following the brake in proceedures, and risk to avoiding warranty etc?
I am not sure why is sooo hard to understand that... LOL

Even when people modifing the evo almost to the level which is doubles the crank hp, and something gave up, it is a manufacturer fault never the end user/bad parts etc/ .... Even when they running with bad tune, with obvious signs , like knocking...
And we can go on, and on, and on.

You think obviously , you will ever hear anything at the dealer or anywhere else, something like this:
i didn't do a brake in, and that might caused my clutch problem, brake problem , engine problem etc?

I mean get a grip.



ps: what makes you think the cars was more fragile back in the 60-70?
" I think a lot of the wisdom of break in periods come from the 60s/70s when cars were a lot more fragile"

 

Well let me put it this way, I've never heard a dealership deny a warranty claim because the owner obviously didn't follow the break in period.

If I put two cars with 50k miles next to each other, could you tell mechanically which one followed the break in period and which one didn't?

Also I read the link, it was a series of "do this do that" statements and some hand-waving explanations with no references or citations to back up the claims. I would trust wikipedia before I trust a random article someone decided to write in their free time on the internet.

 

It's a little silly to expect someone to write an annotated dissertation to satisfy an individual's desire. Take this for example:

Clearly, we don't all have a professional background that can expand on what's said above. As we're all connected to the Internet, the comments make for a quick and easy search criteria that can satisfy one's quest for knowledge.

If you don't mind my saying, as it relates to the posted comments, it's a touch disingenuous to ground one's stance on anecdotal evidence and then base one's rebuttal on a demand for concrete data.

 

Again, the quoted text offers various assertions, but why do "micro high spots" matter so much at high revs? Won't they just burn down faster? What are the mechanics of micro high spots burning down faster at low revs vs. high revs? Also many manufacturers rev the engine to redline at the factory before it even gets inserted into the car to avoid customer defects like this one (which I'm still not convinced exists). On it's face the micro high spot theory has several holes that need to be filled before I would give it any weight.

If the break in period was so important, there should be data supporting it by now, after 100 years of cars on the road. The fact that there is none is quite glaring in my opinion.

As I said earlier, the safest thing to do is trust whatever is in the owner's manual as the manufacturer's actual suggested usage of the vehicle.

 

Those are all excellent questions that virtually no one here can answer with any degree of certainty. Personally, I can discuss machining as it relates to bearing tolerances somewhat intelligently, and the anomalies produced by a variance of a few microns, but that doesn't fully help us here. It would also have to mean that everyone else is as familiar with the process, as to actually comprehend what's being said without a need for tediously elongated explanations. All this on a forum with the attention span of a house cat and a grossly varied level of education.

I can tell you very honesty that if I were interested in this to a degree that would warrant the questions above, I would have spent at least a few dozen hours looking into this. As you seem very interested, why not do that, let us know what you find, and then link the info for further discussion. FWIW, that would relieve the last comment I made in the previous post.

What data are you looking for and in what format? I'm willing to bet Noize's left ball that every single automotive manufacturer holds mounds of breakin data in its bowels. It's the frucking nature of the beast.

 

Note that the factory recommendation of 600 miles is for the whole car including engine, brakes, clutch (if so equipped), etc.

Note that most after-market clutch manufacturers also recommend 500 miles of "normal" driving before putting max power through the clutch.