How did you break-in your car?

I did mine by running it hard right when i drove off the dealership.
Break-In Secrets

A friend of mine recommended it but i was skeptical at first.
I can't really say if it did the job unless opened the engine itself.
Im up to 6500miles now...



wadaya think?

 

You're supposed to go easy for the first thousand miles. Don't forget, you're not just breaking in the motor but the transmission, suspension, any diffs, brakes, etc.

 

Thats the conventional way.
But i went with a latter choice

 

The latter way isn't necessarily the right way especially since it's mainly designed for race cars (ie. cars with new engines but already broken in drivetrains). There's a reason why your manual says to break it in easy and frankly I think Mitsubishi knows more about their own car than some guy on the internet.

 

i dont think its necessarily for race cars.
I guess we'll see in the long run on how the engine will perform...

<---- noob

 

+1

Also, I would give up a couple extra HP's (if that has even been proven according to motoman) for better mileage and a longer engine life.

He also refers to bikes and snowmobiles which run at much higher RPM's than cars. But most importantly, like what ambystom said, I'm sure the engineers at Mitsu know their cars better than some dude from a website.

 

On a lancer motor I doubt it's an issue but on other motors it can mean the difference between a perfectly functional engine and blown piston rings/destroyed transmission.

 

yeah just take it easy, at 6500 miles your are good to open her up now.

Just frequency of oil changes at first made me feel a bit better

 

I opened her up since the start

Changed the oil after 100 miles. Changed again at 3000.

 

well you might have decreased the engine life by doing that. But who knows. You engine might last 200K miles instead of 225. I can't say, but you will probably get rid of it by then.

 

i dont think ill last that long in this car. Im planning to sell this after a year or so of the Ralliart being out... Hopefully a manual tranny will be available by then.

anyways, how did you go with yours/everyone

 

Varied my driving style. I would occasionally run it up to red line, most of the time taking it easy on the gas and sifting before I hit 3k RPM, and everything in between. Technically, I'm still "breaking in" the engine and transmission on my car.

 

Here is what I did with my Lancer as well as my Mazda. I took it easy on both cars for the first 1000 miles and did an oil change. I did not hit redline in either car until after the second oil change at 3000 miles. I know I didn't need to do it that way, but I figured it was worth it.

 

The KEY is to maintain a load on the engine during break-in...so taking a long trip off the showroom floor isn't the best of optimal engine-life. Maintaining a load, both excel and decel, will help seal the rings properly in the bore. I've even had tuners say that boosting on a fresh motor on a dyno is the best method using the above as well...but I'll stick with N/A myself.

 

done rebuilds on 16L diesel engines (cummins ISX) and they state in the manual to find the heaviest load possible for the truck and then ***** to the wall otherwise the rings wont seat.

But apparently that has all been done @ factory dyno'd. And automotive engines may not take the time to seat rings like a big diesel. I just followed my manual and added a bit more load to it, but just didn't drive it harsh.