Most of the cars we build up and tune on our dyno have fresh engines and I do driveability tuning for about 1 hour. This is with some sort of stand-alone engine managment and I use this startup/idle/part throttle drive time to let the engine break in. Then I usually move into small boost runs. I do this basic tune-up and then it gets an oil change and goes back for flogging. One test car (1G Eagle Talon) has well over 100 dyno pulls in the 500+whp range and over 300 dyno pulls on slightly lower hp (400's). The Engine is running perfect with very little leakdown. We use dino oil(conventional oil) to do this break-in since it helps to seat the rings. With common machine shop honing you're suppose to use a conventional oil to let the rings seat themselves, but with Mitsu specifying synthetic only I'm sure they have that covered. I've been driving my EVO with a heavy foot and varying the engine speed but avoided higher rpm's. A fresh engine wears in the mating running surfaces (rings, bearings, ect) during this break-in period. I would think it more important to change the oil after the first 1000 miles than to worry about keeping it below a certain RPM or giving it only 1/3 throttle. A fresh oil change will remove any debris or particles from engine machining/assembly/wear-in process. So don't worry too much about it, just enjoy it (but don't beat the living crap out of it either).

Here I am breaking it in
sorry for the poor video quality, just turn off the lights to watch the video.

http://www.automotosports.com/evo_drift.mpg

 

enjoy it but don't baby it oe abuse it and u should be ok

 

Good advice Longfury. Its common sense really. Don't do senseless burnouts, or gun the engine when its cold. But remember, its ok to open it up every now and then, just don't hold the redline or anything stupid.

All in all, I think the driver's long-term habits will affect the wear and performance of the engine much more than how it was "broken in".

 

I have 352 miles on my Evo and I admit I have hit 7k 2 times. 6 on many occasions. It's gonna happen.

 

all of this talk about ruining the engine with revin the engine a little bit is makin me go crazy. Like it has been said before as long as the engine is warm ride it like you mean it but dont be stupid.
stvbreal ... can you feel the loss in turbo at those higher RPM's, because i was reading in another thread that the the turbo starts to give out neer red line.
any way GOOD LUCK WITH THE CAR

 

Slightly less responsive at higher RPM's but it still pulls quite nicely. 5th gear is pretty impressive. I'm still breaking in the car. But 60mph to 80mph occurs in no time at all.

 

So, what do other members of this forum..Claudius think?

 

wow 352 miles and hitting 6 - 7K

You must be the lucky sort .. or the buddha principal

 

I've broken in two hi-po 2.0-litres now, though 280ps Subaru motors, not 4G63's. The first one, I, in the main, kept it below 4,000rpm for the first 1500km, but I did periodically run it up to 7500rpm after the first 400km, but not at full throttle. About once every 100km, on average. My mate with the same motor/car was much more careful than I, and never brought it above 4,000rpm.

With exactly the same modifications to exhaust and intake, on the same dyno within minutes of each other, I dyno'd about 10-15 more hp than he did. While that could be purely attributed to production tolerances, I did feel break-in procedures accounted for the difference also.

On my second engine, I was more careful, and didn't exceed 4,000rpm more than 2 times. While it's a slightly different setup, I haven't felt the same top-end strength from it that I had with the previous motor.

It's not exactly a staggering amount of statistics to go by, but personally, I'm going to follow the first procedure the next time I get a new motor to break in.

This is because I did it based on information passed on to me from various tuners. Mainly that running it at low rpm's for break-in ensures that it's going to be strong at low rpm's - but not as strong at high rpm's. And these motors are going to see high rpm operation, especially at the track. That said, I think moderation is the key here - don't redline it every chance you get, but instead keep to the basic instructions from the manual, along with mild shots up to the redline at less-than-full-throttle.

The real problem here is that production tolerances can account for all of this, even on today's modern engines that are built to rather exacting specifications. So that's why I keep to the middle-road method - less chance of something going wrong if I am wrong.

Cheers,

Paul Hansen

 

Just what I've been doing. I could see hittin rev limiter every time you take the car out doin damage, but not an occasional 6.5 to 7k.

 

I want to breakin my Evolution the best way possible,
if it ever arrives.
Some people seem to be driving about 50 miles per day.
Would it be better to break it in all at once?
In other words don't keep warming up and cooling down the engine and oil.
I know when we break-in a spindle on a machine, it is prefered to keep a constant temperature during break-in. We also start at low rpm and slowly increase in 200rpm increments. Yes it takes a long time but it is worth it for longevity. I know 200rpm increments on a car would be nearly immpossible.
What about load on the engine? High or low or both?
I would like to hear advice from an expert.
Thanx

 

Can't say I'm an expert but with my other "performance" car, the manual said you should keep it at decently low RPMs but try to vary it as much as possible. I guess this sort of makes sense to me as you would want to make sure you don't run in just one band in the "crucial formative" stages.

 

I could be wrong, but I am just making sure I keep it under 5000 rpm all the time. I talked with a guy that owned a WRX, and his dealer told him to drive it like hell when you get it, that way it is broke into the style of your driving. I dont know if I agree with that. I used to own an is300, the ecu was designed so that if and when you did a mod, you would need to disconnect the battery to restart the computer. At that time, advice was to drive the car like a mad man so that way the computer would make adjustments needed. Does the evo compare in any way to this???

 

The break in period is as follows:

1) DO NOT drive the Evo over 5k RPM for the first 600 miles.

2) No hard breaking for the first 300 miles.

3) The tires need to be "Scrubbed" for 200 miles.

You can drive the Evo like normal during the break in period keeping in mind the above recommeded terms, I think it might be difficult to do it all at one time, but you can if you choose, it is not necessary.

Depending on your driving habits and location you may want to change your oil at 3,500 miles or up to 5,000 but no more than that. It is highly recommended that you have all your servicing done at your local Mitsubishi dealer ( that is so it is in the data base system for your protection), but if you have it done you will need to use Mobil 1 synthetic period and a Mitsubishi Oil Filter, or you WILL void your warranty, and of course keep very good records. If you do have to take the vehicle in for any service and use an after market filter, just slap one on before you take it in. Tire balancing and rotation is at 5,000 intervals on the Advans. I would recommend getting a second set of M & S rated tires for daily use because the Advans are not good for colder weather and the soft compound wears faster than "normal" tires. Also be aware that the Brembo brakes will be noisier than normal breaks, this IS a race car, so try to remember that while driving the Evo.

This information is from Mitsubishi but we all know we are going to do our own things in our own way most of the time anyways.

 

Does that literally mean scrub them?