rebuilt engine....break in period?

[yorkbrick]

Hey,
Recently rebuilt B21ft. Added intercooler. Is their a break in period? Should I get some miles on her before I really start driving hard? Well deeper in the tach.
Suggestions,
Nothing above 3rpms for like 100 miles?
Change oil after 100 miles?
Coolant change?
Thanks
yorkbrick
83 244t

[chadsmeltzer]

Hammer it!!!!!! ha....ha...ha.....

Take it easy until you are sure that you have everything 100% o.k.

Let evrything settle and take its place, change oil soon, go over and retighten bolts etc etc.

see ya........zippy

[mikep]

Changing oil after 100 miles is a good idea.

[Al]

When I got my new remanufactured B230FT from Volvo I was told to take it easy for the first 1200 to 1500 miles. By taking it easy I mean no full boost runs to the redline OK. Just drive it normal and try to keep it under 4000 rpms as much as possible. Ease into the boost and don't floor it. The nicer you are in those first 1500 miles the longer the motor is going to last.
I was told to change the oil at 1000, and at 3500 miles after that normal oil change intervals.
So first change after 1000 miles and the second change after another 2500 miles. If you want to change it sooner that is ok if it makes you more feel more secure. BTW I have run my motor on Mobil One since they dropped it in. At 29K miles it has yet to use any oil between 5K mile oil changes.

[740Weapon]

my personal oppinion is dont break an engine in on synthetic. but to add to what was said. vary the rpms. and bring it to redline a few times by 3000k. and around 5000k or so drive it like your trying to break it. in order to make sure everything is streched and seated as much as possible. also use a thin oil at first. to make sure oil gets everywhere it needs to be.

but baby it for the recomended period of time or it WILL see a premature death. (i know from experiance)

[the poi]

Originally Posted by 740Weapon

my personal oppinion is dont break an engine in on synthetic. ...

why not? and i wouldnt go thin, i'd rather maintain consistenet oil pressures and run, if anything different, thicker

[yozsi]

in my personal opinion, i actually dog newly rebuilt engines. the point is to break them in not baby em. make sure the engine has warmed up to operating temps. people say dont abuse because you want to break in the rod, main, and cam bearings, well rod, main, and cam bearings should not contact any of the bearing races on the crank or cam, so you cant break them in anyways, the only thing you can break in are the piston rings. if you baby the engine in the break in process the rings will take an excessively long time to seat. the higher cylinder pressures you have the more the rings will press up against the cylinder walls and wear in from the cross hatch pattern from machining. you only have a limited amount of time before the crosshatching becomes non abrasive. so make sure you warm the engine up, buy some really cheap motor oil that is non detergent, go out and drive it like you stole it. change the oil in about 100 miles, then replace with dino oil until about 2000 miles then you can run synth. i have broke in many motors this way with no problems.

[pwschuh]

Then there's always this article:

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

About motorcycles specifically but the guy believes it to be true for all IC engines.

[740Weapon]

first site i found:
But a word of caution: don”t use synthetic oil during the critical initial break-in period. Many camshaft manufacturers and regrinders say not to use synthetics until the first oil change. Petroleum-based oil will enhance the break-in of the cam and lifters. At the first oil change, change the filter too to get rid of the molybdenum disulfide cam break-in lubricant. This goop while necessary for break-in, can easily clog an oil filter.


the mobil1 website:
One of the myths that persists about Mobil 1 is that new engines require a break-in period with conventional oil. Current engine manufacturing technology does not require this break-in period. As indicated by the decisions of the engineers who design these high-performance cars, Mobil 1 with SuperSyn™ can be used in an engine from the day you drive the car off the showroom floor.

the rebuild is not a new engine and requires a break in on regular oil.

in the old days straight weight 30 was used to break in engines quickly because the rings would wear (seat) in faster. synthetic just drags out the break in period for a million miles. and is very counterproductive. because you dont want to be rhomping on an engine that hasnt seated itself yet. so stay away from synthetic on a rebuild. (like yozi said)

also use the manufacturer recomended oil weight (5w-30 or 10w-30) because that was recomended for a good reason. and on a new engine it couldnt apply more. and also the thinner oils get everywhere oil needs to be much better and faster on a new "tight" engine.

biggest misconceptions on this website: heavy weight oils and synthetics are always good. when its a "sometimes good"

[Felixredwoody]

Originally Posted by pwschuh

Then there's always this article:

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

About motorcycles specifically but the guy believes it to be true for all IC engines.

Thats a great link and if you read through it all and listen to the reasoning behind it it makes total sense. Thats a definate MUST read IMO Tim

[yozsi]

Originally Posted by pwschuh

Then there's always this article:

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

About motorcycles specifically but the guy believes it to be true for all IC engines.

or yea, theres that.

[740TurboPerformance]

1. I agree, no synthetics on first breakin', I mean break-in. Castrol GTX is probably the best non synthetic oil you can run, seriously, it rivaled or outperformed some synthetics in some certain tests. Volvo also exclusively uses Castrol and I'd definately recommend using it as a good non synthetic.

2. Volvo recommended, change the oil after 1200 miles with B21's, B230's and B280's. Actually Volvo would void a warranty if you did not head in to the dealer and have your oil changed within 1200 miles, not sure if this still is this but I assume so.


3. I'd say let it idle for about 15 minutes on first startup, inspect everything. Then give it gas at 2000RPM for about a minute, reinspect and listen for any strange noises that may be the engine. Like also said, don't hammer it but don't completely baby it, try not to stay on the boost and keep it out of boost when possible but I don't think it's necessary to avoid it like the plague. High RPM shifts shoud be avoided, I wouldn't take it any higher than 4,500RPM, 3,500 for about 300 miles at first! Also, be brisk with you throttle applications. If the rebuild was done right and it the engine was driven conservatively for 1,200 miles with that first oil change you shouldn't have any problems.

Originally Posted by pwschuh

Then there's always this article:

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

About motorcycles specifically but the guy believes it to be true for all IC engines.

and of course the guy offers to pay for your motor if it blows up or starts smokin'.....right?

oh wait! you get to go back to the dealer for that. So sorry; I forgot that. He has no financial liability for his moronic rantings. how convenient for him.

Thomas Fritz
...the stealth FTi

[mikep]

I just follow the cam and ring manufacturers recommendations.

[hockey930]

I take it easy on them. Don't build to much boost, vary the rpm's all the time for a first few hundred miles. I did an oil change at like 300 miles and 1000 miles. Don't be afraid to get the rpms up there a little bit. But as stated in other posts you are trying to break it in, so be reasonable. Getting the rpm's up there doesn't mean set it to 14psi and hit the rev limiter.
Eamonn

[the poi]

Originally Posted by stealthfti

and of course the guy offers to pay for your motor if it blows up or starts smokin'.....right?

oh wait! you get to go back to the dealer for that. So sorry; I forgot that. He has no financial liability for his moronic rantings. how convenient for him.

Thomas Fritz
...the stealth FTi

stealth, how aould you break in a motor? From the little I pulled form your pbase site, you use a heavy oil for a certain period, then switch over (standard practice it seems), mind sharing specifics? Also, this "no-synth-for-break-in!" thing has always irked me, as it would seem the anti-shear strength of a good syntetic would be a universally great thign to have, they won't coke up......the only thing i've heard that was mildly tecyhnical was that they were "too thin", but they are designed for a specific rating, how can too oils that are rated identically perform, on a basic level, differntly?

Chris,

I run-in an engine on dino oil, usually half 10W-40/half 20W-50....depending. After the motor is fully run in [my run-in time plus about 2000 miles or so], it is converted to full synthetic Mobil1 15W-50. Using dino oil for the run-in allows the rings to seat with the walls: they do need to abrade against each other the little bit more that dino oil permits versus full synthetic to get that metal to metal fit and seal. Yes, I am aware that many OEMs have full syn in the crankcase from the git-go; but they also built the motor with that in mind.

I described my run-in procedure in the 'rebuilt engine break-in' topic that Turborg started several months ago.

My procedure works for me; and in the motors I build. Turborg followed the basics of my procedure with his B23FT; he posted his results/impressions in a separate topic.

HTH

Thomas Fritz
...the stealth FTi

[mikep]

Originally Posted by stealthfti

Yes, I am aware that many OEMs have full syn in the crankcase from the git-go; but they also built the motor with that in mind.

They use more steps with different hones and also use (sometimes) different rings from what a machine shop is able to hook you up with.

I agree that synthetic might do OK, but I use the cheap Mobil "drive clean" 10-30 for the first fire-up and 100 miles, and dump it hot. I use 10-30 Mobil 1 after that.
I also use a filter with no internal bypass for the first firing of the engine.

[740Weapon]

so ive been heatedly researching engine break in for about two days now to either confirm or correct my own beliefs and i can find NOTHING CONSISTANT. allow me to elaborate.

some people recomend 20-50 and some people recomend 5-30 and some people recomend cheap straight weight oils. the only differance being the performance-orientedness or the person writing the article. everyone recomends against synthetic. it seems like OEMs recomend thinner oils while people building race engines recomend heavyer weights. im going to draw a conclusion i drew along time ago and stated in a different thread that you BUILD an engine with an oil weight and use in mind and adjust tolerances accordingly. if you haven't done this then you would do best to follow the OEMs recomended oil weights.

i also read up on recomended break in procedures and they are equally inconsistant. OEMs recomend a much gentler break in than performance oriented engines. thus drawing the conclusion that an engine is BUILT with a certain break in and purpouse in mind. the more abusive recomended break ins come from the same people recomending 20-50 as break in oil.
the more abusive break ins are also coming from people who want to be driving their engine on the track or under high stress conditions as soon as possible. following their procedures will accomplish this. but these engines were not build for longevity (200k miles) they were build for a much shorter life span of very severe conditions. follow OEM procedures for anything close to a daily driver using OEM internals at OEM tolerance. or build a purpous specific engine and follow purpouse specific break in procedures.

production volume should also be noted when taking into account credibility. something like volvo or GM are producing millions of engines. they have determined that their procedures produce the best results. a much smaller engine manufacturer producing custom engines does not have the research time and money available to determine if their break in procedures are infact "the best" or if they just work.

best of luck to everyone on their engines. ammend what i said at will.

[740Weapon]

from a GM website:

Do not use synthetic oils during cam gear to distributor (or entire engine) gear break-in. You should flush the synthetic oil from your engine if you have been using it then replace it with 30 or multi-viscosity weight oil (i.e. 30W or 10W-30). This grade of oil will provide the best break-in environment over other heavier or lighter engine oils. If you do not feel comfortable with this grade of oil due to weather conditions during the break-in period and you must use a heavier oil, then you may consider extending the break-in time to up to 2 oil change cycles but still checking the gear at the end of the first oil change cycle. Unless the oil is a real heavy grade, you probably won't need to worry about extending the break-in period. Use of synthetic oil during break-in should not even be considered as well as engine additives that claim to reduce friction in your engine.

i think that speaks the truth more than anything that can be cut and pasted.

[the poi]

Originally Posted by stealthfti

Chris,

I run-in an engine on dino oil, usually half 10W-40/half 20W-50....depending. After the motor is fully run in [my run-in time plus about 2000 miles or so], it is converted to full synthetic Mobil1 15W-50. Using dino oil for the run-in allows the rings to seat with the walls: they do need to abrade against each other the little bit more that dino oil permits versus full synthetic to get that metal to metal fit and seal. Yes, I am aware that many OEMs have full syn in the crankcase from the git-go; but they also built the motor with that in mind.

I described my run-in procedure in the 'rebuilt engine break-in' topic that Turborg started several months ago.

My procedure works for me; and in the motors I build. Turborg followed the basics of my procedure with his B23FT; he posted his results/impressions in a separate topic.

HTH

Thomas Fritz
...the stealth FTi

I'll look into the thread, and thanks for finally making the dino/synth thing make sense!