BE HONEST ... did you really keep your car always under 4k?

[Lagacy GT]

i tried. I really tried. But then this asshole in a Bimmer pulled in front of me on PCH coming out of a parking lot. I was like WTF are you thinking? So I pulled in front of him, braked to about 25 mph, then took off and hit 5-6k rpm... I had 400-500 miles at that time. oh well. He got bitched by a station wagon.

[Drakuun]

I think it's more a recommendation then a necessity. I've always heard that you should break it in by simply driving it like you want to, and that you should not be afraid to take it to or even momentarily past redline. After all, you're basically making the engine get used to performing where you need it to. I have 4EAT and it was horrid, it always wanted to shift out of 1st gear by like 2000 rpms under light and medium acceleration. I reset my ECU and used the slushbox to shift it myself, and now if I stand on the gas she goes all the way to 6k before shifting, and she shifts mush cleaner too. Dirve it like you will every day, thats how it gets used to how it's going to be driven every day. :)

[Kingfisher]

Luckily the car had around 400 miles on it when we got it from the dealer... I say luckily but it depends on how hard the test drivers were. The other 600 miles were mostly driven by my wife and she doesn't get on it at all so except for a few occasions were I drove it briefly, it stayed mostly under the 4000k limit. I'll fully admit though that I revved it up several times. BTW, an addition to the whole warming up/break in thing. Jaguar says that you don't have to worry about letting their cars warm up before driving them around because of "the way the engines are built". Exactly what in the hell that means I don't know, but that's what I was told.

[Triple Digits]

Yep... [u]You don't have to excercise and eat well either, but it's a damn good idea...[/u] It's important to get everything properly broken in and well seated. (And I only slipped once during breakin when I hung onto first a second too long.) After all - I knew I was going to be modding - why not wait untill she's [i]really[/i] ready to run before you got your foot into it? [quote name='IwannaSportSedan']The key to hard break-in is that there is method to the madness. It is all about heat-cycling. - give it plenty of time to warm up - use progressively more load on the engine (progressively higher gears at progressively lower speeds), -constantly vary piston/engine speed (not staying at 1 RPM range for extended periods of time.) - include fast piston speeds at or near redline for short amounts of time (moments, not minutes), and under fairly light load at first. -Plenty of time to cool down under light driving (allow the cooling system to bring the temp down, rather than just parking and cutting the engine. Go through that process of warm up, excercize, and cool down often, and each time with a little more RPM and a little more engine loading... And don't forget bedding in the brakes, and the car should run strong with properly bedded and heat-treated pistons, rings, bearings, etc. That leads to strong compression and little leak-down or blow-by. Consult an engine builder for more specifics...[/QUOTE]

[IwannaSportSedan]

The thing is, that getting everything bedded and set, especially the bearings and piston rings... babying them too much, and not heat cycling them often enough can be almost as bad as romping on the engine to the breaking point. If the metal parts aren't heat cycled (i believe it is an annealing process, but I could be wrong.) correctly, they can get brittle. If they aren't progressively subjected to higher pressure loading, they won't be strong enough to hold compression as well later. A really gently broken in engine could potentially have problems down the road. If you turn it on like a light switch after the "magic" 1000 mile mark, the sharp upspike in stress on the parts could cause severe wear, or cracking, neither of which are reversable, only rebuildable. Even if it doesn't break immediately after 1000 miles, (which could be a noticeable difference in "hours" from one car to the next, depending on idling, and driving habits.) Poor heat-cycling could cause the parts like bearings and rings to be brittle and weak, and shorten their service life, which won't be noticed until long afterward. It could cause leak-down which hampers compression and performance, and could even lead to the car burning oil, or blow-by contamination of crank-case oil by gasoline. Those aren't drastically noticeable problems, but would cause the car not to perform as well as one with properly seated and heat-treated parts. The magic 1k miles figure (or any "magic number" figure) is an easy-option for Subaru and other car manufacturers to tell most drivers to take it easy until then... and they then don't have to explain what I am explaining here, to people who don't care to know. Chances are people will drive it normally, and everything should be OK. On the other hand, a heavy-handed rowdy "hard" break-in might work, and might accomplish the seating and heat-cycling effects I describe, and convince people that driving it like you stole it, with no regard for method is actually good. It is also possible that it may simply break parts. As long as you drive it with some consideration, you should be fine. The worst thing you could do would be to buy a new car, and drive it 1000 miles at 2800 RPM, all at once. Sure way not to heat cycle or seal the parts correctly. The first time that car goes to 6k rpm, or has to go up a big hill or something, it is gonna destroy it's piston rings, and might even burn up some bearings. A measured and progressive procedure with lots of intervals of warming-excersize-cooling with varying load and RPMs seems to be the best way. Doing that on a engine dyno would be the ultimate way to do so, but entirely impractical on most new cars.

[BDII]

[quote name='IwannaSportSedan']The thing is, that getting everything bedded and set, especially the bearings and piston rings... babying them too much, and not heat cycling them often enough can be almost as bad as romping on the engine to the breaking point. If the metal parts aren't heat cycled (i believe it is an annealing process, but I could be wrong.) correctly, they can get brittle. If they aren't progressively subjected to higher pressure loading, they won't be strong enough to hold compression as well later. A really gently broken in engine could potentially have problems down the road. If you turn it on like a light switch after the "magic" 1000 mile mark, the sharp upspike in stress on the parts could cause severe wear, or cracking, neither of which are reversable, only rebuildable. Even if it doesn't break immediately after 1000 miles, (which could be a noticeable difference in "hours" from one car to the next, depending on idling, and driving habits.) Poor heat-cycling could cause the parts like bearings and rings to be brittle and weak, and shorten their service life, which won't be noticed until long afterward. It could cause leak-down which hampers compression and performance, and could even lead to the car burning oil, or blow-by contamination of crank-case oil by gasoline. Those aren't drastically noticeable problems, but would cause the car not to perform as well as one with properly seated and heat-treated parts. The magic 1k miles figure (or any "magic number" figure) is an easy-option for Subaru and other car manufacturers to tell most drivers to take it easy until then... and they then don't have to explain what I am explaining here, to people who don't care to know. Chances are people will drive it normally, and everything should be OK. On the other hand, a heavy-handed rowdy "hard" break-in might work, and might accomplish the seating and heat-cycling effects I describe, and convince people that driving it like you stole it, with no regard for method is actually good. It is also possible that it may simply break parts. As long as you drive it with some consideration, you should be fine. The worst thing you could do would be to buy a new car, and drive it 1000 miles at 2800 RPM, all at once. Sure way not to heat cycle or seal the parts correctly. The first time that car goes to 6k rpm, or has to go up a big hill or something, it is gonna destroy it's piston rings, and might even burn up some bearings. A measured and progressive procedure with lots of intervals of warming-excersize-cooling with varying load and RPMs seems to be the best way. Doing that on a engine dyno would be the ultimate way to do so, but entirely impractical on most new cars.[/QUOTE] +1

[dbolen]

No...and I tried....I tried to keep it under 4k really really really hard:D Anyone ever read how the "old" vw bugs were tested at the assembly plant in Mexico? Straight off the production line on to a dyno. Start them up...listen a few seconds and then floor them till the valves float while watching the dyno. Then drive them out the door for delivery....breaking in an engine is almost a religious subject on every automotive forum I have ever been on. Cheers, dave

[BDII]

[quote name='sde']sorry to beat the subject .. but i have to ask. i'm driving into work today, (i'm only at 500 miles) and a nissan sentra is attempting to play .. my ego kicked in and while i only needed to push it to 5k to stay ahead, i was thinking to myself .. there is no way in hell anyone driving this thing could hold it under 4k 100% of the time they were under 1k miles. so tell the truth all you > 1000 milers, .. did you really keep it under 100% of the time?[/QUOTE] I think, what you really have to ask yourself is... how long do I plan on keeping this car. 3 years 36k? romp on it every day. 4years 100k, be nice to it. Warranty is everything, if you dont MOD it.

[Xenonk]

psssh, you just drive the until it turns into rust... I romp on this car everyday and I already run it at autox events at 500 miles. The REAL deal is how you take care and maintain the car. And as for modding, well, this is how I see it: "If it doesnt break, don't mess with it." "If it does break, replace it with better parts" "If you are going to add something, add as a whole, and not just a part of it" Keefe

[BDII]

[quote name='Xenonk'] "If you are going to add something, add as a whole, and not just a part of it" Keefe[/QUOTE] couldnt have said it better my self