atb

I know there are a few rennlist motor break-in threads, full of opinions, and links to other e-artlcles, and generally speaking good and insightful information, but they are all light on first hand experience.

I'm hoping to limit responses to this thread to only those folks that have first hand experienced breaking in fully rebuilt 928 motor.

Sorry, no commenting on what you've read, or heard, or how you broke in your 1974 TM100 when you were in 7th grade, or how your Uncle Benny breaks in his rebuilt Ford Flatheads with Ardun heads, we're limiting responses here to only what YOU'VE done to break in a 928 engine that YOU'VE built, had built for YOU, or what your mechanic did when he rebuilt YOUR 928 motor.

In particular, I'd like particulars about the following:

1) Oil used at start up.
2) Frequency of oil changes and type of oil used until your first fill up of your long-term use oil.
3) Upon start up, length of time running and at what rpms with the engine NOT under load.
4) Was the engine allowed to cool prior to restarting and putting the engine under load.
5) length of time runing and at what rpms with engine under load.
6) engine rpm restrictions for the first 500 miles.
7) engine rpm restirctions after the first 500 miles.

My intent on starting up my stroker (which hopefully will be happening in the next couple of months is to do the following:
1) Dyno 30w - not sure what brand
2) Change after 20 minute warm up, change again after 100 miles with same, change to synthetic at 500 miles.
3) start engine idle at 2500 rpm for 5 minutes, 3000 rpm for 5 minutes, 3500rpm for 5 minutes, 4000 for five minutes.
4) Change oil, allow engine to cool.
5) Take it out on the street and run various loads at various rpms, varying between accelaration and engine braking for about 20 minutes, bring car back and let it cool. I would do this a few times, each time increasing the engine rpm limit, starting with 4K, 4.5K, and 5K.
6) Limit rpm to 5k
7)No load restriction, take motor to redline.

Thanks everyone, hopefully we'll be able to get some good experiences shared here now that a good many of us have been down this road.

jorj7

Gee Adam, your no fun.

I just listened to Uncle Jim after my last rebuild. He had done Cousin
Dennis' car back in '08. 30w dyno oil for 500 miles, don't load the engine
and keep the rpms reasonable. Change oil to 20-50 synthetic and start
driving like normal. At least that's what I remember.

Hilton

Carl Fausset posted some advice on the topic at some point - can't remember if it was on this list? Might be worth checking his site for a document. It was pretty specific on starting, particular rpm targets, first drive and focussed on things like bedding in the rings appropriately etc.

edit: Found it - this link here

ptuomov

This produces a measurably better seal in motorcycle engines than the user manual break in procedures:

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

On a Dyno:
Warm the engine up
completely !!

Then, using 4th gear:

Do Three 1/2 Throttle dyno runs from
40% - 60% of your engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

Do Three 3/4 Throttle dyno runs from
40% - 80% of your engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

Do Three Full Throttle dyno runs from
30% - 100% of your engine's max rpm
Let it Cool Down For About 15 Minutes

Go For It !!

atb

I know George, I was going to apologize for being such a twink about controlling content, but then Tuomo makes his post and I find myself....

Thanks Hilton. Again folks, looking for first hand experiences here.

That's a FAIL tuomo.

Shane

blown 87

There really are just a few people that have broken in stroker motors.

I can only tell you what I did on my stockish rebuild.

I ran it at about 2000 rpm until it was hot and in total for about 20 minutes, changed the oil.

I ran it again until it was hot, backed it out of the shop went on a 20 mile test drive, a hard 20 mile test drive.

After letting it cool over night, drove it to SITM.

I never baby my rebuilds, ever.

I do not think the 928 needs the high rpm startup that the OHV type motors need.

All of this was on dino oil.

Mrmerlin

I started my engine it is a stock S4 and ran it at 2000 to 2500 for 20 mins let it get hot and the fans cycled a few times to let the temps stabilize then shut if off, changed the oil and filter. Valvoline 20 W 50
Only mistake was not filling the trans first, this caused the TC rear bronze bushing to fail and this required a trans /front pump replacement. Auto trans

blown 87

That pretty much sucks.

GregBBRD

Here's what I do, but this is probably only valid for my engines and what I use to assemble them. This can vary considerably depending on many factors....for instance, if you use an engine assembly lube with lots of moly in it, you are going to have the oil filter plugged almost immediately after starting the engine and you are going need to change that filter after a couple of minutes...I never shut an engine off until it has run for at least 30 minutes....so I would not do this.

Use an oil with tons of zinc/phosphorus, especially if you are using stock lifters with stock/reground cams. If you are using new/reground cams, the lifters should also be new. If you are running old cams on old lifters, the lifters need to be in their original position. If you are using used lifters on new/reground cams...well it doesn't matter what you do in this case...you deserve it to fail....because you're an idiot. Torco TR-1 20/50, works great! Throw in an extra bottle of zinc/phosporus or buy Torco's special oil for running new engines....how could you go wrong with an oil made especially to start and run a new engine? Make sure you have plenty of oil in the engine.

Make sure that you are not delivering too much fuel to the engine. The rings are what you are trying to break-in....everything else you really can't do much about....you either assembled it right, or you did not. Too much fuel will kill the rings. If you have a stroker and are going to use bigger injectors....beg/borrow/steal a set of chips that have compensations for the bigger injectors...or start and run the car initially with the stock injectors.

Do not crank the engine over to get oil pressure. You should have pre-filled the oil filter, the oil lines, the accusump (if you have one) and any coolers. Cranking it over is going to wash out any of the assembly lube. Turn the key, crank it over, and let it start as soon as the injectors get fuel pressure. If you crank it over for more than 15 seconds and nothing happens...you screwed up. Hope that the problem a lack of fuel! You don't want excess fuel in the cylinders! You don't want excess fuel in the cylinders. You don't want excess fuel in the cylinders.

Let it run at 800-1000 rpms...only until the lifters get quiet. The lifters need to start to get quiet immediately! If there are a couple lifters that are still not filled completely, ignore them. If none of the lifters get quiet, you have no oil going to the lifters (Don't laugh! I had a customer start (actually a shop did this), run, dyno, take a stroker engine to the track with NO oil flow to the entire engine! They installed the oil check valve for the accusump backwards, with all of the oil flowing through the oil lines...this engine had a remote filter. Try and imagine what that pile of scrap metal looked like!)

Immediately after the lifters start to get quiet, get it running at 2,000 to 2,500 rpms. Check for leaks, check your gauges. Make sure sure you have plenty of oil pressure. Check to see that you are circulating water. Top off the water, at this time. Let it run for 30 minutes, steady state. Make sure the thermostat opens and the fans work. Monitor things continually. Now is not time for a beer! After 30 minutes, start to give it a few throttle "blips" to change the rpm and load. It will probably smoke some, when you first do this. After a few "blips" it should not smoke.

The rings are now broken in. the bearings have now done what they are going to do, and the camshafts are done with what they need to do. If you have oil smoke coming out of the tail pipe still...you are in trouble. Get out your tools and start taking the engine back out.

Shut it off, allow it to cool. Take care of any little problems you might have. Change the oil filter. Cut open and inspect the oil filter you just ran the engine on. If it is full of crap, find out what it is and why it is there. The oil whould be fine, unless you have internal engine problems. Your filter will "tell" you that. Now you can have a beer, if things went right. Stronger fluids can be used, if things went poorly.

Start it up again and run it at 2500 until it gets warm. If you have a chassis dyno, now is the time to start putting some load on it. If you don't...now is the time to go drive it and put some load on it. You can now start tuning. If you built it right and ran it right for the first 30 minutes, you really can't hurt it, from here on out.

Change the oil and this new filter after tuning/loading/etc. No hurry...leave it in there for 100 miles or so...or 100 miles of running. Make sur eyou check this oil filter for debris, too. It should be very clean!

blown 87

Greg, so my burnout in the lot was not a good idea?

GregBBRD

Great idea! Did I miss that part? After the first 30 minutes, cool down, and restart, I run them like they are going to be driven. They get tormented on my dyno very quickly.

blown 87

I wish I had a dyno, really do.

I think the bottom line is that if you have done every thing right there will be no issues in running the heck out of it.

The 928's are not near as scary to start as a BBC is the first time, IMHO.

GregBBRD

I quit being excited or scared 30 years ago. Kind of miss that feeling, actually.

My goals, over the years, have changed. I like to start and run them without any issues...anywhere. No leaks, nothing loose, nothing to do but stand there and watch.

Dennis K

Adam -

IIRC

1) Oil used at start up.
Valvoline 10w40 MaxLife (or any other oil with a lot of detergents would have been ok)

2) Frequency of oil changes and type of oil used until your first fill up of your long-term use oil.
Above oil was used until first oil change after a few hundred miles

3) Upon start up, length of time running and at what rpms with the engine NOT under load.
It took a couple minutes but the lifters got quieter one by one until they were silent. Don't recall the total time it ran. 15 - 20 min.? Jim was in charge of all this.

4) Was the engine allowed to cool prior to restarting and putting the engine under load.
Don't recall the specifics but we shut it down, buttoned up the last few items (replaced hood, put it on the ground, etc), then went for a test drive. So I guess you could say we let it cool.

5) length of time runing and at what rpms with engine under load.
A couple test drives and then drove it home, gently.

6) engine rpm restrictions for the first 500 miles.
I didn't rev it much beyond 4k for the first couple hundred miles, but I was conservative

7) engine rpm restirctions after the first 500 miles.
WOT to redline after first oil change

Bill Ball made some great videos of the first startup. I was on the key, cranking the motor over for the first time when I heard it start to light - and I immediately shut it down. Jim & Bill were staring at me quizzically asking why I had shut it down. I had freaked out because noise had changed from the starter motor to actual ignition. Such a moron.

Bill's videos:
It's Alive
First Drive
Rebuild of Dennis's Motor (contains the "I was nervous" moment)