Warning: lots of text below...
We all know that breaking in a new build motor can really be a make or break thing. We have to take special care to make sure rings seat, oil gets distributed well, etc... In talking with @Enki about breaking in new motors the other day I figured I'd make a thread to go over how I broke in my motor and open the thread for discussion. Feel free to post relevant links and whatnot and we'll see if we can get some good info. I talked with a bunch of different tuners/builders and read a lot of MazdaSpeed and non-MazdaSpeed forums in order to get my information.
So, my procedure went as follows:
I used conventional oil for the entire 1000mi break-in period, Rotella T 15W40 actually because it was on sale at the local automotive store.
With zero miles and zero minutes of idle on my new motor, fill with oil and prime the motor without fuel to get the oil flowing. Some people even say when filling the motor, you can take the valve cover off and pour oil over the cams in order to lube them. I did not do this because they had assembly lube on them and motor oil likely would've just dripped down anyway. Then, cross your fingers and start the car for real. In this time of about 20-30 minutes, you'll want to fill the motor with coolant and every so often rev to around 1k-2k rpms. Drain oil now and take a look at your filter. You'll note metallic material in the filter/oil and this is normal.
Now it's time to drive! Refill oil and use a new filter obviously at this time and you can add in a break-in additive. I personally used Lucas Engine Break-In additive. Your first drive should last about 50mi and consist of loooooong pulls of low boost, with a lot of engine breaking afterwards. Basically, try and avoid using your brakes when stopping the car. Personally, I hit around 5psi in the first 10mi and then by the time the 50mi had passed, I'd hit a maximum of 13.5psi.
Scientific note: when you first assemble the motor, you're going to have terrible static compression. This is because your rings have not seated. The pressure differential between the compression chamber and the crankcase will be forcing the rings against the cyl walls and therefore wear both down, seating the rings against the cylinder walls. It's fun to note as you drive the car it'll actually run better and better over time as the rings seat themselves.
After 50mi, drain oil and check out the filter again. You'll definitely see more metal in there but there's no need to worry. This would be a great time to check your compression as well.
Fill with more oil and drive your car to the 500mi mark now. I didn't use any cruise control in this segment and I still paid good attention to making loooong low boost pulls, and looooong high vac engine braking. You're still going to see the compression increasing somewhat during this time period (at least I did).
Once you hit 500, drain that oil and like always take a look at your filter. With my motor, the oil looked almost new when drained and the compression was up to 190 across the board.
500 more miles after the above procedure and then it's time to put in your synthetic oil of choice and get yourself tuned.
tl;dr:
20min idle
50mi drive with boost and lots of vac
450mi more still boosting and lots of vac
500mi more, same as above
@1000mi mark is time for synthetic and killer tune
Disclaimer: this worked for me but if you assemble your motor wrong and it ZZBs it's not my fault even though you followed this thread
We all know that breaking in a new build motor can really be a make or break thing. We have to take special care to make sure rings seat, oil gets distributed well, etc... In talking with @Enki about breaking in new motors the other day I figured I'd make a thread to go over how I broke in my motor and open the thread for discussion. Feel free to post relevant links and whatnot and we'll see if we can get some good info. I talked with a bunch of different tuners/builders and read a lot of MazdaSpeed and non-MazdaSpeed forums in order to get my information.
So, my procedure went as follows:
I used conventional oil for the entire 1000mi break-in period, Rotella T 15W40 actually because it was on sale at the local automotive store.
With zero miles and zero minutes of idle on my new motor, fill with oil and prime the motor without fuel to get the oil flowing. Some people even say when filling the motor, you can take the valve cover off and pour oil over the cams in order to lube them. I did not do this because they had assembly lube on them and motor oil likely would've just dripped down anyway. Then, cross your fingers and start the car for real. In this time of about 20-30 minutes, you'll want to fill the motor with coolant and every so often rev to around 1k-2k rpms. Drain oil now and take a look at your filter. You'll note metallic material in the filter/oil and this is normal.
Now it's time to drive! Refill oil and use a new filter obviously at this time and you can add in a break-in additive. I personally used Lucas Engine Break-In additive. Your first drive should last about 50mi and consist of loooooong pulls of low boost, with a lot of engine breaking afterwards. Basically, try and avoid using your brakes when stopping the car. Personally, I hit around 5psi in the first 10mi and then by the time the 50mi had passed, I'd hit a maximum of 13.5psi.
Scientific note: when you first assemble the motor, you're going to have terrible static compression. This is because your rings have not seated. The pressure differential between the compression chamber and the crankcase will be forcing the rings against the cyl walls and therefore wear both down, seating the rings against the cylinder walls. It's fun to note as you drive the car it'll actually run better and better over time as the rings seat themselves.
After 50mi, drain oil and check out the filter again. You'll definitely see more metal in there but there's no need to worry. This would be a great time to check your compression as well.
Fill with more oil and drive your car to the 500mi mark now. I didn't use any cruise control in this segment and I still paid good attention to making loooong low boost pulls, and looooong high vac engine braking. You're still going to see the compression increasing somewhat during this time period (at least I did).
Once you hit 500, drain that oil and like always take a look at your filter. With my motor, the oil looked almost new when drained and the compression was up to 190 across the board.
500 more miles after the above procedure and then it's time to put in your synthetic oil of choice and get yourself tuned.
tl;dr:
20min idle
50mi drive with boost and lots of vac
450mi more still boosting and lots of vac
500mi more, same as above
@1000mi mark is time for synthetic and killer tune
Disclaimer: this worked for me but if you assemble your motor wrong and it ZZBs it's not my fault even though you followed this thread
