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Old 06-23-2008, 03:34 PM   #6
silver arrow
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Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: St. Marys, GA
Posts: 178
If this is a warrantied engine, break it in as stated in your manual. If it's on your dime and has no warranty there is a lot of debate in the high performance engine world as to how you should properly break in an engine.

One camp says to rev the piss out of it under load within the first 50 miles to get the rings to seal properly and claim less oil consumption, better sealing of the rings and less wear.

Others stick to the old don't methods of low RPM's, vary RPM's, no lugging for 2000 miles before opening it up. This method is still recommended for forged pistons, as they have a high rate of thermal expansion and you will score the cylinder walls with a hard break in.

Modern engines with tight tolerances, small ring gaps and cast pistons break in very fast and it is even thought that no matter which way you break them in, it is broken in within the first 100 miles.

I just came from a moderately modified Subaru STI. They are know to drink oil. Against the manufactures recommendations I did a hard break in. I experienced almost no oil loss at all, compared with a quart per 1000 miles in most of the 2.5l turbo Subaru engines I know of. All of the STI and LGT guys I autocrossed and did track days with were using oil on track to the tune of a quart for 3 20 minute sessions. I used non.

A Subaru short block was $1500 from the dealer. A Porsche engine is $$$$$$$$. If I killed the Subaru, it was no big deal. You might want to think twice with the Porsche.


Last edited by silver arrow; 06-23-2008 at 03:42 PM.
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