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Slow&Easy or Pedal to the Metal

4K views 12 replies 9 participants last post by  TK Doom 
#1 ·
Just wondering if those who have already received their Sport took it slow and easy on the 1 couple of hundred miles or went straight pedal to metal from day 1??
 
#2 ·
Pedal to the metal. Piston rings need high pressure to properly wear in, its one of the very few parts of an engine that require a break in. Modern machining is so precise now that an engine really doesnt have a break in period like it used. The only parts that break in now are parts that cant be machine to an exact fit, which is very few.
 
#3 ·
I did moderate driving with a few hard accels but mainly varying speeds and loads,not much idling etc... But now with over a 1000 miles and full synthetic in the crankcase I beat on it pretty good and drive in sport mode every time I get in the car. It's really opening up and I am learning where the power band is and taking advantage of the low end torque. 92 octane is the best I can find and have run that every fill up. What I love most is the sleeper effect. I have pulled hard from stop lights and watch people take a second look at the badges to find out what the **** they just saw. hehe
 
#13 ·
#4 ·
This is a recurring discussion and one of the "religious" issues (along with how often to change your oil) that get surprisingly little scientific input. The only long term tests for the oil change thing were a few done by Mobil in the 90s and a university that ran a new Corvette on the same synthetic "first oil change" oil for 95,000 miles. IIRC, the oil just got better and better at lubricating until the last 5-10k miles! Same thing for break in, most racers say "beat on it" but most car companies still recommend babying it for the first few thousand...
 
#6 ·
I would really like to see this study. That doesnt sound right to me though. The biggest problem with going over 5-10K on an oil change is not the loss of lubrication, but the gaining of contaminants in the oil. Gas, carbon, heavy metals, all that by products of combustion seep there way into the oil. Gasoline for example turn oil acidic, this will eat away at other parts of the internal engine when left exposed for a long time. I am willing to bet the 95,000 mile Corvette was done inside on a dyno over the course of a week or two, not the normal 10 years it would take an average person to put that many miles on the car. Leaving corrosive oil sitting in your engine for 10 years is going to destroy a lot of ****.

I also have a theory on the easy break in period from manufacturers and I think its more so to cover their own ass and stupid people. So lets say you are a 45 year old man, mid life crisis and you decide you always wanted that brand spanking new corvette. No real experience with fast cars or hard driving, but **** it youve waited long enough. You read the manual and it tells you to do a hard break in for best performance. You get in your new corvette, find a nice stretch or road and punch it. OOOPS! You dont know how to drive this car and you arent familiar with its handling or performance and you just roasted the rear tires shifting into 2nd gear at 60MPH spinning you out into a ditch and possibly killing yourself or someone else. Now whos fault is to blame for that? Sure most of the fault rest on the driver, however the manufacturer still told the guy he had to do it for best performance. Instead they tell people to go easy on the break ins, so that new inexperienced drivers arent killing themselves at the advice of the manufacturer. They take it slow, work their way up in power and performance so they are better at driving the 700HP car before they unleash all those extra HP.

Along with that theory is my liability theory. So lets say the dealership is putting the cars final touches on it and the tech screws up. Only puts in half the oil, doesnt tighten a lug nut all the way, forgets to properly seal a drain plug/cap. You take your new car out, punch it and something goes wrong because of that. A wheel falls off, engine blows from all the oil shooting out the drain plug, overheats and seizes up. By telling customers to drive slow, they are less likely to damage the car if such a situation happened and less likely to get into an accident at the same time.

So they tell people to do an easy break in period. The car probably gets a few less HP, nothing the average joe would notice anyways and maybe the engine only last to 200K instead of 300K. No one who owns the car would ever suspect or know better. The science behind a hard break in has been proven, its proven every day on the race tracks by the people who build and race engines for the highest performance. So far Ive never seen a single piece of evidence to support an easy break in besides the manufacturer telling you to do so.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Sometimes I wonder if the car companies say "baby it" because the components will last longer and they may see fewer warranty issues. Would this car have less issues over a long time? Say at 150k miles.
Whereas cars that are “beat on” perform better but might have more issues down the road.
Mine will be a 3 year lease so……. :)
 
#7 ·
This tests Mobil 1 out to 18k miles with not particular loss of effectiveness (they stopped based on concerns about what might happen between measurements not a problem with the oil itself):

Mobil 1 Test Results

I can't find the original study I was referring to. It was, however, performed on an "in service" chevy corvette on the road in the real world. I think they drove it quite a bit so that they were able to get the 90k miles in a year. The bottom line is, though, that there's no real evidence that any specific oil change interval is "right". Testing the lubricating ability of the oil would be best, but failing that following the manufacturers little reminder in the trip computer (about 10,000 miles for our Dodge Caravan and the BMW I used to own).
 
#8 ·
well, you have to first look at what the platform is? meaning is it turboed? yes next, is it direct injected yep, next, what I am getting at is, it is relevant of the type of engine you have and what effects direct injected engines have with oil being diluted over time from fuel mixing with it and also the turbo plays a part in this with the bearings being cooled and lubricated with engine oil, trust me I have built way to many engines in my time and done extreme testing for failure and pushing them beyond their engineering, but learned a great deal on the internal components. My theory and research being direct injected engines that are boosted , need to have the oil changed more often then a naturally aspirated fuel injected type. Also the oil you use can play a major factor in the longevity of the engine, don't use cheap oil in your turbo direct injected engine, unless you just don't like your car! In my ST and now my Fusion I plan on continuing to run Motul 5w40, now that might be an overkill for most but I do track my ST and push it quite hard. The main reason that I went into this long about was mostly because most people just rely on what the dealers tell them, I have to be honest, most of them being the Dealers besides the tech's themselves, are clueless when it comes to the mechanical internal parts of a high performance engine and what to do and not to do. Here is a quick break down of what I have found with these types of engines, on the initial break in, I always change my first oil at or before 3k just to look over the oil and see how much metal deposits are in it, metal deposits are normal to a point in a new engine, some people even have a oil diagnosis to track the wear moving forward, "mostly racing engines" and do a comparison, this is not necessary unless there is substantial metal in the oil. It is mainly important on the first oil change, you can then go to 5-7k on a good fully synthetic oil there after. Most synthetic oils can go 10k as per oil manufactures recommend, but on a turbo, directed engine I don't go much over 5-7k on a oil change, for more information on oil analysis here is a good reading link on this : https://bobistheoilguy.com/ Happy motoring
 
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#11 ·
I'm showing my age but, in the period from '59-64 many super stock cars were broken in by driving around for about 200 miles (fast, slow alternating) and then raced. Having been around many of them, few had problems from break in issues. Even "blue printed" engines were driven some to break them--probably less than 100 miles before racing. cockerdogs
 
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