A friend told me this morning that he heard the recommended break in for the 2002 Z06 is now 1,000 miles instead of the previous years 500 miles. Since I have not had ours delivered yet can anyone verify if this is true or not? Thanks.

:cheers:

 

It is still 500 miles with a 1,000 mile oil change.

 

AquaZR1,

Welcome back from BG, as a owner of a ZR1 and a Z06, what do you think of the Z06?
And how was the trip home?

Ray Barbour

 

Thanks for the welcome back. The trip was fun and a very worth while experience. The worst part about the drive was needing to excercise my legs and wrists.

Funny you should ask about the Z06 vs the ZR1 as I drove the ZR1 to work today. The ZR1 is a very special car as it makes it's power differently. It is always a blast to drive and I enjoy exploring it's limits. The Z06 is a totally different animal. It is much more sophisticated and tighter. I would love to put those brakes and suspension on the ZR1 and firm up the body some how. I drove the Z06 through the Virgin River gorge section of I15 at 80 mph. It just stuck to the road through the corners. The ZR1 would have taken the corner too, but probably would have been more on the edge of traction. Hard to say.

I currently am planning on keeping both cars forever. The last 405hp Corvette built was the 95 ZR1. It makes for a great family.

 

Book still says 500 miles, but I'm taking it a litle further trying to make sure this thing is broken in right. I am currently at 1400 miles and am still taking it easy trying to go through the RPM range nice and smoothly. This is probably not necessary, but until my car hits 2000 miles, it will not be driven like a rental. :D

 

Hey all!
I'm going to get flamed to hell for this but I'm going to post it anyway.. If you want your motor to be as strong as it can be, follow this procedure. Most tuners/engine builders will agree on this(well, maybe not, but dad and I have had luck with this for 20 years) as well:


Drive the motor easy(real easy, like the manual says) for 250 miles. Vary engine speed a lot(for instance, if you are driving the car home on the interstate, run your cruising speed from 6th to 3rd and back up, over and over). At 250 miles change the oil.

Then, start beating the absolute hell out of it. Change the oil at 500 miles and again at 1000, then start your regular intervals. If you notice, some of the quicker Z06s on this forum(Powershifter comes to mind at 12 flat) were broken in at the track. You break the motor in like you are going to drive it. If you baby it, it won't be strong. If you drive it hard, it'll run hard. It's as simple as that...

(forwarded from another post)

 

One other thing. My 98 coupe was up to 145-150 mph right after the break in period. It is a very strong car. I haven't had the Z06 up to that speed yet but I took ot on a very hard run through my personal road course yesterday. Coming up on corners at over a hundred in third down a gear around the corner and gone again. Was quite a blast. :D I'm sure the motor will be better because of it.

 

ZR WON wrote a generally good essay on engine brake In.

I do it slightly differently.

The first 250 miles one must be very easy on the engine and drive train, don't use more than 25-35% throttle and don't use more than 5000 Revs and use as much engine braking as possible (draws oil up into combustion chamber to lubricate top ring). You want to continuously change the revs. Even while cruising at a sensible speed (say 60) accelerate slowly (20% throttle) to 70 and slow (5% throttle) to 50 in a continuous manner. Don't wory about the "uninformed" gaukers--there will be plenty of time to roast them later. Change oil. Try to use as much engine braking as possible and as little brake braking.

The second 250 miles use all the Revs but don't use more than 66-75% throttle. Be especially careful to run it up to red line under light throttle and back it down without changing gears. Up and down the rev range, up and down. Change Oil. Begin to use the brakes harder, as the pads have been seasoned by the 250 mile mark. Start to lean on the suspension in turns.

The second 500 miles, run the living p*ss out of the car while continuing to use the entire rev range. After a good acceleration run, cruise at a steady speed for a dozen seconds to allow the transmission gears and differential time to cool, then hit them again, then again, each time with a dozen seconds between for cooling. Throw in a couple of good hard 100-0 stops followed by acceleration to 60 cruising for a dozen seconds of cooling time before accelerating to 100 and braking 100-0. Let air cool the brakes while moving.

The engine will continue to get stronger through 12,000 miles as all of the parts reach their final working tolerances.

 

IMO, the goal is to seat all the parts together easily without undue stress and heat that can cause damage. If too much stress and/or heat is produced too early, then things like bearings, piston skirts, cylinder wall, etc can become scored. If you score a pisiton and/or cylinder wall that cylinder will be weak becasue comperssion will be down, and it will have excessive blow-by.

Guys, remember that the 02 LS1/LS6 has the tighter clearance pistons (which are coated) to cure cold piston knock. I don't know about everyone else, but I'm going to take it easy for at least the first 500 miles. I'm not saying to drive it like a Grandma, but beating it hard with only 250+ miles seems alittle much for me.

I think it's all :bs that engines broken in harder initally run stronger -- has anyone actually did a controlled test of this? ... I doubt it :D. If you break it in easier it just may take alittle longer for the rings to seal, but eventially it will be just as strong or stronger if damage was done with a hard early break in.

Now why would GM, or any other manufacture even have a specific break-in procedure if it wasn't there for a reason?

 

For me personally, For the first 500 miles/ No hard braking, vary the RPM-keeing it under 4000. Then at 500 to 1000 miles, vary the RPM -keeping it under 4500. At 1000 miles, OIL CHANGE with magnectic drain plug, I'll take it easy for another 50 miles, check oil level. BREAK-IN COMPLETE :D

 

"...engines broken in harder initally run stronger -- has anyone actually did a controlled test of this?"

I remember a post (maybe in the C5 General Discussion section 12 months or so ago) comparing 2 C5's, via a dyno, that were broken in differently. 1 was broken in the 500-mile easy-does-it way and the other was WOT from date of receipt. As I recall, there was no significant difference in the dyno test results for the different break-in styles. I don't remeber who the forum members were that posted those results and the post is no longer in the archives...maybe they're reading this post now and can provide more details.