has anyone asked this question to maybe dave or someone else? does the c6 have to broken in?

 

You will get many, varied answers to this question!. IMHO, any engine needs time for the moving parts to seat properly together. Also, the break-in period and procedure are for the entire drive train, not just the engine. The trans and the diff gears need to be "worked in" too. The best advise seems to be to stay off the right pedal as long as you can stand it; vary your speeds; stay under 60 mph as much as possible for the period;try to have half a dozen or so fairly long heat/cooling cycles during the first 500 miles; and to seat your brake pads with a number of slowly increasing pressure stops, without any really hard application of the binders. If you do this you will increase the probability of having a smooth and "happy" ride!

 

Paging TedG.
Paging TedG, we need you for a break-in thread.

 

But then you see well known tuners dynoing at 15 or 45 mile on the car....

 

thats very true.... whats up with that?

 

Listen to me carefully, having spent the early years of my life as a motorcycle mechanic, I have literally rebuilt thousands (yes, thousands, many small one and two cyl) of engines. The engines that make it the longest and use the least oil are engines that have been broken in using the heat then cool method. Run up the engine easily, then back off, over and over. Never run the engine at one speed for at least the first 100. Don't load it hard, just run it up easily and back down fairly quickly. This tempers the rings nicely, allows the pistons to surface harden slowly, beds in the rod and main bearings properly. Then after that take it easy on the thing until the recommended mileage. Running up the RPM occasionally doesn't hurt if you don't load the engine hard. Then live long and prosper.

Here is the original thread
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...light=break+in

 

Just picked up my C6 on Saturday morning. Owners manual says "don't drive over 55 MPH for the first 500 miles"!!!

This is shear torture. Must have been written by some sadistic engineer at GM!

Aaarrghhh!

 

The break in period is something I agree with however my dealer is going to be about 200 miles from home. Interstate is the most direct route with legal limits of 70 MPH. Boy, talk about tortue beyond waiting for the car!

 

so the owners manual says "dont exceed 55 for the 1st 500miles" any other details?

 

I'd bet it wasn't written by an engineer, but a lawyer concerned that someone will "put their foot in it" before they know what the car is capable of.

They take 'em to red line on the factory dyno.... Every one of them, and at speeds considerably higher than 55.

 

there are so many myths out there about this. you have the old school that says things need to get broke in for rings to seat and other tolerances to break in. then you have the run the hell out of it so it gets broke in this way. i will venture a guess and say the guy that runs the crap out of the car before the first thousand mile is up will have more long term issues then one that is properly broke in. things like using oil because the rings never seated properly etc. me i will be very nice for 500 mile, fairly nice the next 500, change the oil and run a little harder for another 500 and then have at it

 

Seems like most old school AKA experienced guys say give it some throttle. You dont have to hammer it but they say you need to build some pressure in the engine for the rings to seat propperly and so u dont get heavy oil consumption. So while u might not want to hammer it a lot u do need to build pressure they say.

Here is a link that seems to have helped many:

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

 

Aren't all Vette owners screwed by default if they use that websites tips? (It states to not use synthetic oil and to actually change it to something else for the first two days.)

Now I have no idea who to believe. I figure I'm screwed no matter what I do to it.

 

yes you are to give it some throttle but a 115 mph pass at the drag stip is not good on a new car. giving it some throttle means do not go to the interstate and drive 500 miles with the cruise set on 55. yo need to really drive in town so you stop and go, and stop and go..... this is what seats the rings so you do not consume oil. when i say old school it is not a bad term........i would be considered old school in this case. when i get my vette next week i hae to bring it home from ohio. it will be a 4 hour drive at 65- 70 mph so the back way will take 4 years. i am sure i will not mind spending the day getting my new vette home but when i do get it home i will chage the oil and start playing a little ruffer. imo the first 500 to 1000 miles are wha is important. if you go full out during this time well lets just say that will not be me. 50,000 is a little bit more then i am willing to trow away because i could not wait 7-8 hours to get on it. just think when i bought my zx-7 how hard it was to stay out of it. least in the vette you can listen to the radio while you cruise around aimlessly

 

I completely agree. When you think about it, once the oil pump builds up pressure there is NO metal-to-metal contact in the engine. There is truth in the portions of this thread dealing with thermal cycling of parts to give them a proper "tempering" with use. But as far as an arbitrary speed limit of 55 mph is concerned, that has GOT to be a lawyer talking. I haven't done the math, but I suspect the engine would only be turning over about 1400 rpm at 55 mph. You are in considerable danger of lugging the engine down to a low enough rpm that the oil pump may not be putting out sufficient pressure to prevent metal-to-metal contact between highly-loaded parts that should be separated by a thin oil film. The above assertion about taking the brand new engines to red line is quite likely true. They know that some owners are very likely to do exactly that and if yours was put together with some flaw that would not let it survive a blast to the red line, they want to know that before the car leaves the factory. There is one school of thought that the proper way to break-in any engine for maximum performance is to run it HARD right from the get-go. This has been shown (in at least some tests) to produce better overall ring sealing and ultimately the highest horsepower. Whether the rings will have the same potential life span with this hard break-in procedure is a bit less definite. For most of us, some compromise in the middle of the super-conservative factory recommendation and the "all red line all the time" methods would probably make the best sense in terms of the most performance for the longest time.

When I drive my C6 home from the factory, I'm going to concentrate on doing a fair number of accel/decel cycles under light loads with freqeunt varying of engine speeds. As for revs, I won't hesitate to take the engine up to 3000 to 4000 rpm during the first few miles. BUT the key to the revs I use will be that I will always keep the engine spinning freely -- i.e. never lug it down with high loads and low revs. By 500 miles or so, you should be ready to expand the rev limit a bit higher. Certainly, by 1000 miles, you ought to be able to take it right to the red line as often as you feel so moved. The parts are going to be thermally conditioned by then and the aforementioned film of oil insures that there will be essentially no wear on the engine once the crank turns a few times and the oil pump builds up pressure on every start-up.

If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that Vettes are fast enough that you will rarely NEED to exceed 3000 rpm in normal driving to sprint 'way ahead of most other traffic. Those runs up to red line are us acting out our boyhood fantasies of what driving a race car would be like. Not necessary, but a lot of fun. Just like the kid dreaming in the commercial that they pulled. We all had fantasies like that and a Vette is the car to make those fantasies real.

The main thing is to get in them and drive them properly and skillfully. Don't let them sit in the garage and gather dust. Vettes are for driving!

 

Don, have you ever built or repaired engines?

 

There are a lot of different opinions on this subject. Most of them I agree with. Varying RPM’s and load is always a good idea. And a long cool down after an initial long run is always good.

The rear end gears defiantly need at least 2 heat cycles. The gears mesh tighter when they are new and will run hotter. The gears should be run between 45 and 65 MPH for an hour to hour and a half. Then the gears need a good six to eight hour cool down.

There is also a period of computer learning to also take into consideration.

These are my opinions, that does not mean others are wrong, but it is what I recommend.

 

I'm on my 4th C5. I currently have an 04 Z06 and for the most part adhered to the 500 mile break-in period. However, when I purchased my Z06 the services manager's opinion was this. He said that as long as I don't hit the redline during the first 500 miles I would be fine. I've also heard that ALL C5 engines are run at full throttle for 30 minutes before there're shipped to the dealership. What this means to me is that one doesn't have to drive in the slow lane of the freeway at 55 MPH. One just has to be prudent with regards to their speed for the first 500 miles. IMO Save the Wave.

 

[QUOTE=Daryl] I've also heard that ALL C5 engines are run at full throttle for 30 minutes before there're shipped to the dealership. [QUOTE]

Where did that come from???????

During the C5 develoment and track testing, the TEST cars were run at full throttle for one tank of fuel, this just happened to take approx. 30 minutes at the rate of fuel consumption at full throttle.
Chevy doesn't have the time to run each car for 30 minutes, it's a quick dyno scan, then out the door to the lot, and on the trucks as quickly as possible.

zo6vettepilot

 

At 55 mph in overdrive, the engine RPM isn't enought to worry about. At 70 mph, it isn't much more. I think the 55 mph thing and varying the speeds is more for the transmission and rear end than anything else.