Breaking In Question

[Policy Limits]

Went for a nice highway drive yesterday. This was a first forme in the beast as I kept her on local non-freeway roads with max speed of 5-mph for the first couple of weekends with the car. This time I did a decent run with a Lotus Evora; we went about 20 miles North (all highway) and then stopped to let the cars cool down and take a break. I noticed how like my local road driving the car would do 60mph or higher in 3rd gear pushing only 2500 RPM's. My thought was how I'd never get the car into 4th gear or higher unless I went on a track.

On the 20 mile road trip back, the car felt different. Towards the end of the run the vehicle now had higher RPM's in 3rd which allowed me to shift into 4th. Then, sure enough, the RPM's raised up to 3500-4000 to allow me to shift into 5th. This is as high as I took it. The speed was much lower as these RPM's rasied allowing me to up shift. I experienced this happening as I started to surpass 200 miles on the odometer. Question: is this the car breaking herself in? Has anyone else experienced this? First time breaking in a Viper so never experienced this before. The first 200 miles of operation were way different than when I surpassed that amount and had the ability to upshift to higher gear with higher RPM with lower speed. It was a nice change in the car but wondering if its normal?

It was about 90 degrees yesterday, the sun was shining and the Adrenaline Paint looked great in it!

 

[Nine Ball]

The engine is already broken in. They run the engines on an engine dyno, before they get installed into a car. The only thing you are breaking in are the clutch disks and the brake pads.

I can put my Gen 5 into 6th gear as low as 50 mph and it drives nicely. On the previous gens, I'd need 80 mph for 6th, or it would bog/surge.

When out cruising, just keep the rpm as low as possible, with the car not bogging down or surging.

 

[ViperSmith]

Overthinking it

I think the biggest thing is not driving it like you stole it the first 500 miles. Once you hit that, you can drive it as you feel.

 

[Policy Limits]

yeah been taking it easy and there was a section in the owner's manual on breaking in the vehicle believe it or not that was a little helpful. If the vehicle is already broken in, why would they tell you how to drive/break in in the owner's manual for the first 500 miles? Maybe overthinking it.

 

[Nine Ball]

Like I mentioned, the clutch disks and brake pads have to break in properly, mainly just heat cycles and wearing in to the machined brake rotors and clutch flywheel and plates. That 500 miles is also very conservative, probably more like 150 miles if you get stuck in a lot of stop-go traffic.

 

[Policy Limits]

makes sense. felt a change around 200 miles.

 

[VIPER GTSR 91]

Nothing written in the manual or disc for the Gen V on break in? The Gen 4 is specific in the owners manual.

 

[SRTviper]

You should also vary your RPM in all gears. Take the car to the higher RPMs in all gears (well you probably won't in 5th or 6th) but do it in 1-3. Don't floor it up there but gradually let it go up this gets all the moving parts broken in rather than just keeping at say 3k and below. But yea they want you to break in the transmission,clutch, gears, brakes, etc.

 

[Policy Limits]

Where's Yours?

 

[Policy Limits]

Some shots from the day

 

[VENOM V]

Super car ****, lol. A rolling work of art it is

 

[PeerBlock]

I always try to get the engine up to the redline under load at least a few times each time I drive it, and then drive it more conservatively for a bit and repeat this process. To get good "break in" you really just need to put the car through its entire operating temperature range as best you can on public roads.

I haven't seen any official document that stated the engine is "broken in on a dyno" from the factory...it very well could have been, but you won't hurt it by going through the full power followed by some varied "gentle" driving to heat it then let it cool. Same for brakes and clutch.

Nice car; that red really comes to life in the sun like that.

 

[Steve M]

I haven't seen any official document that stated the engine is "broken in on a dyno" from the factory...it very well could have been, but you won't hurt it by going through the full power followed by some varied "gentle" driving to heat it then let it cool.

And you probably won't, but the rings will seat within the first few minutes of operation the first time it is started, and since that just so happens to be on an engine dyno before it even leaves the factory, the engine is pretty much broken in by the time the end user gets their grubby paws on it. The engine will continue to loosen up a bit over the first 10k or so miles, but you don't have to worry about stuff like running specific break in oil, etc. like you would on an engine that has never been started.

 

[Policy Limits]

Thnx for compliments; the last pic was truly impressive as my friend in the Lotus had to utilize only one hand on the camera while traveling at interstate speed!

Good info on the break in. I've seen vids from CAAP about the Dyno; its really cool stuff actually. The manual seems to suggest that changing the oil is an absolute must every six months which seems excessive but I think I'll follow it. Also, for the first change I hear its good to do it ay 500-750 miles. Thoughts? My car is a Sunday toy so I'll only put 1000-2000 miles on her annually anyway.

Lets see if I can find more pics from Sunday...err, I mean supercar ****!

 

[Steve M]

If you really want to know how often you need to change your oil, you can always send a sample off to be analyzed (I've used Blackstone in the past) - they can tell you how much of the additive package remains, and what's floating around in the oil. Every 6 months sounds a bit excessive, but you will never do any harm changing the oil too often...you'll just spend more money.

If it was mine, I'd change it at 500 miles and then every year or 5,000 miles after that point. If I did a track event, I'd change it directly after said event.

 

[Policy Limits]

Here this will work:

 

[ViperSmith]

From what I recall from Twitter, Ralph did his around 1500 for the first change.

 

[Jack B]

I always cut (special tool) the filter apart when I change oil and I change it quite often due to racing the car. With the G5 I changed it at approx 1000 miles. When I cut the the filter apart I found zero steel particle matter in the filter. I did find a tiny amount of either aluminum or babbit material, it was virtually microscopic. I had expected to find far more particle matter. Whatever they did in building the G5 engine they did it right.

 

[PeerBlock]

If you really want to know how often you need to change your oil, you can always send a sample off to be analyzed (I've used Blackstone in the past) - they can tell you how much of the additive package remains, and what's floating around in the oil. Every 6 months sounds a bit excessive, but you will never do any harm changing the oil too often...you'll just spend more money.

If it was mine, I'd change it at 500 miles and then every year or 5,000 miles after that point. If I did a track event, I'd change it directly after said event.

I agree that every 6 months is a bit much especially if you live in a part of the country where it snows for half of the year. I've been using Mobil Extended Performance in the appropriate weight on all of my other cars and it has been fine. It's "guaranteed" to last 15K miles / 12 months so I do oil changes annually unless I've been putting the car in high-stress situation like racing or off-roading. I also have had good luck with pureone oil filters. They catch virtually all of the crap that gets into the oil, have a good anti-drainback valve and a strong case that can handle higher than average oil pressures.