Engine break-in

[Marv S]

WIDE OPEN THROTTLE. Pedal to the metal..... <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by DCR GTS:
Excuse my ignorance but what is WOT?

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[Supercharged Vipermad]

I guess im an ignorant kid. I laid a 15 foot patch out of the dealer after I picked mine up. The car had only 10 miles. Ive seen how the guys at the factory pull them out of the line and into the lot . . . I think they are already broken in or maybe just BROKEN

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[Steve 00RT/10]

I kind of followed the 200mile/200/200/200/200 RPM thing. The book says the first 500 miles is all you need. I have broken in many vehicles and have never gone to a 1000 miles on break in. Typically 500. We did a factory pick up on ours and I asked our car's 'team leader' and the guy who gave us our 'personal' tour about break in. They both told us not to worry about it after 500 miles of varying the RPMs. I was told these engines are all run on a dyno to verify HP before they are sent to CAAP. I witnessed a car being run on rollers at over 100 MPH for a diagnostic check. This is done with all of them when the engine is put into the chassis. They run it through the gears hooked to a computer which tests the entire system at various speeds and RPMs. I think I briefly went to 5K or so in third gear around the 500 mile mark. I did wait till around 950 miles before putting the hammer down.

Steve

 

[slaughterj]

That's something I was wondering about, that since they run up all the engines at the factory doing dyno tests, how that affects the break-in (both in the sense of not being good and in the sense of what significance the break-in period has). Regardless, when I was test-driving a new '01 the other day, I didn't take the RPMs beyond 2500 or speeds over 55, I figured that if someone is going to buy it, it shouldn't be harmed by me!

 

[Henry Cone]

From my visit to CAAP I thought that I could share some thoughts on engine running prior to delivery. The engine is not "dyno'ed" at the Mound Road Engine Plant - it is hot tested (if I remember correctly) but it is not actually run like it would be on an enginer dyno. I believe that it is turned over with an electric motor...

The car is run without body panels on a roller set up in the middle of the assembly line at CAAP. It is run up through the gears (including 6th) enough to get it hot (the cats are red hot) but it is not run a full load as it would be on a chassis dyno and not very many miles are put on it...

No measurements of engine or rear wheel HP are made in either of these processes. So the factory doesn't know the HP of a particular car...

Arrow DOES dyno the engines that they rebuild. I believe that they actually do at least a couple of pulls on them so they might get some break in on their dyno. This might be seen as one advantage of an Arrow rebuild....

So the Viper engine has not been broken in for the customer. So minding a conservative break in is the best way to ensure a strong, long life engine. Given assembly tolerances there are exceptions to this but if you want to increase your odds of a good engine break it in carefully....

Just my $0.02...

 

[treynor]

One data point -- I followed the 200/.../200 rule for the full 1000 miles on my car, incuding the oil change at 200 miles. It runs like a top, made 408 RWHP at 1050 miles on the dyno dead stock, and uses zero oil. YMMV.

 

[bad viper]

I guess I admire those of you who can
follow the proper breakin procedure?
I lasted for 100 miles.......then FORGET ABOUT IT!!!!!
Maybe I've been lucky, but 72,000 hard driven
miles later no ill effects yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[gozer]

Even though it's killing me, I'm following the break-in procedures. 432 miles, but who's counting.

Can someone tell me the purpose of staying below 70MPH (besides avoiding tickets)?

Thanks,

Gozer