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after an engine overhaul

aknight_sa

aknight_sa

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hi guys,

i just finished an engine overhaul, my question is... how long do i have to give it before i can go offroad again???
 
i wouldn't untill it was fully "broken in"

when i put the brand new crate motor in my k5, i waited for at least a 1000 miles before i went romping on it, and taking it off road.
 
I babied my 327 when I built it, until about 1000 miles. Then someone told me that you should break it in the way you are gonna drive it. Does anyone else agree with that?
 
With the Porsche's I grew up wrenching on and paying to have wrenched on I've heard different opinions... Some people say to 'break-in' the motor by driving low-speeds and not being too aggressive for a thousand to two-thousand miles. Other resources have told me to just drive the stink out of it and that break-ins don't matter. When we rebuilt the 912E motor for the third time (2 ruined camshafts from webcams) we tracked it the next day and it still runs perfectly fine now....so I still have no clue... :confused:
 
what do you mean by "breaking it in" ???

some people here told me to drive it for a 1000km then i can go offroad..

the mechanic who did the engine said the same plus he asked me to bring it back so he can balance the volves..

another guy said he overhauled his engine twice (once every 230,000 miles) and he didnt do what was told.. he drove it the same day on a freeway on a speed of 120miles/hour..
 
People believe different things , myself included . I personally believe you just drive it normally without romping on it for 500 miles . Then change the oil and drive it normally from then on out .
 
By "break-in" I mean driving it for ~1000-2000 miles without driving aggressively or taking it to too high a speed.
 
i cant wait for 1000 miles!!!

what about during this period... will the engine drive smoothly??

i am asking alot of dumb questions here.. as i am not use to overhauling engines.. i had two new cars before my Jimmy
 
If you ever watch any of those shows on the tube where they build an engine and then "dyno" it, the only run the engine about 20-30 minutes at varying speeds until the cam & lifters break in. Then they do the pulls, and they really romp on it to get the max out of it. I would say based on that that that you need to drive it sanely, but not baby it, for about 1/2 hour and then you should be fine.
When I did the 350 that was in my K20, I ran it long enough to set the timing, and then I did some hard city driving with it for about 40 min. Everything went fine.
 
the first engine i built in any of my drivers, i didnt even break in the cam properly. i let it idle for 20 minutes in the garage, changed the oil and filter, and proceded to give it hell from the get go. looking back it was probably stupid, but i know for a fact that at 50K, when i tore it down to regasket it, the cam and lifters all looked great, as did the bearings. last i knew it had another 20K on top of it without a hiccup. my next one will definitely be broken in by the book. generally they say break the cam in, change the oil and filter, drive 500 mi, change oil and filter again. then 1500 change O&F, then start with 3mo/3000mi changes.
 
I always break the cam in properly. After that I drive it the way you normally would drive with one exeption. I keep the RPM's below 4500 for the first 500-1000 miles depending on how tight you set the tolerances when it was built.
 
Right after you finish building the engine, start it up, and run it between 2 and 3 thousand RPM for at least 25 - 30 minutes. Vary the RPMs a bit throughout that time. If you can, do it with full exhaust on. Then, if you hear something starting to knock, or tick badly, you can kill the engine and investigate. Its fine to stop the engine, and start it back up again, but absolutely do not let it idle until after the break in.
 
when i went through hell and rebuilt my s10 2.8l i was easy on it for the first 500miles. then change oil.
 
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