How many miles should I put on my newly rebuilt 3.0 before I change the oil? 500? 1000?
I'm also thinking about running synthetic after break-in. Yes/No?

 

I break in my new engines for 20-30 minutes and change the oil and filter.
Then I run them 500 and change it again. I would not run syn for 2500 miles.
I break in with, and run Shell Rotella 15-40. I think it is the best conventional oil available.

 

+1
only thing I've done differently is start the engine and let it warm up to normal temp then shut it off and let it cool a few times after the build / before the 1st change.

 

When I break in a new engine I run it at 1500-1800 rpm for 20 min. It is not advisable to idle during break in.

 

Also if you have one put a fan on it to help keep it cool while it is at 15-1800 rpm and cycle it a few times for about 15-20 min each time.

 

the break in period should be conducted as you would normally drive. I will be changing the oil 20-30 minutes after the initial start up(1500-2000rpms) and then I will drive it like I drive everyday. It breaks the engine in to run like you drive, not like a grandma.

 

And yea if your plan to run syn run 15-40 for the first 500 miles drain it do the 15-40 again for 1000 miles then 15-40 1500 more then run your syn at 2500-3000, YOU CAN NEVER CHANGE THE OIL TO MANY TIMES

 

guess I should've stated myself a little clearer.
I warm it up at a high idle- ~1500 rpms, revving the engine up occasionally
oops.

 

Wooo! I didn't do this 15-20 min warm up and then drain after my rebuild. Nobody I talked to said anything about that. Plus, I was told not to run synth on a break in as the rings wouldn't seat very well....synth being too slick and all. And, what's with the heavy weight oil?

What I did...
Put in 5w-30 dino
Ran for 500 miles
Drain and added 10w-30 w/ new filters (I have two)
Still on the next 1000 miles....
And, driving like I normally did seeing probably 50-60% highway driving.....never exceeding 65mph or 3500rpms. (Don't go that high most of the time. Sometimes I just HAVE to.)
I will be running periodic compression tests to monitor ring/compression status.

Given what I've just stated, is there going to be a problem?

Sorry for the piggy back. This just got my attention, you understand.

 

My first start I warmed it up to operating temp at 1500 to 2000 RPM, no hard revs but never letting it idle. The reason is that at idle the combustion pressure is low and it's easy to glaze the rings if they are not being pushed against the cylinder walls hard enough.

Once up to operating temp, I did about 15 or 20 minutes of higher RPM revs up to about 4500 RPM in the garage, using a fan and watching the coolant level. I used pure distilled water and plain old Castrol GTX 10W30. Drained both and pulled the oil filter after that initial break-in, refilled with 50/50 Toyota Red/distilled water and Castrol GTX. Did several accelerations and decelerations and drove basically normally, oil & filter changes at 200, 1000 and 3000 miles, all with GTX. The only real special thing I did in the first 1000 miles is never hold a steady RPM, always either speeding up or slowing down.

I cut open the filters each time and the first two had quite a bit of fine metal in them, definitely some seating going on in the first 500 miles. Has been very little gunk the filters since, so I suspect the first 500 miles is really when the break-in happens and after that it's pretty much reduced. I know the first 15 minutes is very important, that's when the cam and rockers develop their surface hardness and the internals do their major cutting.

I think olharleyman has it about right, can't really over change the oil in the first couple of hundred miles, mostly because you're flushing all that debris out. BTW, I was also surprised at how much crud came out with that initial break-in water (coolant), so that is important to flush, too, if only to protect the water pump.

 

you guys are nuckinf futs man are you trying to kill your motos at such a young age i started mine and 2 minutes later shut it off checked for leaks then i stasrted it and beat the living piss out of it full th pulls runs up to 75mph and all the way up to 5000rpms shifting hard and gasing very hard

the way rings work is this the compression the motor makes causes the rings to push out cause the compression goes behind the rings and pushes them out to the clinder and thus the more compression you make the more it pushes out and the first 20 minutes a motor is running is how its going to be for its life rings have a coating on them for brake in and they wear out fast in order to get the rings to score and seat on the cylinder is to get them right in the first 20 minutes so build it beat it for about 20 miles the drain and change the filter and go again a lil easyier for about 500 miles and do it again oil and filter


now as for the oil thats easy i used the cheap oil from autozone 5w30 and then after my 3rd oil change i cleaned the block and used amsoil and guess what with only 4-5000 miles on the motor i drove her to cali and back! almost non stop and only used a quart of oil now i use no oil nothing and i got big time compression and power to boot!!!!!









im not saying go kill your motor if you do this its up to you im just saying what is the truth and works for me witch means NO rev limit hitting for a wile!!

8ooo on the clock and i just now hit the rev limit hope it helps ou out buddy plus theres a web site about how to brake in a motor i dont have it anymore as ive done it but im sure somebody has it out there man

 

I see what you're saying, Allan.

Well, hopefully my break in will be fine. Like I said, I drove as I normally did before the rebuild. But, what I didn't mention.....and, now I'm thinking this may be in my favor...is that I put the motor together, put my oil in, and drove it home. However, the next time I drove it included my usual drive out from my ten acres (a steep hill), 20+ miles up a highway, then hauled several hundred pounds of dog and cat food. Some several hundred miles later, I had to haul several round bales of hay on a small trailer.....this was several trips up and down a highway for atleast 20 min's either way.

Sorry to bog the point down with details, but I suppose I'm trying to say I did work the motor creating lots of compression.....just never hit very high rpm's. I don't know if this makes a difference and maybe I'm wasting my typing breath, but I seem to have really good power right now. Plus, I'm not seeing any oil in my PCV lines. So, I would guess from what I understand, that my rings have seated rather well. Wouldn't you?

I'll have to just run a compression test, I suppose, and see some numbers. Might even cut my old filter in half and have a look.

Oh, I might also mention I have the regular spin on filter, but the second one I have is a finer micron that would certainly filter smaller stuff than the spin on. I'm guessing this is also in my favor?

 

yeah and the high speeds were for the slow down brake in you have to do it with it high speed then let off the gas and let it slow down its self thatgs all and yeah i guess yours is ok doing it that way lol

 

For what it is worth, what I have seen at BMW and Toyota:

At BMW, their break in is to turn on the car, put it in drive, and hit the gas. Take the tour at their plant in Munich. Every 2 minutes or so you will hear a loud tire squeal, which is another new BMW being driven like a bat out of hell from the factory into the marshalling yard.

At Toyota, they turn the cars on and drive to inspection and then drive out to the marshalling yard. The cars get driven on the truck, driven off the truck and into the dealer lot. I have not seen any tire squealing at Toyota plants. A few cars each day will take a few laps at the test track (at least at TMMK, the Camry plant at Georgetown, KY) to check various functions.

 

Georgetown?! I remember when that plant was built. My grandmother lived there.....raised my dad (and their family) there.

So, I guess what you're trying to say is either way, it's fine?

 

It seems that modern engines do not require a break in. I say that because OEMs do not do it. The best way with new cars is to run them at various speeds for the first 1000 miles or so (like city driving) and not to run extended distances at the same RPM.

I would guess that from the factory our trucks were not broken in either, which allowed the new owner to do it. So, I think a well (re)built engine should do just fine being treated the same way, especially with early and frequent oil changes as discussed earlier in the thread.

 

Also you need to ge UOA to tell you exactly whats going on.

 

Your talking about an oil analysis, correct? How much does something like that run?