I need second opinions, because I'm cacking myself about this... engine rebuilt with forged pistons, bigger cams, etc. I'll hopefully get it back tomorrow (wehay!!!). I know there's a few of you guys on here who've had to suffer a run-in.

 

So:

.what's the best fuel to run in on (keep in mind I'll probably be poodling around for 1200-odd miles (loads of fill-ups!))

 

.what's the optimium speed/type of driving to do? I assume constant speed motorway stuff isn't ideal

 

.I'm gonna drop the rev-limit in the ECU so I can't possibly (hopefully) blow it up. What's best to set it to? 4K? What's gonna happen when the engine hits the new limit? Does it just run, or start missing?

 

.I've got 2 weeks to try to get all this mileage done! Where the bl**dy h*ll am I gonna drive to?! You know I'm gonna be out til 3am driving round Southend sea-front every night?! Sheeit.

When my girlfriend got her new car they said dont go abover 3000rpm for the first 4000 miles and then you can go above 3000rpm but dont floor it for another 1000 or so.

 

I think it was that anyway.

 

Stuart

You're kidding?! :eek: It's being mapped in 1200 miles, so I think they'll be doing more than 3000 RPM. You're talking about a diesel Fiesta or something tho, right? (a woman-mota).

No a Mini Cooper. 1.6 135bhp so its quite highly tuned.

 

 

I would say at least 1000 miles dont go above 3000rpm

 

I think people also like to do a oil change every 1000 miles a few times

 

Stuart

Yeah, I heard that about the oil. Type of oil was another question (crappier the better, apparently)... but that's down to SE rather than me. I know they know what they're doing, but it's good to make sure.

 

I dunno if my auto-box would ever change up if I set the limit to 3K. Where's the start of the mini's red-line? Maybe they're saying run in at half the limit?

Hi mate i had a similar senario in a lotus esprit turbo when i rebuilt that i too was worried so asked around many places including lotus technical and the general concencious (god knows how you spell that and it is 4am in the morning i hate night shift!!!) was to not go abouve 3000rpm for first thousand and then rase 500 revs for every 500 miles you do or for every 1k you do to be really safe. The softer you are with it the better. I ran bellow 3000 for the first 1000 miles then 500 rev increases every thousand for the next 2000 miles. Then the thermostat went and it over heated and popped the head gasket so out it came again for another strip down as head needed sorting skimming etc so had the chance to see the bores and even after that gentle run in as described you could still see the honeing marks on the cylinders. Anyway i hope all that helps in some way certainly helped me waste a few mins before i piss off home :D

Don't know about the questions you asked but you should use a lower grade oil than normal as fully synthetic is too good and it will take longer to run in. I didn;t realise this when did mine and don't think it ever ran in properly.

to run an engine in u must induce wear.. to let the engine get it Natural feel ... or so they say ... fully synth is to good and the engine will not wear itself in... the smal amount of controlled wear allows all the components to suit each other... running in to gently is as bad as to hard.

 

u r car has been mapped ... they had to redline it ! .. but that is not the prob.. it's massive resistance... hold the gears longer with less throttle rather than a higher gear and the engine labourin..

 

this means the components run with each other without major stress associated with high torque loadings

Well, OK. I get the feeling this is going to be a pretty horrible. There's me thinking I can just drop the rev limit, then not really worry. But if I'm gonna hold gears longer, with an auto-box, it sounds like I'm gonna have to keep an eye on the rev-counter the whole time.

 

3000 rpm limit seems to be the general concensus then?! Oh, man my car's gonna feel slow! Best to get it right tho, obviously.

 

I dunno what oil SE have stuck in, but I'm sure it's cack enough. I'll find out later!

I would ask Warren on running in,IMHO he knows more about this from first hand experiance!:rolleyes:

Bike rule of thumb was no more than 1/3rd max revs for first 500 miles then 2/3rds for next 500 m. Don't know if this works for cars though...

 

Also don't stick at constant revs for any length of time. EG if you went out and did 200m sticking to 50mph on a motorway, you risk putting a slight "step" in the cylinder wall which causes cr*p when you try to go to the next higher rev limit.

 

You should use the car naturally but gently - smoothness on the throttle and never floor it until after you've run in. If you gradually let yourself use more of the throttle travel as you get closer to the end of your run-in period, you should be OK.

 

(Team Green did have a novel way of running in their race engines tho' - build it, light oil, fire it up, redline it - there you go, that's another one run-in!)

 

HTH - Gio

Cheers Gio. Don't think I'll be attempting the Team Green method ;) There's some nice country roads around here that I'll be rolling around gently (much to everyone elses annoyance, probably).

 

The 1/3 max revs thing... max revs being 7K? That only gives me 2333 rpm! I can't do 500 miles like that! 3K sounds safe tho.

Most important thing is to maintain a light load on the engine. Occasional forrays up to max revs will do no harm (wouldn't do it within the first 500 miles though), but don't use full throttle and certainly not full boost. Generally increase use until you're up to normal at around 1500 miles I'd say, but that is total guess work. As Gio mentioned, staying at fixed revs as say on a motorway, is a bad thing as it tends to create 'steps' in the bores which then shorten the life of the rings as you rev it harder later and the con-rods stretch (microscopically!).

51x - yeh, 1/3rd was for bikes which rev much higher so 1/3rd gave you reasonable speeds (reasonable? hah!). It's probably too low for Zeds maybe even too low down in the torque curve?

 

AndyP's method sounds right.

 

Pootling round country roads sounds a good way of doing it - varying engine revs, different gears etc but light loads.

 

Luck, matey - Gio :D

Jesus! 1000.s of miles at snails pace in a Z!! hardluck mate.

I didnt even realise cars had to be run-in these days , silly me :p

, cant you just drive sensibly for few hundred miles or so, then back to normal? I thought running-in for 1000's miles went out with anglias and allegros and stuff.:eek:

LOL here you go, from years of experience in this field :D

 

Put nice thick cheap oil in engine.

Change oil every 600 miles for first 1500 miles,

then put better oil in.

 

oil recommendation (comming from Progress for these engines)

is 15w40 or higher ie i use 10w 60w CASTROL.

 

Light load on engine, ie no hard boost for first 1500 miles, nothing above 4k boost wise and keep speed variable as much as possible, ie dont just get on a motorway and do one speed(say 80mph) That aint good, so keep speed low and keep speed up and down, then start rasing boost after 1500 miles, for the first 1500 i ran pretty much saftey boost, then slowly turned it up, now done around 3k and havent yet run near a bar.

Just watch temps and when cold starting you should get moving straight away, because ideling when cold you get alot of piston slap ect.

(obvioulsy this is my idea of best doing it on this car, lol 3 times and you learn the hard way)

Originally posted by 300z

LOL here you go, from years of experience in this field :D

 

Put nice thick cheap oil in engine.

Change oil every 600 miles for first 1500 miles,

then put better oil in.

 

oil recommendation (comming from Progress for these engines)

is 15w40 or higher ie i use 10w 60w CASTROL.

 

Light load on engine, ie no hard boost for first 1500 miles, nothing above 4k boost wise and keep speed variable as much as possible, ie dont just get on a motorway and do one speed(say 80mph) That aint good, so keep speed low and keep speed up and down, then start rasing boost after 1500 miles, for the first 1500 i ran pretty much saftey boost, then slowly turned it up, now done around 3k and havent yet run near a bar.

Just watch temps and when cold starting you should get moving straight away, because ideling when cold you get alot of piston slap ect.

(obvioulsy this is my idea of best doing it on this car, lol 3 times and you learn the hard way)

 

Told you so;)

3 times Warren, ffs?! You poor b*stard! :( Once is gonna be bad enough. I reckon, if I can keep calm, I'll get through this once and that'll be all I'll need. What's going on there Warren? Bad rebuild, or twitchy foot?

 

The boost's set to 7 psi, but I /never/ get it on boost from cold for the first few minutes anyway - too paranoid about busting the turbos (I'm on set 3, no fault of my own).

 

What's the thoughts on letting it idle after I've been out? Do I do like normal - ie., let the turbo timer sort it out? Or should I wait less long?

 

As far as fuel goes... decent quality unleaded? It's not like I'm gonna be tearing about, so I don't really /need/ optimax, right? Seems a waste to chuck it away on slow (cool) miles.

 

I get the whole thing about keeping the load on the engine light. High(-ish) revs does not an engine break! Andy, good guesswork ;)

 

I've managed to get another week before it's back for the mapping. So I'm not so stressed about having to do hundreds of miles per day.

Just drive like normal without any 100% throttle runs until 1500 miles.

 

Engine will probably sound like a diesel from cold start but wait until oil pressure is up and take it easy until the pistons get some heat in them.

 

Don't use synthetic oil until at least 3k miles.

 

Vary the loads on the engine but don't labour the engine.

 

Very Important : Check your water and oil levels after every journey!! You will use oil to start with and the coolant will take about 500miles before all the air is out of the system.

 

Make sure the garage switches the heating up to 40 to open the heater core valve and get the coolant moving around the whole system.

 

 

Normal unleaded petrol should be fine as your high octane requirement is nominal.

 

Have fun!!