4G63 Proper Break In

Hey guys, back with more questions :icon16: .... well im almost done with my stroker kit rebuild. So i thought this would be perfect timing to ask the BIG QUESTION! How should i break in my car. I have brand new clutch new flywheel and brand new stroker motor. What is the best technique to break in the motor? How many miles? When to change oil? ETC.... PLEASE LET ME KNOW. ... THANKS SOO MUCH !

If you search, you shall find.

IIRC change the oil after 5 miles, 50 miles, and 500 miles and dont boost/take it about 3k rpms for the first 500 miles. I'd personally take it easy longer than that, but thats just me.

If you baby it like that, your rings will never seat properly and you'll never get full compression. You have a window of like 20 miles to seat the rings, and the only way to do that is to beat the piss out of it. Go here: http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm for more info.

That site seems to me to be primarily focused on bikes. I know the "logic" carries over into cars as well but it still doesn't sit well with me. Just seems to me that one could argue that running your engine hard EVER is not a good idea so during the break in period it just doesn't seem like a good idea for me. I see their point but Its still unclear whether A (running the engine hard) causes B (sealed rings) or they are just looking for a correlation between them.

well ... still havent made up my mind .... im having trouble with reinstalling my msd ignition right now ..car cranks over .. but only fires sparkplugs 2 and 3 .... workin on it still .. but car will be running soon...
hmm.... who else has feedback .. RUN IT HARD on break in ... or EASY on break in ... PERSONAL EXPERIENCES would be appreciated

EASY! DEFINITALLY TAKE IT EASY! We put o new motor in a friend of mines 68 SS, its no Mitsubishi, but there where about 6 Life long mechanics working on the car, and all of them said to baby it, and change the oil after 50, then 100... then 500, then 1000... etc... it was a Edelbrock 454 crate... but i would never Push my BRAND New Stroker motor w/o an easy break in...:2cents:

If you baby it like that, your rings will never seat properly

When I was breaking in my high compression SBR crate motor, that is exactly what Kevin said when I proposed babying the car. Keep the RPMs decent, I would not go over 3500RPM, but boost 10-15psi, so give it a little throttle now and then.

When breaking in my motor, we used cheap 20-50 non-synthetic Penzoil. You will be changing the oil so regularly during break in , do not worry about the cheapness of the oil. Oil and filter [mitsubishi OEM only] were changed at the following intervals:

100 miles
200 miles
300 miles
400 miles
500 miles
1000 miles
2000 miles
3000 miles
after the first 3000 miles, we reverted back to the regular interval of ever 3000 miles.

And thankyou for posting in the appropriate sub-fourm, what a breath of fresh air! :icon16:

With modern motors there really isn't that big of a break in period. The rings never really "seat" in the block because they, in theory, should never touch bare metal. You can use any oil you want to, the myth that you cant break in a motor with synthetic is just BS. Anyway my :2cent: is do what feels right to you because everyone will have a slightly different approach to it.

You can send the motor to me and I will break it in for you :grinyes:

EASY! DEFINITALLY TAKE IT EASY! We put o new motor in a friend of mines 68 SS, its no Mitsubishi, but there where about 6 Life long mechanics working on the car, and all of them said to baby it, and change the oil after 50, then 100... then 500, then 1000... etc... it was a Edelbrock 454 crate... but i would never Push my BRAND New Stroker motor w/o an easy break in...:2cents:

That also isnt a turbocharged engine. Naturally aspirated motors dont require such break in processes.

Break the motor it hard. Set boost at whatever you are going to run daily. When you offically start it up, let it idle up to operating temp, change the oil and filter, then go for your vacuum pulls. Bring the car to redline WOT in 2nd or 3rd gear and just let of the gas to let the engine slow the car down. Do this 5-6 times... Your rings should be good to go after that. You can go home and check the compression to make sure it is good, if not, continue to do the same thing. If everything is good, change oil and filter again, then drive on. Change at 100 miles, 500 miles, 1500 miles and 2.5/3k miles (whatever you prefer to change it everytime).

Its not rocket science... Think about it, if you are building a forced induction motor, why would you break it in like a naturally aspirated motor and run it in vacuum the whole time??

That also isnt a turbocharged engine. Naturally aspirated motors dont require such break in processes.

Break the motor it hard. Set boost at whatever you are going to run daily. When you offically start it up, let it idle up to operating temp, change the oil and filter, then go for your vacuum pulls. Bring the car to redline WOT in 2nd or 3rd gear and just let of the gas to let the engine slow the car down. Do this 5-6 times... Your rings should be good to go after that. You can go home and check the compression to make sure it is good, if not, continue to do the same thing. If everything is good, change oil and filter again, then drive on. Change at 100 miles, 500 miles, 1500 miles and 2.5/3k miles (whatever you prefer to change it everytime).

Its not rocket science... Think about it, if you are building a forced induction motor, why would you break it in like a naturally aspirated motor and run it in vacuum the whole time??
I agree, I was always told to drive it how its gonna be driven all the time or it'll never get broken in right.

http://www.automotiveforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=224282&highlight=breaking+motor


When i was reading that i noticed the part where you said breaking a new motor in kills the turbo everytime!!!! So whats gonna happen to me when i finally start my freshly rebuilt motor up for the 1st time and run it for a while?

Is it gonna kill my turbo? My turbo only has 3k on it so its still new.

Most likely :) The only turbo I've had survive was the T67, and that ran an AGP issue oil feed line filter. Any 10 micron filter that flows well and has 4an ends will work. ~40-60 bucks well spent IMO! Many poeple run spare 14bs or similar to break in motors. Other's take it to the extreme and weld up old center cartriges to block passages or otherwise run NT for the breakin. I don't recomend that though, since it makes it impossible to break it in "hard."

Hey, sorry for the thread jack, but I figured a second thread about breakins would be pointless. What kind of a break in would one need to do for new cams and planed/valve job'd head?

No break in required.

I forgot to ask this also, what causes the turbo to go bad? Is it all the junk in the oil from the engine being broke in? The way you explain about a 10 micron filter i assume so.

Yes. Breaking in the motor is a continuation of the machining process, a lot of debris is created. And depending on the quality of the work, there may be a lot of machining debris left from the actual work that was done. Turbo bearings have no tolerance for this.

What if the block is hot tanked after all the machine work... Will that take care of all the debris?

(The machinest hot tanks it and then wraps it in seran wrap and sends it back to avoid anything getting on/in it. :))

Just breaking in the rings creates quite a bit of debris.

Exactly. No matter how clean it is, there will be more crap created. But of course the cleaner the better. How the turbo survives the break in of a brand new motor in a brand new car is beyond me. I still treated the EVO like it had a built race motor just in case however.

wow thanx soo much for all that feedback i got, stil wont get to try any of it though :( ... i ran into a slight problem. Car was running really good and idling for about 6 minutes. Then BOOM! Piston meets Head. After 5minutes of crying i went over and looked at the timing belt. Tension on the cams was good and all alligned. When goin down to the crank , i noticed that the oil pump locked up on me .. and made the timing belt jump a couple teeth and loose tension by the crank. Taking apart the oil pump , i realized that the stubby shaft from the balance shaft eliminator kit totally destroyed the oil pump and was permanently stuck inside. I am just hoping that no damage was done to my head. I have brand new Titanium Valves and Springs, milled head, and brand new wiseco pistons. I looked down and all the pistons seem fine and not cracked. So just hoping everything else will be alright. I am purchasing a new balance shaft eliminator kit today and i have a spare oil pump on another block in my garage. I am attempting to redo the timing and then do a compression test to see if any head work was destroyed, or if i got lucky. WISH ME LUCK EVERYONE! I will be back to let you know which break in method I used, or if i will be able to break it in soon.

Ouch... That sucks man, but if it nailed the head like you said it did then it definetly bent some valves.

Did you use a stubby shaft with no oil groove? That used to be a problem with those. Use the grooved shaft from a mirage.

If you're putting all this money into you're block, why don't you get a *new* oil pump? It's kind of like added insurance, I know I will be running nothing but new oiling system parts when I tear my shit apart.

yes i was running a stubby shaft with the oil groove missing. :( Got new oil pump and new stubby shaft with groove now. Put everything back togethor and started the car. The car runs, while the idleing is VERY ACKWARD , it jumps from 1100-1600 vroom VROOM vroom VROOM vroom VROOM... we checked all the sensors, tried disconnecting the MAF, checked all vacuum and exhaust leaks, idle screw... and even tried normalizing the idleing with my DSMLink... nothing seams to be working. After work today I will go do a compression test on each cyllinder to see if there is anything majorly wrong or if it is just a sensor. I have no check engine light either. IF anyone has any input on wat could be wrong... please let me know. THANKS!

Idle surge. Check your ISC motor.

BOOM! Piston meets Head. After 5minutes of crying i went over and looked at the timing belt. i noticed that the oil pump locked up on me .. and made the timing belt jump a couple teeth and loose tension by the crank.

That's your problem. Did you pull the head to make sure there was no damage yet?

well.... the ISC is locatted right by the butterfly valve in the throttle body correct ? .... if this is the case .. i just went and checked, and one of the 6 connector pins is missing.... so i only have 5. This could possibly be the problem, but i thought that our cars should idle fine when this was disconnected.. correct ? When i disconnected the sensor completely it still idled the same way. I did not take apart the head yet, because i was waiting to do a compression test before i would do all that work for nothing. I will post the results of my compression test tonight. If the compression test reads fine then it must be the ISC. If it doesnt then it must be valves or head.

If you disconnected it and it idled the same way, chances are that sensor is bad.

I have one sitting infront of me if you want it. It actually on ebay right now http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=8063375605&sspagename=ADME%3AL%3ALCA%3AUS%3A12

sweeet ... i bookmarked it, my buddy has a spare one , but he is not sure if it is good or not... so i will try it tonight and then let you know.

ok so i bought my buddies 1g 7bolt throttle body and all sensors. put it on.. did a compression test and all cyls ranging from 165 to 170... turned the key..started right up and then check engine light came on.. and in a matter of 1min the car stalled out. This kept repeating for 5 cranks. Took out my handy dandy OBDII ... Crank Positioning Sensor malfunction. hmmm... I purchased a brand new OEM Mitsu Crank Positioning sensor and brand new trigger plate. CLEARED THE ERROR. STarted the car... ran and ideled perfectly. Drove it around. Ran perfectly. Turned car off, turned on again. SAME CEL and did same thing until i cleared it. Redid the trigger plate and CPS again. Still read same error. when CPS is disconnected car doesnt run at all. So apparently the sensor is hooked up correctly and works fine as long as i clear the CEL before i crank the key. Well.... I was thinking since i have DSMLINK will i be able to ignore this error automatically???? ANY DSMLINKERS PLEASE HELP ... or any other ppl with ideas on wat the problem could be? THANKS SOO MUCH!!!

That doesn't sound like something DSMlink can ignore. Possible intermitent wiring issue or something? I'm ont sure what's going on with that... But at least there is something to chase down now. :)

Edit> Just to be sure, check the crank end play...

ok here is my next question... if my cam angle sensor is bad ... could it throw an OBDII P0335 Crank Positioning Sensor Circuit Malfuntion ???? I ask because i purchased a new crank sensor before the rebuild because the old one was completely destroyed... but my cam angle sensor was just a lil cracked and i used my old one... was wonderin if these run on same circuit and if they would cause interference between each other???

Not sure. I would fix the CAS either way, both sensors are pretty important.

ok i decided to replace both my cam sensor and crank position sensor, with a 1g cam angle sensor. I am gunna call around tonight to try to find a 1g CAS. Will post later tonight on my results. The only problems i have heard with this is the misfire problem and the invert cas and both of these should be solved with my DSMLINK.

DSMLINK will not take care of it all completly by itself, you still need and most definitly do this from RRE.

http://www.roadraceengineering.com/1gcasin2g95-96M2.htm

I'm sure he wasn't implying that his DSMlink would wire in the 1g CAS too ;)

well .. wired up the 1g cas in about 10minutes .... cranked the engine .. VROOOM ... no CEL ... :) ... IT LIVES !!!! well ... was out all night breaking it in last night ... i didnt take the car past 4k .... although my boost is not turned down ... my boost controller is set to 20psi because thats wat i will be running on street. So far idled car for 20min ... turned off .. changed oil ... ran down Rt.18 just boosting the shit out of it for about 5miles and 5miles back .... changed oil..... Went out this morning and last night .. put 100miles on it ... will be changing oil right after work. :) so far soo good. The light weight flywheel and the stroker kit make my evoIII 16g spool like a t-toosmall. ITS AMAZING.... ran a couple 3rd gear WOT runs with my dsmlink .... wasnt getting almost any knock. I was very happy.

Nice. Do a compression test soon too to see how the break in is progressing. By doing some good boosting already I'd say compression should be there already.

well the compression test before even taking the car on the road... when it was still ideling on jack stands was 165-170 eeach cylinder ... sooo i will wait until next week to do my next test and post the results... :)