Long distance break-in

[Gros Ventre]

Here's the issue: The connecting rod actually stretches (very slightly) each time the piston tops out and reverses. What you want to avoid is wear on the cylinger walls that leaves a slight ridge at the top of piston travel. So varying speed, RPM really, enables a more even cylinder wall wear with little to no ridge. In the extreme that ridge can damage piston rings. Note it doesn't take a lot of varying to keep that from happening. You just gotts do it...

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[Ry55]

You can do a lot by just locking out gears as you cruise down the highway. Every couple minutes I would shift down to 9, then 8, then back to 10. Probably every 20-30 miles I would exit and then get right back on. So the engine never set at a static rpm for very long.

 

[Snakebitten]

You can do a lot by just locking out gears as you cruise down the highway. Every couple minutes I would shift down to 9, then 8, then back to 10. Probably every 20-30 miles I would exit and then get right back on. So the engine never set at a static rpm for very long.

Was waiting for someone to point this out to the fly & drive folks.
Gearshifting button put conveniently at your thumb, by Ford.

 

[parkerdog]

I always liked the way we would test drive the mitsubishi's at the factory back in the day.
Some they might have been running for only ten minutes or so and the first thing we would do was drive out to our track. stop, then wide open to make sure it shifted in the right place. Drove them like we stole them. Were told to do it that way. Never seemed to get any returns because of that. The engineers would get reports on warranty claims and sometimes would investigate causes.
This was with the japanese motors which we considered better quality and the chrysler motors that were made in mexico which were some of the noisiest motors we ever heard.

Point is, in my opinion with modern engines I don't think it's as much of an issue as it used to be. Ford might say to break in but they would also tell you to never drive it over 45 if they could get away with it.
I did the Granger home drive for 4 hours on interstate 80 which can be a madhouse with all the semis. mostly 70-80 miles per hour. Been a little over a year and no problems or oil usage. I just have the oil changed every 3500 miles and call it good. I was even shocked last week when the dealership I was at didn't even try to upsell me an air filter. I was even thinking of doing it because it had been a year but he said it was fine. 5.0 with 3.73 gears.

 

[FDHog]

Was waiting for someone to point this out to the fly & drive folks.
Gearshifting button put conveniently at your thumb, by Ford.

Guess you missed post #4. I told him that early on in the thread.

 

[Snakebitten]

Guess you missed post #4. I told him that early on in the thread.

It was actually your post that prompted me. But I got to it late.

 

[HammaMan]

Point is, in my opinion with modern engines I don't think it's as much of an issue as it used to be. Ford might say to break in but they would also tell you to never drive it over 45 if they could get away with it.
I did the Granger home drive for 4 hours on interstate 80 which can be a madhouse with all the semis. mostly 70-80 miles per hour. Been a little over a year and no problems or oil usage.

Modern manufacturing is really good with repeatable, tight tolerances, but that doesn't change the fact that rings, bearings, valves, and seals still need to seat themselves for the long haul. Issues with manufacturing tend to show sooner than later, whereas poor break-in shows itself later in the vehicle's life.

 

[nomarhits400]

Was waiting for someone to point this out to the fly & drive folks.
Gearshifting button put conveniently at your thumb, by Ford.

No doubt- I was locking 8, 9 and 10 (and some times 7) out like a fool all 600 miles home from Granger.

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