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It would also help matters if the TSB's didn't contradict the owners manual which says on page 206 "DO NOT TOW DURING THE FIRST 1000 MILES". Which sort of ****** me off, because I didn't pay all that money for a pleasure vehicle to ride around in.
It would also help matters if the TSB's didn't contradict the owners manual which says on page 206 "DO NOT TOW DURING THE FIRST 1000 MILES". Which sort of ****** me off, because I didn't pay all that money for a pleasure vehicle to ride around in.
On my pdf manual it is on page 208 and you're right it does contradict. It may be possible that the Diesel Supplement overrides the Owners Manual.
It would also help matters if the TSB's didn't contradict the owners manual which says on page 206 "DO NOT TOW DURING THE FIRST 1000 MILES". Which sort of ****** me off, because I didn't pay all that money for a pleasure vehicle to ride around in.
I bought my truck about 400 miles from home, after making the deal I drove around a bit, then headed home, drove into town the next day and did some stuff, drove around a bit, went home and hooked to my 13000 lb empty weight 41 foot 5th wheel toy hauler, loaded it up with water, toys and other stuff, then headed for sunny Arizona, about 1500 miles away! I figure that by the time I got there, it was broke in!
While its true that break in has mostly gone the way of the dinosaur I still do it on some of the cars I buy.
Break in came from the days when tolerances in final assembly were all over the map, some lose, some tight, but rarely any in spec. With the advent of what was called "invisible horsepower", aka "blueprint and balance" the need to break in slowly diminished.
You can go down in the pits at the big money drag races and watch those boys completely rebuild an engine that just did a winning 1320 and they certainly don't do any break in.
I do believe that a break in can be valuable and if I am buying a car that runs big dyno numbers vs cu in I will seek out a dealer a couple of thousand miles away, order it, fly out and drive it back home.
I ordered up a Z06 Corvette and checked the box for factory/museum delivery and when they called I flew to Bowling Green Ky with my GF (now wife) and drove back to Miami where I was working at the time. I have my own procedure for breaking in and when the Odo hit 500 mi I pulled into a Shell and grabbed a tank high octane. As I was filling up I saw 2 Porches a few islands over and these two guys came over to looky loo on my Z06. I very little about Porches and these two guys both had one. They were a couple of Wall Street guys and one of them pointed the a black one belonging to the other guy and proceeded to tell me how how wicked fast it was some kind of top of the line machine. They asked where we were going and I said Miami, they were also going there for some kind of College thing. They left.
I finish my tank and head south. I bank right and hit the I-95 on ramp like Jean Claude Killy chasing Suze ChapStick down the slopes in Aspen. I turn my Valentine One to max bogie as I head down that highway and crank up Thrugood’s Bad To The Bone CD. It is not long and I come across the two German machines. I pull up alongside the 'bad boy'.
We are at 75 mph, I see the Porch nose dip slightly and and I know he is down shifting and is fixing to hammer it. I am grabbing for gears faster than a monkey reaching for a banana. I see the nose head up and he has the drop on me as I catch the top of second gear heading for 6500 rpm, he has me by a car length or so but its German Vs. Chev. Third gear gets here in a hurry, then it fourth, I left him behind in the top of third, but he is hanging on like a trapeze artist without a net.
Telephone poles are begining to look like a picket fence and the dashed line in the highway looks solid line when I look ahead and see a long sweeper curve up ahead. I have the inside lane heading into the sweeper and I am looking at him in my right hand side mirror. We are running about 135mph, I have been seeing him in that mirror since we hit triple numbers. I glance at my GF and her face is pale, eyes standing out on stems and knuckles are white as we go into the apex of the curve I see his Porch take nose-dive and slow and fade faster than memories of Kato Kaelin after the OJ trial.
That is how I broke in that car it ran incredibly strong and never saw a warranty fix.
Here I am (yellow shirt/red cap) picking up my Z06, this is the Dome in the Corvette Museum where the corvettes fell into a sink hole a few years back...wish I had never sold it!
Break-in will mostly be for the gears. Running empty if you gauged your pumpkin temps you will see the temp will go down as the gears "mate" over the 1000 miles. I work for a global company on million dollar machining centers keeping tolerances to microns and I can tell you no new parts mate as well as one's that are broke in against each other.
Last two trucks I bought off the dealers lots had less then 100 miles on them before I hooked my trailer. I understand about the gears matting but you got to do what you got to do.
Last two trucks I bought off the dealers lots had less then 100 miles on them before I hooked my trailer. I understand about the gears matting but you got to do what you got to do.
Donovan
Absolutely.
Let's face it it's a crap shoot. You will find guys who say no breaking and it has run great for a million miles. And others that broke right away. Then You will have guys who did the break in and still have the gear problems.
I believe you break them in the way you are gonna drive them and they will drive the way your broke them in.
Originally Posted by Wingit929
Break-in will mostly be for the gears. Running empty if you gauged your pumpkin temps you will see the temp will go down as the gears "mate" over the 1000 miles. I work for a global company on million dollar machining centers keeping tolerances to microns and I can tell you no new parts mate as well as one's that are broke in against each other.
Back in the day I was a machinist (AFL-CIO IAM Dallas Love Field Local). I did a lot of things but my speciality was Fuel Injection systems when I was at Love Field. Microns, we didn't need no stinkin microns. Things have come a LONG way since those days and todays engines etc are better than they were back then for sure. I can only imagine the stuff you work with today, WOW. Good on ya
My truck is used for our business and every time I get a new one I have to hook up a trailer right away. Whatever the mileage is on the odometer at time of purchase is usually close to when we start working it. I wish it wasn't the case, but I haven't had any issues.
Do the best you can on break in but don't let it ruin your plans.
I've ruined vehicles running them too hard too soon. How did I know, they were strong, I lacked patience, ran them hard before 10,000kms and they quickly turned into gutless turds. I break in with patience now, power later. My strongest vehicles were all this way, the worst were laying it down. Expensive lessons.
I've ruined vehicles running them too hard too soon. How did I know, they were strong, I lacked patience, ran them hard before 10,000kms and they quickly turned into gutless turds. I break in with patience now, power later. My strongest vehicles were all this way, the worst were laying it down. Expensive lessons.
And you are not alone on that many who buy hi-perf cars do that and it ends in disaster sooner or later.
With todays modern down to the micron machining the long easy break-ins of yesterday are gone, but mistakes are still made by those fail to understand.
Especially true in rifle bbls. I remember the days when break in was a very long process with rd counts by some up to a 1000 rds. Today, little is required. I just broke in a bbl on my sniper rifle. 20 rds was all I used. The key? Doing it slow so as not to heat the bbl especially in the chamber area any warmer than the palm of your hand.
When I break in a car I want to get it out on the highway as soon as possible. I want to limit idle time to the min. I get out on the highway and use speed and gears to get my desired results. RPM management for engine and trans, speed for the rest of the components. Over time I accelerate and gradually increase the shift rpm by about 200 rpm as I climb up thru the gears and speed to about 85 mph. Then back down to about 45 and repeat S L O W L Y. At the top of each cycle I will drive at various speeds for time. 55, 65, 85, 75, 60, 80, randomly in 5 mph increments.
Ok, not everyone lives here where we have an 85 speed limit on I 10. You can accomplish the same thing by manual operation. You can drive in 4th instead of 5th to get the same speed effect.
What we are doing today is "lapping" the engine instead of the old break in. Go buy a high end target bbl for your rifle and note in the specs that is was hand "lapped" anywhere from 2 - 4 times as the last procedure done before it was shipped.
Do that to your engine by going up and down thru the rpm range and it will run and run hard and live!
In my opinion, I think it is crazy to assume/think that engines do not need a break-in period. Yes, tolerances are much better in modern engines than in the past but I'm not sure that means that one should immediately rail on their truck (okay maybe "rail on" is excessive for some but you get the point). I think there are multiple parts on vehicles that need to see some heat cycles and miles before being worked hard. The transmission, engine, rear end, transfer case, etc. I think that the amount of time to break modern engines in has reduced, BUT, is still necessary.
Everyone has their own way of doing it too. I have a good friend that bought a 2015 Platinum last year and his way of breaking it in was babying the hell out of it, excessive idling, and cruise control on the highway, waiting until around 1000 miles before even considering making some boost.
I, on the other hand, would let my 2016 idle for around 5 minutes each time I cold started it, then I would drive it nice and easy until the oil temp would reach 150ish degrees. At that point, I would start to drive it "normal", which was not babying it, but not working it hard either. Then once the oil and tranny temps were both at 190ish, I would do a few somewhat strong pulls, making the truck build boost then cruising while alternating speed, then repeat that process. Never used cruise control for the first 1000. The truck is quiet as can be, idles smooth, and runs very strong. Did my process make for a good break in? Who knows but I feel better knowing that I did it.
Absolute Powerstroke in Kansas City said that I broke it in the correct way after explaining how I did it so that makes me feel good. They ought to know a few things about Powerstrokes considering that it's a Powerstroke specialty shop that has Ford Certified Engine Master and ASE Certified Technicians and work on daily driven work trucks to pulling trucks every day. Btw, just pulling in that lot makes me drool!!!!!
04-19-2016, 07:42 PM
