Here are my ideas on "break in":

Many, Many, I say again M A N Y hot cold hot cycles are the best thing you can do for a new factory assembled motor. On start up try to teach yourself to get in, put in the key, turn to RUN and stop, put on seat belt while the computer boots, NOW turn the key to start, watch the lights and gages and pay attention to the tachometer for a few seconds. The engine will settle back a few hundred RPM, NOW shift to drive and again pause a little with the brakes on. Release the parking brake (you do ALWAYS use the parking brake don't you).

Now spend some time training yourself to NOT turn the steering wheel UNLESS the truck is rolling. I trained myself this technique of steering many years ago and my front ends last years beyond what "normal people" get before ball joints and wheels bearings need replacing. Turning a power steering lock to lock while the vehicle is halted is a BAD thing, teach yourself to NEVER do it! Same goes for turning all the way to the steering limit stops. Never ever continue to keep turning the wheel once the mechanical stop is hit. In fact, TRAIN yourself to ALWAYS back off a tad when you hear/feel the limit stop.

First you need to BED the brakes:

You should do this immediately as you leave the dealer. I do a lot of it in his lot (my dealers lot is big enough). Warped rotors are a myth. BUT, rotor surface “hardening” and pad “material transfer” to the rotor surface are NOT myths. The hard spots, and the material transfer, are what you feel as pulsating brake pedal with your foot. “Bedding in”, or “burnishing” the rotors and pads properly can prevent it from ever happening. This is a very important step on a new brakes and I am disappointed that Ford does not do it at the end of the assembly line.

Get up to 30mph and when safe do a very hard (not lockup or ABS starting) but very hard braking just shy of a full stop. As you feel the truck about to halt, let off and smoothly accelerate back to 25, 30 mph. Repeat this 4 or 5 times while looking for a clear parking lot or unused back road. Let about 3 or more minutes pass between hard braking series to let the rotors settle to the new temp. Do this in a place where you do NOT have to come to any complete stops with the brakes while the rotors are hot! You are deliberately trying to get the rotors VERY hot.

Once you have a SAFE place to do some more of this, do another hard brake series and get out of it while still rolling as before, but this time just coast to a normal stop. Clear your rear and shift to reverse. Going backward get up to a fair clip and do a hard brake in reverse, but again NOT to a complete stop. Do this several times as far to the rear as you can in the selected place but try very hard to NOT bring the truck to a complete stop with the brakes pads holding the very hot rotor.

What we are doing here is "burnishing" the pads, and forcing very controlled and even heating to the rotors and attaching assemblies. There NO such thing as WARPED rotors. BUT there is a condition called material transfer, caused by superheated Pads that leave some of their material on the rotor and causing them to pulsate due to the uneven surface.

For the first few days try to set up your stopping to NEVER bring you to a full stop with the pads HARD clamped to hot rotors. This is hard to do and do not ever forget safety for you and others. If you must bring the monster to a quick and complete stop as soon as you are stopped ease up on the brakes and try to creep if there is room.

Most of the first several days I try to set up stop lights so I have a good buffer between me and cars ahead. I brake fairly aggressively, and with a two car buffer, ease up and roll out until one car buffer then slowly creep up to the car in front. Usually the light changes before I need to full stop. Do this a couple of times during the first 100 miles and your brake pads and rotors will last a long time and stopping power will be greatly enhanced.

OK! Now, the motor:

Do not be tempted to try and break in a motor over a weekend with some sort of long trip just to build miles. The setting of the rings can be done in less than 500 miles and takes patience. I must re-state Many, Many hot cold cycles are much better.

During the first 500 miles try to do mostly “in town” type driving. It is OK to be a little hot on the take off. Just refrain from spending ANY time above 3500RPM with no load on the motor or below 1500RPM (lugging the motor) under load.

At least once every driving cycle and after fully up to operating temp, do one good strong take off from stop up to 3500-4000rpm and throttle shift the 5R110 auto tranny. Throttle shifting is when you use enough foot to run the RPMs to where you want them then lightly let up and feel the auto shift up, get back firmly on the foot until RPMs are back and continue this through the gears. Practice this with another vehicle to get the feel. After the 500 mile mark do not be afraid to do this up to 4500rpm on occasion. But try to never spin the motor past 3500 unless it is under load and immediately falls off back to lower rpm.

Cruise control is forbidden the first 500 miles! OK you can punch in CC once or twice to see that it works, but don’t run cruise control for any length of time. Constant rpm is not good for the rings just yet. The rings on the V10 can seat any where from 50 to 500 miles. Play it safe and do the break in procedure for at least the first 500.

At 500 miles replace the Factory MotorCraft FL820s filter and 5w20 oil with same and enjoy the next 500 miles increasing the drive cycles and shortening the cool cycles. I change oil at 1000 also but admit it is overkill. I just dig doing it and LOGGING it, start the habit of checking it also! (You do keep a log book or journal, right?)

If you got a 4x4--- it needs breaking in also:

Every chance you get, pull into a large parking lot AWAY from everybody spend some time in reverse, and straight line 4x4, hi and low. Do NOT turn the truck while in 4X4 on dry ground, just straight forward and reverse. I do this daily for about 10 minutes the first week and call it done. This is very important if you ESOF 4x4. With ESOF your front hubs are vacuum actuated and the transfer case is shifted by an electric motor. Use it or loose it! This system is very convenient when it works. I promise you that if you ignore the ESOF system for 90 days it will not work the next time you need it. But if you exercise the system once a week you should never have to come here and ask why your 4x4 hubs won’t engage.

All my Ford Gasoline motors always take 5 to 8 thousand miles to "break in" where the MPGs get best. Don't even start to be concerned with low mpg figures until she is fully loosened up. With an auto transmission, transfer case, 4x4, big rear end, and lots of engine this takes time, be patient.

 

Great information Fredvon4.....I can't count the number of times I have cringed when I see some poor soul turning their steering wheel lock-to-lock while barely moving and trying to park. I always taught my kids that if the wheels aren't turning, the steering wheel shouldn't be either. My only question is if given the choice, why would anyone want the ESOF option? It is a system rife with problems especially with the vacuum operated hubs. If I didn't know better I would think the ESOF system was designed by a GM engineer......

 

With some conveniences comes some responsibility to keep them working.. I personally prefer the shift on the fly and remote locking hubs.... at my and the wifes age getting out in the rain and locking the hubs to cross a muddy section or low water crossing then unlock them for the gravel then asphalt then mud then concrete trails back to our hunting and fishing remote locations makes the ESOF system absolute dream in our opinion....

going on 8 years now with this system on three different trucks and never has NOT worked for us.... YMMV

I remember some early vehicles I had that the electric locks, windows, or A/C controls were not as reliable as this ESOF system....

 

Fred, the only thing I disagree with you on is the ESOF, and I'm only talking about 2001's, not the newer ones that seem to have different hubs.

I used to be the one saying "use it or lose it" for the first year and a half of my truck's brand-new life.

Somewhere in the second winter I had the thing, the hubs started to lock or not lock at the most inconvenient times.

Turns out, the latching mechanism inside the hubs had worn out enough to not latch.

I went with Warns.

After your water crossing, just leave the darn things locked

My hubs have been locked for the entire 3-4 months of the winter here on Long Island for the past 3 years.

But then, if I hadn't found my V10 on the lot w/ESOF, I would definitely have ordered manual

 

Yep, I am a believer in the manual way of 4-wheel engagement. Leave it engaged as long as you want. Just clutch and pull the stick by the floor shifter to engage. Be sure you are stopped before pulling the lever to engage 4H or 4L otherwise you'll grind off a pound of gear teeth.

Don't tell Ford, but I'd pay extra for the manual system, and the manual 6 spd, but believe it or not, it's N/C! They did get me for the 4.30 ratio gearing though

 

Paul

I have deliberatly ordered the ESOF on every 4x4 since 2001... if you use it regularly it is a solid and reliable system...I admit and highly suggest all the time that if you do NOT use this system or at least do NOT exercise it frequently it will punish you....

Why you ask does anyone want this??.... Well at 52 for me, and 50 for my bride of 24 years, the need to get out and LOCK front hubs in the middle of an unexpected mud hole enroute to our favorite fishing hole is not considered fun...Flipping a switch and powering through the mudd hole and laughing about the past when one of us would have to brave the weather and mud is well worth the grief maintaing the system requires.....

 

Fred, excellent post on the break in and I have more admiration and respect for you than any other truck guy on the net, but I disagree with you on the ESOF. I ordered the manual shift on the fly and I love it. If there is a remote chance I will need my 4x4, my hubs are locked before I leave the driveway. In snow season, my hubs are locked weeks at a time. A transfer case that uses a woozy little electric switch is not my idea of a tough 4X4.
My 2000 F350 had that inferior option and it let me down when the truck was brand new.
It still takes a little motion to activate the ESOF and if you drop into an ice hole in a ski resort parking lot and your truck can not move one inch forward or one inch backward, your ESOF will not work and that is why Ford put the " lock" postion on the hubs. ESOF has " auto" or "lock". The far superior manual SOF has "free" and "lock"

Anybody ordering a new truck should order the manual transfer case. I too would gladly pay more for this real 4x4 option, but unbelievably, you get money back for getting this much better system . Sure hope Ford keeps the manual transfer case for years to come.

 

And Don I do not disagree....that is the wonder of this forum...letting folks make INFORMED decisions

I do not ever dispute that manual systems are more reliable...

My dad would NEVER get a car with power windows or any other electric doo dad.... "more things to break and not work"

I would never consider a vehicle without power windows and locks (or ESOF)!....

The reliability issues are still there, but I adapted to the technology and exploit the convenience and accept the consequences and costs.....

Your scenario is a point well taken.... those of us who don't live in the extremes of environments can enjoy some conveniences while "the rest of you all" MUST opt for reliability, just out of common sense

 

Hey Fredvon4. I am 56 and my wife of 29 years and I actually enjoy getting out to "lock the hubs" while four wheelin. It is a throw back to our early dating days when we spent allot of time jeepin in the back country. I wouldn't trade those days for anything and every time I get out to lock he hubs it makes me remember that for me, this is what 4 wheelin is all about. Same for grabbing a handful of "low range" and not pushing a button or turning a switch to shift the transfer case. I am with your dad about power windows too. If you keep your truck for a few years they will fail you. The old crank ups almost never do.

 

Paul, you and I are the same age. I will be 57 in December and my wife turned 55 last month. We have been married for 36 years and I am happy to say She is "still the One".
It seems us V10 guys know how to stick with a good thing.

Fred, you are right on the money and I still like my power windows. In fact, I ordered my 81 with this option. It was the first year they offered power windows in the F series and the button was in a silly place. Passengers would touch the button with their knee and move the window. I feel power windows are a safety item as in our crappy NW winters, pouring rain & turning left, I put the window down for better visibility. My goofy Standard Shnauzer knows how to put the back windows down so I have to remember to lock them out. That idiot was half way out the cab at 70MPH last time I forgot.

 

Are you sure? I bought new doors from Ford back in '89-90 or so, and got the '79 door part number. The door was setup for the power regulator.

Or was that only in Broncos, and because the door fit everything, it became the standard replacement?

 

Art, the Broncos may have had power windows before the F series but I know in Canada, 81 was the first year for power windows in Ford pickups. I still have my 81 brochure around somewhere.
I know my 81 was the top model available.........can't remember if it was a Lariat or an XLT but that truck came with no wheel covers of any kind. Just cheap white steel rims.
The dealer looked into it and said 4x4s came that way. I put white spokers on it.
The fit and finish on that 81 was grim and sure shows how the Japanese were able to start making better finished vehicles. My 05 SD is pretty well made. Not quite up to the finish on a new Toyota or Honda, but getting close.

 

Wrench, I didn't realize you were in Canada

 

Fred i agree completely with your post....
every working part has some type of break-in....
you failed to mention front end parts....
while there isn't a process for this they do wear-in after about 5000 miles...
a good and proper alingment at that point will result in front end parts lasting much longer.... it is also a great time to reblance the wheels and rotate the tires....
although on non-4X4's i do not rotate tires.... on rear dirve 2WD tire wear provides all the information needed on the condition of the front end and rotating only mask developing problems on those vehicles.... remember rotating won't reduce tire wear, only even it.... on 4X4's even tire wear and set replacement is desireable, not so on 2WD....