Running in?

[chu346]

What's the best way guys?

BTW it's an auto.

[Widge]

600-1000 miles, no low rev labouring of the engine, don't let it idle for extended periods, dont rev too high for first 3-400 miles ( ie above 4000 ish I think) but do work it and don't be afraid to give it full throttle to bed the piston rings in. It varies but I think that will see you OK

[carl325i]

Best way is to vary the load situations on the engine ie:dont go on the motorway cruising at a constant speed, find some nice b-roads to build milage up on where speed might vary from 30-70mph and the gradients changing all the time dont really rev hard and also too high.
Change the oil every 500 miles for the first 2thousand and everything should bed in nicely.

[chu346]

Well i've put some cr*p oil in for now and was planning to use it for 500 miles. Should i put some good oil in after that or use some crap oil again?

[rickk]

The problem with running in is that essentially you have two contradicting goals:
- bedding in the piston rings to te bore nice and tight (to achieve a higher compression ratio and avoid blowby -> more powah!), which will happen if you rev te sh*t out of it from the start
- avoiding that some bearing overheats (blowing everything to bits) because it's not yet smooth, which will happen if you rev the sh*t out of it from the start.

So you'll need some kind of compromise, not too gentle (creating a slow engine), not too hard (creating a broken engine).... the most important thing to keep in mind is that you want to avoid any _prolonged_ stress to the engine to avoid (mainly) bearings from overheating.

In practice this means, keep varying the revs, avoid high loads, gradually build up the max (start at sth like 3500, work your way to redline) you'll rev to over about 1000 miles. Ofcourse, change the oil and filter frequently to get rid of any metal 'filings' in the oild.
I did it at 200, 600 and 1000 miles.

It doesn't hurt to floor it once in a while for a few secs, but let it cool off nicely by gently cruising for a minute or two after that.

Also engine breaking is said to be good for running in the rings and burning off deposits but I don't see you doing that with an auto.

Finally, let it cool off _completely_ after the first few runs before running it again so that all the parts go trough a full heatcycle. This is said to 'arrange' the metal atoms in a certain way thus making it stronger.

YMMV, make up your own mind, but this is how I did it after doing research on the net and asking a few mechanics, and my engine is fine afterwards. No blowby and pulls strong.

Good luck,
Rick

[chu346]

Thanks for the advise guys,

Lets hope it all go's well.

[mrLEE30]

deff go with the cheapest oil you can get and change frequently 200-300 miles, the good stuff especially synthetic will never allow the rings etc to bed properly. Keep an eye on temp guage as it may run a bit hot as it is tight.