Running in time opinions

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Adammcf
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Post Mon Jul 11, 2005 12:32 pm

Ive been running my car in for the last week keeping it below half throttle and never going over 4k revs.
Ive done around 250 miles so far all around town driving.

Basically I know that in a full rebuild you should change the oil every few hundred miles and run in for at least 500 miles, usually more.

I didnt do a full rebuild, I only rebuilt a the head and put on new gaskets and water pump, belts and tensioner etc.
Do I still need to run in as much as a normal run-in?
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M3RAGS
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Post Mon Jul 11, 2005 1:11 pm

you need to allow the valve seats to bed in.

Running in seems to vary from opinion to opinion.

Best bet would be to call up a specialist like bexleys and ask them their normal procedure as they would have seen hundreds of the things!
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Andy335Touring
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Post Mon Jul 11, 2005 11:08 pm

I've been told by the mechanic at the garage i use that you don't have to run new top ends in

According to the chap that worked on my head he said valve seats are bedded in after the first 10 mins of the engine running after the rebuild.
Simon
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Post Tue Jul 12, 2005 8:22 am

When I rebuilt the top end on mine, I just kept it below for the first 1000miles just in case, and changed the oil a few times.
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koos
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Post Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:42 am

it's up to you, if you wanna take it easy for a while it wont do it any harm, the miles you've done so far are okay i rekkon. If the valves were lapped in correctly then you should not have a prob(if the head was skimmed). I've only ever done diesel heads ie trucks & vans and they have a much higher compression ratio and they never needed running in.
An oil change is a must after the heads been off!!
Adammcf
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Post Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:52 am

Yeah I filled the car with some decent used oil from my GSI along with some flush to clear away any crap.
Ran it for 20 mins and then put in some new oil which I'll change for good stuff now.
I was thinking there is nothing really in the head to run in apart from giving all the new gaskets time to seal etc.

Now I just need to find out why it cuts out if I give it over 75% throttle.
koos
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Post Wed Jul 13, 2005 9:52 am

fuel starvation maybe?