Bcobb85
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Jul 28, 2016
- Threads
- 16
- Messages
- 243
- Reaction score
- 173
- Location
- Houston, Texas
- Vehicle(s)
- GT350
Good to know, I drive mine similarly and consistently consume around 1 quart every 2k miles which I am ok with. Just for context, what are your oil change intervals?The key is to build high cylinder pressure with moderate heat by loading the engine. Just varying RPMs won't do this. On a low-tension ring engine, it's possible the first 170 miles could be the difference in whether the rings seat or the cylinders glaze.
I took delivery at a dealer 100 miles away from my home. It was in rural Arkansas, so there were lots of hills and turns on the trip, so I had plenty of opportunities to accelerate out of the turns or up the hills. The best way to build pressure and heat is to accelerate hard between 3000 and 6000 RPM and then let it coast back down to normal, bring it back up to 3000 and nail it again. In this way, you build tons of cylinder pressure, but don't create too much heat by extended high-RPM operation. Those numbers aren't exact, either...you can go below or above and it won't hurt anything.
When I got home, the first thing I did was to change the factory synthetic oil to a conventional, lighter weight oil. Synthetics have been known to be too "slippery" to allow the rings to seat. This step may or may not be necessary, but I've had good luck with it over the years that synthetics have been available. I drove the next 800-900 miles in much the same way, although not quite as often - just making sure the engine spent most of its time in the mid-RPM ranges with load whenever possible. I changed back to synthetic oil at 1000 miles. I've driven normally (no track time, but lots of spirited driving) since that time and with 18000 miles on it now, I have zero oil consumption issues. It might use half-a-quart between changes. I'd consider that "normal".
Someone mentioned the valve seal issue...that may be a factor in some engines, and break-in wouldn't have an effect on those, but I would also think if those were the issue, Ford would rather try to replace them under warranty than replace the whole engine or buy back the car. Just my opinion on that.
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