Sponsored

Break in driving home on freeway

OP
OP

64Chevy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2019
Threads
11
Messages
92
Reaction score
31
Location
Oregon
First Name
Scott
Vehicle(s)
1964 Chevy C10, 1998 BMW M3, 2008 Lotus Exige 240S, 2013 911 C4S, 2015 Wrangler Rubicon
Update: Purchase paperwork is being FedEx'd. Drive home could happen this Saturday.
Sponsored

 

hws52

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2018
Threads
0
Messages
108
Reaction score
43
Location
Ohio, USA
First Name
Henry
Vehicle(s)
2018 Mustang GT Premium
I did my first oil change at 1300 miles ( I do my own oil changes). I use the recommended Motorcraft oil and filter. RockAuto has the best price on the Motorcraft oil.
Not that it makes it good or bad but to keep in mind Motorcraft oil is a blend. One other place to keep in mind most times and most brands day in and day out I've found Walmart to have the best price especially if you buy it online for pick up in the store.
 

galaxy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 16, 2018
Threads
232
Messages
3,225
Reaction score
2,536
Location
St Louis
Vehicle(s)
'17 GT350
Not that it makes it good or bad but to keep in mind Motorcraft oil is a blend. One other place to keep in mind most times and most brands day in and day out I've found Walmart to have the best price especially if you buy it online for pick up in the store.
Motorcraft is actually not a blend. It's a full. 5W50 right now is only available in a full syn from any manufacturer. Now, wither it's a gp III or a PAO is a different topic for a different day, but it's still a full syn.

http://www.fcsdchemicalsandlubricants.com/Main/product.asp?product=SAE 5W-50 Full Synthetic Motor Oil&category=Motor Oil
 

65sohc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2015
Threads
10
Messages
741
Reaction score
226
Location
Fresno, CA
Vehicle(s)
2016 GT350
You want the car in compression or vacuum. My recommendation is drive home doing 50-80 mph pulls in 3rd then engine brake back down to 50 and do it again. Do the same in 4th. And just keep that up for a few hundred miles.
This is exactly what I did when I bought my Boss 302 in LA and drove it home to Fresno. Having the engine under significant load for brief periods is beneficial because it it cause the rings to press harder against the cylinder walls, facilitating mating between the two surfaces.Every few miles on the trip I dropped down a couple gears, loaded the engine at about 1/2-3/4 throttle till about 5000 and then let off, allowing the vacuum to suck in a little extra oil. In reality it may not make much difference how you break it in. About 15 years ago Car and Driver ran a story about a test GM did on the Corvette LT1. GM took three Corvettes. One they just drove normally, with no special treatment. The second they drove hard from the get go. This is the school of thought that espouses that you should drive the car from day one the way you plan to drive it forever. The third car they babied. They then dynoed the cars and torn the engines down after 50,000 miles. The result? No difference, ie. it didn't matter how you broke it in, the end result were the same.
 
Last edited:

GT350-H6088

Mustang with a Mouth
Joined
May 18, 2018
Threads
8
Messages
123
Reaction score
46
Location
Independent Hill, VA
First Name
Scott
Vehicle(s)
2017 Shelby GT350 (H6088) RR Black stripes/white p
just to reiterate what others have said.
I made the mistake of taking my 2017 on a 800 mi road trip and used cruise control the entire time, to top it off the dealer let the car idle for over an hour when i bought it
this glazed the cylinder walls. in the Ford Mechanics opinion may have caused the oil comsumption issue and the damage.
believe me, I will not do that with the New Motor. This is what I am doing this time.

Don't let it idle too long, under 5 min. Row the RPMs, 3/4 throttle pulls, no Redline for a 300-500 miles, let those rings seat with Load then vacuum, the break-ins are different because of the Synthetic 5w 50 oil, it's not normal to use synthetics for breakin oil so it will be a bit weird.

dont use cruise control for at least 500 mi, drive it hard but not to hard, oh and wait for the engine to warm up to operating temps before RPM loads over 3500

everyone here is saying about the same thing.
the one thing you should take from this thread is ..Have fun.. it's an awesome car.
 

Sponsored

Tomster

Beware of idiots
Joined
Feb 20, 2016
Threads
278
Messages
15,511
Reaction score
15,586
Location
FL
First Name
Tom
Vehicle(s)
'20 RR GT500R(CFTP), 18 OW GT350R Base, '17 AG GT350R Electronics Pack, '97 PG Cobra Convertible
just to reiterate what others have said.
I made the mistake of taking my 2017 on a 800 mi road trip and used cruise control the entire time, to top it off the dealer let the car idle for over an hour when i bought it
this glazed the cylinder walls. in the Ford Mechanics opinion may have caused the oil comsumption issue and the damage.
believe me, I will not do that with the New Motor. This is what I am doing this time.

Don't let it idle too long, under 5 min. Row the RPMs, 3/4 throttle pulls, no Redline for a 300-500 miles, let those rings seat with Load then vacuum, the break-ins are different because of the Synthetic 5w 50 oil, it's not normal to use synthetics for breakin oil so it will be a bit weird.

dont use cruise control for at least 500 mi, drive it hard but not to hard, oh and wait for the engine to warm up to operating temps before RPM loads over 3500

everyone here is saying about the same thing.
the one thing you should take from this thread is ..Have fun.. it's an awesome car.
Cruise control? What's that?
 

SnakeAndSteak

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 27, 2018
Threads
14
Messages
155
Reaction score
81
Location
Central Florida
Vehicle(s)
2017 Race Red GT350
I’d argue the elephant in the room is your definition of a “trip”, and 150 miles isn’t that. For 150 miles, I think this conversation isn’t unwarranted. Juuuusssst drive the dang thing. Now, if you had a 7-800 mile trip home, then this conversation might be warranted.
Double negative. Isn't unwarranted means is warranted.

But I agree, just drive it. It's not going to break. Oil change at 1,000 if desired. This is a modern engine with tight tolerances, there won't be any metal in the oil as some say because if you've got metal in your oil, your problems are greater than you think.
 

oldbmwfan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2016
Threads
0
Messages
789
Reaction score
944
Location
Chicagoland
Vehicle(s)
2017 GT350R
I am a big believer in high load at low-to-mid RPMs for break-in. This means short bursts at full throttle from 2k-3k RPM, coast down, drive easy for a few minutes to let any local hot-spots dissipate, then repeat. You can easily do this on a highway by changing speeds and doing some short full-throttle bursts in 4th and 5th gear. Add in an off-ramp/ on-ramp every 20-40 miles and you'll be fine.

You can gradually increase the max RPM of those bursts. What I did was add 500 RPM at each drive until I was using all 8250. 3500 RPM the first drive, 4000 the second, etc. I think I was using the full rev range - in short bursts, with load, NO high-RPM revving without load - by the time I hit 500-600 miles. Then I just drove normally for a while, changed the oil at 1000 miles, then took it to the track.

Bottom line: load the piston rings with high load, short duration, moderate RPM, and give it time to cool between pulls, and you'll be totally fine.
 

Sponsored
OP
OP

64Chevy

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2019
Threads
11
Messages
92
Reaction score
31
Location
Oregon
First Name
Scott
Vehicle(s)
1964 Chevy C10, 1998 BMW M3, 2008 Lotus Exige 240S, 2013 911 C4S, 2015 Wrangler Rubicon
The snake I drove home...thanks everyone for the tips. People who watched me driving for any period of time had to think I was crazy, but I'm personally satisfied that I did what I could to seat those rings. Sorry about the hammy pic--the dealership wanted a few.
Shelby pickup.jpeg
 

65sohc

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 7, 2015
Threads
10
Messages
741
Reaction score
226
Location
Fresno, CA
Vehicle(s)
2016 GT350
Such an incredible car. No desire for a GT500. I can't help but think of the SoCal musclecar dealership decades ago called Stick Only.
 

Hack

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 26, 2014
Threads
83
Messages
12,283
Reaction score
7,445
Location
Minneapolis
Vehicle(s)
Mustang, Camaro
Congrats and glad you enjoyed the process.

I realize that the sun dictated the angle of the photo, but too bad the dealer couldn't pull the black Mustang in front of the Nissan pos in order to improve the background.
 

TorqueMan

Well-Known Member
Joined
Aug 24, 2017
Threads
7
Messages
693
Reaction score
219
Location
St. Jacob, IL
Vehicle(s)
2017 EcoBoost Premium
The snake I drove home...thanks everyone for the tips. People who watched me driving for any period of time had to think I was crazy, but I'm personally satisfied that I did what I could to seat those rings. Sorry about the hammy pic--the dealership wanted a few.
Shelby pickup.jpeg
OOOOOOOOOOO. Shiny!

Very pretty car; congrats.
Sponsored

 
 




Top