I'm taking delivery on my 328i late February and I'm starting to read up on engine break-in. Yes, it's been beaten dead on this and many other forums. Everyone seems to have their own opinions, but I haven't seen any actual hard data. The intention of this thread isn't to debate merits, but rather to ultimitely provide useful information.
If you are looking for just general information I found the post below to be well put together
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3817885&postcount=17
For my break-in procedure I've pretty much decided on http://tsx.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=645938 It's referenced in the post above.
My plan is to do the following things at each "turning point" in the process.
- Send oil off for analysis
- Do a compression test
- ??
I'm open to suggestions and if you know of useful resources (oil testing companies for example) feel free to post. Hopefully you guys can help me help the "community" as a whole.
For reference (from the acrua link above), here is the break-in procedure I plan to follow. I recommend reading forum post though as he includes good reasoning that I don't include here.
For the first 100 miles, only take short trips of <15 minutes. Do not rev above about 3500 rpm. Use full throttle in short (2-3 second) bursts at low rpms (say 2500) - 5th gear on the freeway is ideal for this. Do not do more than one full-throttle burst in the same 2-minute period. Avoid driving for more than 2-3 minutes at the same rpm - if you are on the freeway, vary your speed and alternate between 5th and 4th gears.
From 100-500 miles, increase the peak RPM you reach by 200 rpm each time you drive the car (but don't go higher than redline). Do not rev to your new peak under heavy throttle; instead, let the engine drift up to the rpm under light load. For instance, pulling away from a stoplight, leave the engine in first and accelerate lightly until you reach the desired RPM, then shift. Continue the full-throttle-burst procedure. Do not rev the engine high under full throttle, and do not do either the peak-revving or the full-throttle procedure more often than once a minute. Avoid driving for more than 5 minutes at any one rpm - again, alternating between two adjacent gears and varying your speed will work.
You will notice that each time you reach a new peak rpm, the engine will be quite loud at that rpm, but after a few runs up it will quiet down. This is a sign that the break-in is proceeding well. You will want to have revved the engine to 6500(5500) rpm a few times by the time you reach 500 miles. At that point I recommend you change the oil, as most of the metal wear and contaminants from break-in are released in the first 500 miles.
From 500-3000 miles (the extended break-in) you can operate your engine fairly normally. Most of the work is done. You should still run the engine at higher RPMs on a regular basis (assuming you don't in the normal course of driving ;-) ) and you should avoid prolonged high-speed/high-stress operation, like racing or cruising at 110 mph. I personally change the oil after 1500 miles since it will be dirtier at that point that it would be after 3000 miles of post-break-in operation, but it isn't critical. Be sure to change it at 3000 miles, however. Although there is some difference of opinion on what KIND of oil to use during break-in, the general consensus is to use normal (non-synthetic) oil of the recommended weight (5- or 10-30).
From 3000 miles onward, your engine is considered broken in. It will probably continue to "loosen up" a bit over the next 3000-6000 miles, so look for a small increase in gas mileage. Other than that, your engine is now ready for a long and productive life. Enjoy!
One side note, don't hold your breath on the completion. I don't put a lot of miles on my cars. If my math is right on average it'll take me at least 6mos to go the full 3k miles. I'd like to get that down to 3 by doing some extra driving after the kids go down. Maybe make an April or May DE event if I'm lucky :thumbup:
If you are looking for just general information I found the post below to be well put together
http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showpost.php?p=3817885&postcount=17
For my break-in procedure I've pretty much decided on http://tsx.acurazine.com/forums/showthread.php?t=645938 It's referenced in the post above.
My plan is to do the following things at each "turning point" in the process.
- Send oil off for analysis
- Do a compression test
- ??
I'm open to suggestions and if you know of useful resources (oil testing companies for example) feel free to post. Hopefully you guys can help me help the "community" as a whole.
For reference (from the acrua link above), here is the break-in procedure I plan to follow. I recommend reading forum post though as he includes good reasoning that I don't include here.
For the first 100 miles, only take short trips of <15 minutes. Do not rev above about 3500 rpm. Use full throttle in short (2-3 second) bursts at low rpms (say 2500) - 5th gear on the freeway is ideal for this. Do not do more than one full-throttle burst in the same 2-minute period. Avoid driving for more than 2-3 minutes at the same rpm - if you are on the freeway, vary your speed and alternate between 5th and 4th gears.
From 100-500 miles, increase the peak RPM you reach by 200 rpm each time you drive the car (but don't go higher than redline). Do not rev to your new peak under heavy throttle; instead, let the engine drift up to the rpm under light load. For instance, pulling away from a stoplight, leave the engine in first and accelerate lightly until you reach the desired RPM, then shift. Continue the full-throttle-burst procedure. Do not rev the engine high under full throttle, and do not do either the peak-revving or the full-throttle procedure more often than once a minute. Avoid driving for more than 5 minutes at any one rpm - again, alternating between two adjacent gears and varying your speed will work.
You will notice that each time you reach a new peak rpm, the engine will be quite loud at that rpm, but after a few runs up it will quiet down. This is a sign that the break-in is proceeding well. You will want to have revved the engine to 6500(5500) rpm a few times by the time you reach 500 miles. At that point I recommend you change the oil, as most of the metal wear and contaminants from break-in are released in the first 500 miles.
From 500-3000 miles (the extended break-in) you can operate your engine fairly normally. Most of the work is done. You should still run the engine at higher RPMs on a regular basis (assuming you don't in the normal course of driving ;-) ) and you should avoid prolonged high-speed/high-stress operation, like racing or cruising at 110 mph. I personally change the oil after 1500 miles since it will be dirtier at that point that it would be after 3000 miles of post-break-in operation, but it isn't critical. Be sure to change it at 3000 miles, however. Although there is some difference of opinion on what KIND of oil to use during break-in, the general consensus is to use normal (non-synthetic) oil of the recommended weight (5- or 10-30).
From 3000 miles onward, your engine is considered broken in. It will probably continue to "loosen up" a bit over the next 3000-6000 miles, so look for a small increase in gas mileage. Other than that, your engine is now ready for a long and productive life. Enjoy!
One side note, don't hold your breath on the completion. I don't put a lot of miles on my cars. If my math is right on average it'll take me at least 6mos to go the full 3k miles. I'd like to get that down to 3 by doing some extra driving after the kids go down. Maybe make an April or May DE event if I'm lucky :thumbup: