How many break in miles before towing?

[stevieD]

As you can see from my signature, I don't have my truck yet and have a week-long vacation planned for Thanksgiving week. We will be towing our 7,000 lb 5th wheel.

The way things are going, I may not have my truck long before the trip so am worried about breaking it in before towing the 5er.

If I have to rush a break in, how many and what kind of miles should I do? I'll only be towing the 5er about 50 miles each way but they're hard miles (steep, winding, and slow).

Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

steve



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(On Order) '01 XLT F250 4X2 CC SWB V10 Island Blue/Silver Everything, including the CD changer and chrome tube steps.

[spoon]

stevieD:

I am one of the VERY few driving a 2001 V10/auto delivered prior to the stop sales directive issued 09/02/00.

As of today, the 'do not drive, deliver or demo' directive continues at Ford dealers for the gassers with autos. I was informed the target date for replacement trannys is sometime in November.

You will need to evaluate whether Ford will dedicate the first of the revamped transmissions to customers and dealer inventories already delivered or to production/ordered units.

Good luck to you.

BTW: I did 600 miles break-in before towing, changed the oil to Penzoil Syn at 900.

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2001 F251 Oxford White SRW Lariat CC 156" 4x4 OffRoad Camper Pkg. V10 Auto 3.73LS
Born, KTP: 8-3-00, Delivered: 8-29-00,
Recalled: 9-2-00



[This message has been edited by spoon (edited 09-25-2000).]

[cphilip]

Manual says 500 miles.

[crewzer]

My Owner's Guide (page 3) reads:

"BREAKING IN YOUR VEHICLE

There are no particular breaking-in rules for your vehicle. During the first 1600 km (1000 miles) of driving, vary speeds frequently. This is necessary to give the moving parts a chance to break in."

Hmmmm...

Page 10 of Ford's 2000 RV and Trailer Towing Guide says:

"After You Buy

Before heading out on a trip (remember, do not tow a trailer until your vehicle has been driven at least 500 miles)..."

I'm a big advocate of breaking in. The drive train, brakes (rotors and pads) and tires all need a bit of time to work in and seat properly. 500 miles of mixed driving around, but avoiding extremes such as jackrabbit starts, hard stops and cornering, and no cruise control, is probably the minimum. I also change my oil and filter at this point.

Good Luck!

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crewzer -- Y2K F250 SD 4X2 CC SB XLT 5.4LV8 AT 4.10LS TTPkg Black/Silver

[stevieD]

Thanks guys,

I commute 60 miles/day (30 each way)so, in two weeks I would have 600 miles on the truck. Assuming I get it two weeks before my trip. That's all freeway miles though so I may have to take a weekend trip to the coast or the mountains to get in some up and down and twist and turn stuff to exercise the brakes and the tranny.

Thanks again,

steve


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(On Order) '01 XLT F250 4X2 CC SWB V10 Island Blue/Silver Everything, including the CD changer and chrome tube steps.

[bkino]

I took this from a post I put a while back, this is long and it goes into good detail. Hope this helps.

BKino

------------

Travis, our Moderator, said: "Here's the best advice I've ever seen." And then he quoted Jay, and I'm pretty sure that Jay is our own
Moderator Diesel Jay. Anyway, here's what he said:

quote:

Basically, John has got the right idea -- diesels can take a "few" miles to fully break in. The reasons why are generally
attributed to engineering targets as well as the function of diesel combustion.

In terms of engineering, engine manufacturers produce their diesels to sustain high torque loads over constant &
extended load intervals. In other words, you need some pretty durable parts to hold up to the rigors of diesel operating
conditions.

For example, in their 175 to 275 hp engines, Navistar employs aluminum alloy piston technology (nice & light) with cast
in Ni-Resist top ring inserts, along with keystone plasma faced rings that reduce oil consumption and extend the life of
the power cylinder far better than ordinary chrome-plated rings (such as those found in the Cummins B5.9 motors --
haven't confirmed if this was changed in the ISB).

Regardless of the technical mumbo-jumbo, these are all very hard rings, that are sliding against a very hard engine
block (cast iron). The result is that it takes some heat & wear before these parts are going to achieve a tight fit, but that
after they have "mated," so to speak, they will wear much slower than the traditional rings found in gas pigs, thus
greatly extending the life of the engine.

Now, when these parts are new and haven't "mated" with wear, you're going to see compression blowby, oil-fuel dilution
& oil consumption, which is perfectly normal. This blowby is also why these rings have to fit so tightly, as the
combustion of diesel fuel happens under intense pressure & also produces an enormous amount of pressure. If as
much of that compression energy as possible (barring normal inefficiencies) isn't used to drive the piston through the
power stroke, then you have lost fuel mileage, along with possible blowby, fuel-diluted oil, and oil consumption.

As for how long it takes an engine to break in, outside of the rings being hard as rocks & just taking their own sweet
time to mate to the cylinder bores, the greatest factor is the break-in process.

At first pass, many of the engine manufacturers state that their engines do not require a break-in - -- baloney! Enough
pestering and a few references to some of the Cummins shop manuals have painted me a clearer picture. So I'll lay out
some definite "don'ts," as well as some recommendations:

1. DON'T run the engine hard for the first 50 to 100 miles. Recommended operation is to operate the engine around the
torque peak (1500 to 1800 rpm) in high gear -- this loads the engine, but very gently, and allows the internal parts to
"get acquainted" without any extreme forces.

2. DON'T let the engine idle for more that 5 minutes at any one time (even in traffic) during the first 100 miles.
Remember those loose fitting rings I noted above, and possible fuel-oil dilution (very common when diesels idle, even
well broke-in engines) I noted above? Well, if that fuel is allowed to contact the main & rod bearings during break in (not
really good at any time, though), you might be looking at an engine that is always going to consume some oil and may
not produce power or mileage as expected. In the first few miles, the bearings are mating to the crank, rods, etc., and
fuel in the oil is going to damage them as the tolerances between the parts are not very tight -- damaged bearings are
never going to mate tightly after that, allowing for all sorts of variances in the operation of the engine.

3. DO drive the engine at varying RPMs and speeds up until about 1000 miles. The idea is to alternately heat & cool the
rings under varying RPM's. Manual tranny-equipped trucks are the best for this as you can use engine compression to
slow the engine (unlike an auto, which will unlock the torque convertor & let RPM's fall down to idle when you let off the
"gas"). My suggestion is to find an empty Walmart parking lot in the evening, and drive back and forth across it in the
lower gears -- each time revving her up close to redline and letting engine compression slow it back down. This gets the
rings a bit hot, but the compression braking allows the pistons to cool with high oil spray flow rates and no fuel load.
Keep doing this for a number of runs, or until boredom sets in.

4. DO put a load on the engine at around 1000 miles, and get the thing hot! Diesels are designed to work, and in a lot of
cases operate best under a load. Baptize your engine with a nice "intiation load," to introduce it to hard work. Keep the
revs up (but watch your EGT's), and make sure the coolant temps rise quite a bit. Hooking up your trailer and finding
some hills to pull works great for this. After the 1000 mile pull, just drive it normally, always making sure to let the
engine get up to normal operating temps (no 1-mile trips to 7-Eleven). Under these conditions, I've seen most diesels
really break-in between 10-15,000 miles, and I've always been able to tell the point immediately with mlieage gains. The
"symphony" of the engine also changes slightly at this point.

My caution to those just running the engine as a normal daily driver (without some heavy loads) is some VERY
extended break-in periods (up to 30,000 miles on one I know of), oil consumption forever (even if it's imperceptible for
awhile -- the rings never really seat right without the heat of a load), and poor mileage (again....the rings).

Wheh...longer than I expected it to be, but I gotta go.

Happy Motoring!

Best Regards,

Jay

[stevieD]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by bkino:
I took this from a post I put a while back, this is long and it goes into good detail. Hope this helps.

BKino

...diesels can take a "few" miles to fully break in. <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Thanks, but this is a Gas Engines forum and the question was about the V10 Gasser. Interesting info on the diesel anyway.

Steve

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(On Order) '01 XLT F250 4X2 CC SWB V10 Island Blue/Silver Everything, including the CD changer and chrome tube steps.

[bkino]

Well there's not much difference, regardless of forum.

Don't run it hard
Don't let it idle
Vary the RPM's
Put a load on it

BKino