Recommendations on how the break-in a new engine
 

Hey everyone,

I picked up a new 11' 370z coupe A7 sport & nav at the beginning of Feb. The nissan dealer did not suggest on how to break-in the engine on the 370z. I have put a couple hundred k's on it in the last few weeks, but I don't think the piston rings have seated yet, because I have punched it a few times and I am getting a burnt oil smell.

Any recommendations? Please don't say to baby it till like 5K, cause this car is way to fun for that.

Did you read your Owners Manual? There is a section on how to break-in your Z properly according to Nissan. I'd be leery of punching it as this point. I have not read the 2011 Owners Manual (ours is a 2009) and cannot elaborate on the differences, if any, on the break-in recommendations.

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...car-break.html

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...70z-nismo.html

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...ak-period.html

http://www.the370z.com/engine-drivet...ak-period.html

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...k-new-car.html

http://www.the370z.com/nissan-370z-g...ew-engine.html

http://www.the370z.com/engine-drivet...rd-gentle.html


http://www.the370z.com/members/frost...earch-noob.gif

Frost, you know that you just throttled the piss out of yours from inch one! :tup:

I totally did :bowrofl:

I religiously followed the manuel pertaining to break in on my new short block. It took me three awful and boring months to do. I started my new oil consumption test 200 miles ago. I am using a quart every 1000 miles currently. I am beginning to think, "drive it like you stole it" is correct break in method.

Drive it like you stole it. I left the dealership sideways. Enough said.

Thanks for making me feel like a noob.. oh wait I am...:stirthepot:
I appreciate the links.
I'll check the manual in the morning.

I can see that this is going to be a slooowww spring for me.

Nice.. it is a serious investment thou and I wanna er to last.

In all seriousness I have always heard that the best way to break a car in is to drive it like you will normally drive it on a day to day basis. That way the car is "used" to your driving style. For me, that was to drive it very hard.

Drive it calmly for for the first 1000 miles but shortly after that get on it. It's all about the RPMs and not taking it for a long road trip at the same RPM.

If it's a lease....well try the drive it like you stole it approach.

:eekdance:
gangsta

when i got my z, i drove it gently during the break in period.
later on, i got a (new) daily driver which had a much weaker engine and to keep up with the flow of traffic, i had to rev up the engine and change gear near the maximum rpm every time i drove it.
since doing this during the breaking in period didn't seem to hurt the dd at all, i don't think it would hurt the z either.

Your owners manual says wait 30 secs after you start your vehicle to let the oil flow through the engine. You can hear it when it has. After that let the engine warm up to temp then drive it however you want. Had plenty of new engines whether it's in a car, motorcycle, or pwc. I don't follow the break in process. Don't believe it. When new toys are out for testing, when reviewers test them, do they break it in before they get on it.......No. You may or may not want to hold it at full rpms for a long period of time but how can you do that anyways. I've been told the engine is usually broken in at the factory already or that it happens in the first 20 secs or 20 minutes or 20 miles something like that. I think you're good to go. Google Motomans engine break in myths if you want some subjective info.

Correct. The rings are sealed within the first 20 miles...the harder you drive the car the better they'll seal. The rough honed engines are a thing of the past and you no longer have to baby an engine when you get a new car.

In fact, vehicles that are babied are noticeably slower and perform worse than cars that are broken in more spiritedly. The reason why the break-in process is still the way it is is because of liability reasons...nothing more.

I generally kept the rpm under 4k for the first 2k miles except that I completed the break-in period much quicker (2 weeks?). I got an oil change right at 2k and since then have had 2 more and just now (closing in on 14k miles) i am burning oil for the first time. I am only a few hundred miles from my next oil change and my oil level has gradually gone down from about the 80% mark on the dip stick (right after the oil change) to the 60% mark.

I am glad mine is not burning much oil. My dad's 350Z burned oil from the day he got it and his engine died at 120k. My previous car (subaru impreza) burned oil from the day I got it and engine died at 50k miles due to it suddenly burning oil much faster and it burned through all the oil ruining the engine...

Then breaking it in in accordance with your OM is your best bet.

I bought a new 2009 370Z coupe and followed the “drive it like I stole it” philosophy and ended up burning a quart of oil every thousand miles! I traded my coupe for a new 2010 370ZR and followed the OM recommendations and now I burning a quart every 3 thousand miles……….just my .02!!

2011 wont be shipped until enf of april...im on the list and am told might even be mid may!

Hey jazz,

I ordered my 11' on late October as soon as the pricing was available. I am to speculate that I have one the first 11's in Canada. It took 12 weeks to come from Japan.

what colour are you getting? I got Gun Metallic which I think is the Platinum Graphite in the US. First year it has been offered in Canada to replace the carbon silver.

It's worth the wait.
:happydance:

The consumer guides or road n' track write-ups never mentioned the whole burning oil issue. I will follow the OEM recommendations and keep'r under 4K for the first 2000 kms
I'm already smelling the burning oil, I will watch the levels more closely.

new engines are dynoed and rings seated in the factory.then they chasis dyno every car to check the trans. It isn't like the old days. I can't say i would bounce it off the limiter and just hold high revs just for the sake of it.

My childhood friend's father was a shade tree mechanic and a good one. When he built a motor he would break in the cam per the manufacture instructions. drain the water and run it for a couple minutes to get the block hot and seat the rings. Let the engine cool down add coolant (the block could crack if you cool it down fast). then "test drive" it. burn outs, 10 mile high speed run, doughnuts, basicly burn 5 gallons of gas as fast as possible. His motors last for a very long time. the 454 had 300K on it when his wife took it in the divorce. I feel sorry for whoever bought cause he poured 3 pounds of sugar in the oil ;)

I think the real secret is frequent oil changes in the beginning. On motors from scratch I break in the cam, change oil, 100-500 miles, change oil, 1000-1500, change oil,3000 mi change oil, then every 3K after than. On a new on def change around 1500. then 3000 after that.

What's your thoughts on an oil cooler. I'll be doing mostly DD with a few spirited drives. I might not get the oil temp that high?
It seems to be a very common topic, but alot of guys have stilled them.

I agree with the hard break-in. I've done the hard break-in with my truck and my bike. Just so you know, the tech at the dealership beat the crap out of your car during the PDI.

I haven't ever been to ontario so I don't know what kind of summers you have. Most recommend an oil cooler for track days or if live in a climate the hits triple digit temps. Mountain terrains because of the elevation changes put heavy load (most of them are curvy and may inspire more spirited driving) will get the oil temp up. Most of all it seems to be driver characteristics. If you drive it hard keep the revs up you will see more heat in the oil and would justify the cost of an oil cooler. I bought mine in Nov. so I haven't had in warmer weather to see how it does personally. We I live I have seen it break 100 for over a month. But so far even at 70 it don't break 200 of the drive to work. I don't really beat on. My friend set the cruise at 90 for a hour in a used one and said the temp did climb to 220 on a 50-60 degree day.

drive it before 1000 miles like how you will drive it after 1000 miles. regular 3-4k upshifts, occasional redline runs, etc. 1, your ecu will adjust to your habits. 2, I've followed that method with every car I've owned. Still no oil consumption from any of my VQ's no matter what year (knock on wood).

I also have a 2011 and am up to about 700 miles now, I did notice that smell
that you are talking about, it's not burning oil. The salesperson said that the
car will smell like that for about 500 miles and it's the undercoating and remnants of any factory cleaners or de-greasers. The smell has since gone and I am pretty sure yours will too..

The break in method I'm personally using is,

babied 400 miles not over 4K rpms
@ 500 miles take it to 5K
@ 600 miles take it to 6K
@ 700 miles drive it like you stole it..

I am also considering the power train break in, not just the motor. Just my :twocents:

We will peak out at 100 a couple days in the summer. The humidity levels are typcially higher in the summer, but the air temp will stay between 85 - 95 most days. Ontario has a little bit of elevation, but nothing over 1500 ft I'd say. So I won't really have to worry about it that much.

I will break the car in to 2000k, change the oil and go from there. If I am noticing the oil temp climb on a continual basis I will install one.

RE: an oil cooler. You will know if you need one. Going uphill spiritedly, in one mile I went from 220-245 and in another mile to 260*. This is my daily drive home too. I got an oil cooler and oil temp is just like water temp now, constant.

I really dont feel the break in procedure. I have noticed my Z with only 3,000 miles is a half quart low. I changed the oil at 1,500 miles so maybe I didnt put enough in. Ill double check next time it comes around. Anyways I have a 06 chevrolet truck with 110,000 miles on it. I bought it new and have always changed the oil every 4,000 miles, starting at 4,000 miles. The truck has never burnt a drop of oil and I use castrol 10w 30 standard not synthetic. Maybe I should use this in my Z too.

I'm a big believer in the rev-up-coast-down-avoid-constant-speeds method (which, BTW, is not inconsistent with the Nissan recommendation...), although my explanation for it (heat cyclying) has been debunked... :icon14:

Anyway, zero oil consumption.

I've broken in two motors this way and had no issues with either, so will continue to do so until I see compelling evidence pointing to an alternate method.

The idea of the method I use is to neither baby it nor drive it like you stole it, but rather to drive it "normally" and avoid constant engine speeds whenever possible.

That is exactlly the way the instructions told me how to do it on my new GM crate motor (zz383). Actually to take it to redline slowly in a lower gear then let it coast back to 2,000 rpms and so on. I forgot about that proceedure :iagree:

i got GM. what about yourself?

:bowrofl:

Too true. I used to work at a car dealership doing details. Immediately after the PDI the car was parked near the detail building. We(my co workers and I) would always take out the "fast cars" and have "fun" before washing them and delivering them to the car lot.


Everyone acts asif their car has been babied and never driven above 3000 RPM... Unless you personally sat and waited at the dealership for the truck carrying your car to arrive, your car has been taken for atleast one joyride.


This was back in 2000, I'm sure this kind of thing still happens today.



TL;DR - Drive it like you stole it, the people at the dealership did before you received your car.

Lmao

I know it's not a 370Z, but it has similar parts...rings and pistons and all.


My first drive in my Z06, I took it a couple hundred miles running it up to about 3500-4500 in 3rd gear. I let it coast back down. Some stop/go, got on it on the freeway a few times in 3rd and 4th gear (nowhere near redline or anything, just healthy acceleration).

I noted that the tail-pipes had a lot of soot on them, and my oil level was maybe 1/2 quart below the FULL dot.

Since then, I have never noticed any oil usage at all over 1500 miles later it remains DEAD ON, and there is no more soot on the exhaust tips.

Contrary to what people say, the rings DO need seating even by the time you get the car. The LS7 engine is run cold at the factory for several minutes, and this is apparently NOT enough to seat the rings.

Engine break-in takes a few hundred miles initially, and then will get better and better up to 5-15 thousand miles, depending on the vehicle.

The main thing is the break in the gears correctly. This means the differential, transmission, and of course the clutch and brake surfaces. No hard stops, no powershifting, no sustained speeds or loads. Very the load (accel/decel), vary the speed, and heat-cycle the parts (park and go eat lunch). Don't shock the driveline or drop the clutch or slam the brakes.

Modern cars are not ming vases, and I think it would really take an idiot to cause a problem with break-in. This is why it is not tied to your warranty and noone is recording the paramaters the car was driven at for the first few hundred miles. If it was a real issue, the data would be black-box recorded and downloaded at your first service in an effort to deny warranty due to improper break-in.

*Of note, at the BG factory, my car was rolled off the assy-line and taken to over 4,000rpm (not much over) and 80mph on a rolling dynamic alignment machine right in front of me. Then it was taken outside where I did not see and driven on a test-track with lots of bumps, etc. to "find rattles" and fix them before it left the plant, if indeed any existed. I do not know what happened there.

The owner manual for my car is under 55mph and 4K rpm for 500 miles, and no HPDE's until 1500 miles.

I dropped mine off for ECU reflash development with 500 miles on the clock. I picked it back up with almost 1200 on the clock... Mostly dyno. (with redline increased to 8k)

How's that for a break in? Lol

Gun Metallic.
Love it. Have you had your out much?

when did you ordered your Z? i've ordered mine the 4th of February and i'm still waiting without any information of my dealer. but I'm in Europe, don't think the shipping is the same.