Hi

My car will be finished in a few days so i'm wondering which kind of oil to use in my engine during the break-in period?

I'll use the classical break-in methods like never ever taking the car into boost, not pasting the 3500rpm for 1000miles, never driving the car before it reaches the optimum temps etc. Is there anything else that i should know?

Thanks

 

I always use a very cheap standard 10w30 mineral based oil. No Synthetic or any oil with any synthetic additives. I change it after letting the motor get up to temp the first time, and then again after 500 miles, and then again after 1000 miles. I had 1 motor that I used a Castrol syntec blend and the rings didn't seat. It had to come apart and be de-glazed for a new break-in period with new rings. Pain in the ***!!!

 

This time around I took a different approach with the new Z.

I simply used the stock Dino oil and broke it in hard from day one. Changed the oil at 1200 miles (Mobil 1) and took it straight to the track for some really hard driving.

Cant really say what the effects will be long term but the results are good so far.

I recently dynod it on the same machine as many other fully stock REVUPs have done. They typically dyno at 270 +/- 2 on that machine but my REVUP just dynod 274. The highest stock REVUP I've seen on that machine.

Does this mean a hard break in procedure is good for sealing the rings?
Hardly. But it looks good so far...

 

+1 Had simialr experience rings didnt sit right when I switched to synthetic at 1000 miles like a dumba$$. On the Z I did 1000 mile flush, then 2 oil changes at 2500 mile intervals with regular, now I run synthetic no oil burning.

 

I use cheap Napa conventional oil. 10w-30. I find it very satisfying to break in an engine, with 5qts of oil that costs about the same price as one quart of my fancy synthetic oil.

It too, feel, that a moderately aggressive break-on seems to work well. I drive the car for about 100 miles, with moderate amounts of revs and boost...about 5psi and 5000rpm max. Switch to synth, and tune it for power.

 

A friend of mine has just killed his engine while running through a hard break-in period on his engine w/ full synthetic oil (the cylinders were ovalled and the bearings were killed). So now my route is the method that Sharif and G356gear mentions. Imo making a hard break-in with low-silicon content pistons (i.e: Arias ED) is not such a good thing as in these engines the piston slap on the cylinder wall will be more than the engines with regular forged pistons.
Thanks a lot for the inputs everyone.