Picked up my 04 z touring this week i have about 300 miles already. How should i break her in ?? how fast should i drive? Been trying to baby her but I get jumpy some times and wanna race..

 

If you are like me you will drive slow for the first 10 minutes of every trip... Never exceed 70 mph and change the oil every 500 miles till you hit 3000 miles. Some say I am a sadist...

 

Id say thought sounds a bit illogical.

first though proper warm up is important for the whole life of the car, for breakin, you should take it easy for the whole trip.

as for top speed, the rule is keep it under 4000RPM(which is like 90mph) and vary the RPMs. so you could go over 70, but try to go up and down, even shift down to 5th sometimes as long as its still under 4000.

oil change, unnescessary. break in is only for 1200miles, now some change their oil after that, but ever 3000 after is fine.

no full out acceleration in any gear, inother words, keep the pedal off the floor. no towing , and like I said, very your RPMs and keep it under 4000RPM. all for ~1200miles (wouldnt suggest going from babying it to full throttle at 1201 exactly)

 

By changing the oil soon like that, you are actually causing the break in process to be lengthened. The oil needs to carry the microscopic metal shavings throughout the engine components to properly break it in. By changing it so often, you reduce the wear that is necessary to properly seat the piston rings, etc.

 

you should wait til about 3000 miles to change your oil, by changing it early you are ruining the break in process, and DONT USE SYNTHETIC for abuot the first 5k miles, your engine is still breaking in. Use good ole dead dynos

 

funny how everyone says diff thing lol, I like to chip in and say break in like u would normally drive a car. Go slow and go fast and hard once a while and down shift and put some stress on the engine will help break in the engine too.

 

Thanks fellas

 

Changing the oil every 500 miles is a good thing I've been doing it that way on bikes with 12,000rpm+ redlines for years. Including my last race bike that lasted almost 60,000 track miles before it got balled up. Ninety mile per hour highsides suck.

Since your main and cam bearing run on a small film of oil, ANY metal getting in there is a bad thing, specifically alluminum since it will just smear and tighten your clearances, I've seen this a few times on aluminum engines. As far as seating the rings, cylinder pressure not metal in the oil acomplishes this. Without going up into the RPM range the best way to do this is simple engine breaking i.e. downshifting.......carefully.

Past that there are 100 methods. The best way to break in a motor for power is dyno break in. Pull the motor, pull, change the oil, pull, change the oil and so on. Not real good for the brearings though. For longevity take it easy on the motor......and leave it in the car and follow Nissans break in plan.

But this is one of those opinions are like a$$holes subject of automotive myth and lore.