Running in a rebuilt engine (yay!. it lives!)

While there's no harm in being cautious, its not necessary to be too cautious. Generally speaking, if you run the engine at idle for a while until its got warm and then rev it gently (the sort of revs you would have if you were driving it carefully) you will know that it's essentially ok. If you then drive it for, say, 500 miles not over-revving it and not getting the revs so low that it labours you should be able to gradually increase your "speed" so to speak over the next 500 hundred to "normal" use. Keeping an eye on water and oil is obviously a good idea! Taking care with it over these first 1000 miles will make a terrific difference to its logevity! The oil and filter should be changed at somewhere around

Richard

Stop being such a wuss and bring it round for a race with Percy over the village speedbumps....I'll give you an advantage as Percy has presently only got one carb on ;-)

Seriously thou , and you can stop grining now because I know from experience your cheek muscles will be hurting now :-) . Just take it for a gentle run, nothing excessive and then do an oil & filter change at about 250 miles. I bet new landrovers new got that treatment... out the factory and across the fields towing shire horses out of ditches.

Lee D

So i'm being too careful then?.. makes a change! :) Maybe tommorrow night then i'll just run it for half an hour or so at idle and let it get nice and warm. How long should it take for the piston rings to wear in?

ok..

I'm good at that!. It was using about 2 litres of oil a day over the last week or so before it died! Hopefully its all gonna stay where it should now..

I can see wether that fancy magnet on the sump plug has picked up any bits :) (It better not!)

I gather from what people have said about running-in BMW boxer engines - even more primitive than Landrover engines if you can believe it, that being too gentle can be as harmful as being hard on your new toy. Something about glazed bores? Apparently the best way to run one in is a ride through the Peak District - combining gentle and spirited riding

HTH Richard

hmm. I'm still inclined to take it gently. I dont want to break it again! :)

I reckon my schedule is now: Half an hours running at idle tomorrow night to get it nice and warm and to check that the water and oil stay in and get around it properly.

Then the next evening it time for some running with some careful revs on.

After that i can hopefully take it out for a drive. Thats assuming ive managed to get some brakes going! :)

See the next bit! VVVV

Actually, dont be over alarmed if there is *some* small swarf attached to the magnet at your first oil change....... !

Richard

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Leaving the engine to idle is not particularly good practice. Those nice new piston rings and highly honed bores will be getting to know each other very intimately and scraping little bits off each other all the time. If the engine is left at the same speed then a slight but oh so nasty little ridge will be formed at the top and bottom of the stroke. The only way to prevent this from happening is to vary the engine speed and the easiest way to do that is to drive it.

Try to be gentle with the engine for the first 500 or so miles. Don't over rev it but also don't let it labour at low revs either. Change the oil before it gets too dirty and gently extend the workload over the next 1000 miles or so. You should have an engine that will last forever ...

HTH

Steve G

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Hmm. that makes sense. Perhaps i should cut down on the running it does at idle. I want to run it for a bit though so that it doesnt just break down as soon as i get out of the drive!. How long will it take for said ridge to form? perhpas i should keep moving the revs around slightly rather than leaving it at idle.

I managed to get 6 months without taking the head off once...

Caterpiller Engines are even worse. You should never run a CAT at idle but at least 1/4 revs.This prevents Glazing of the liners of which can be common and results in worse diesel consuption and a shorter engine life. This is true (so i was informed) and that it should take effect from new... So come on wuss's.... rev and go..........

Brev

And i thought this running in would be easy and straight forward! :)

My 101 is related to yours :). I got GVV 664. Does this mean that mine came from the same place as your initially? (Do they usually register them in batches?)

I'm definitely with the "get out and drive it" camp. Do not sit there idling it for any length of time. Engines need gentle exercising throughout the rev range. I would drive it once I was happy that it's not going to go bang. Normal gear changes - don't labour the engine, but also don't change too low - that will stress the bottom end. You need movement through the normal rev range to avoid glazed bores. Early oil and filter change, too.

All the new bikes I've ridden have had the same running in procedure -

Dont sit it at idle for more than a couple of minutes, or you *will* glaze the bores. That way leads to excessive oil consumption and short engine life. When I got a recon diesel from Turner engineering I was told as soon as I had confirmed there were no leaks to go out and drive it. Not too many revs, nor let it labour in too high a gear. Seemed to work, it was still going strong when I sold it at 80000 miles. Beth

The bores arent new, just honed and if you dont give it some work to do then the rings wont wear in ( the reason you honed the bores in the first place , remember) they will burnish over and you will have poor compression and oil control, and end up having to do it all again. Give it some stick soon. If you dont believe me ring u a machine shop who do rebores and ask them. Steve the grease lain bearings dont need running in , theres no rubbing surfaces, all the other surfaces are already run in

On or around Mon, 06 Oct 2003 21:39:40 +0100, richard.watson enlightened us thusly:

sounds about right. The original plan does sound over-cautious, really. It'd be a good idea to fire it up, run it at fast idle (say about 12-1500 rpm) until it's warm and the thermostat is open and make sure that water circulates around the radiator. If it overheats, find out why.

as to running in, the general advice is as Richard said, avoid thrashing it for the first 500 miles. Don't rev it too hard, avoid full throttle, and don't let it labour in a high gear either, keep it unstressed and at medium speeds. after the first couple of hundred miles, start to up the revs a bit for short periods, using a bit more throttle. Running it in *too* gently is bad as well! normally, they say don't exceed 80% of maximum revs in the first 500 miles, or somesuch, but you want to gradually "stretch" the rev range - normally, you can "feel" with a diesel where it's starting to feel "tight", and that's where you change up or back off. But don't be so scared of revving it that you never get it over 2000...

Worth spending some time with a calculator working out what road speed 2500,

I'd do oil+filter at 500 miles, and again at about 1500, meself - oil and filter change isn't that expensive, then go over to normal servicing intervals. If you've had the fuel system apart, change the diesel filter as well fairly soon.

Keep a close eye on fluid levels.

start it up and idle it until its warm to make sure nothing leaks (which you`ve already done) - then take it out for a gentle drive. Don`t labour it and don`t over rev it and use less than 1/2 throttle at all times for the 1st few hundred miles. then do a full oil and filter change and then you can use it as it was meant to be used!

Nick C series 2a `67 (2.5nad) D90 300tdi csw

Personally, I'd start driving it as soon as I was reasonably certain it wasn't going to break down 100yards up the road. The ridge begins to form immediately and the more it idles the more pronounced it gets. After about 20 minutes of constant idling you'll be able to feel the ridge with your fingers if you take the head off.

As the engine wears in and the bores, pistons and rings get glazed then the effect is far less noticable and you can idle the engine for longer periods.

Many moons ago I took the head off a Perkins diesel generator engine that had about 150,000 hours of running time (over a 10 year period) and the ridge was clearly visible ... in fact you could have measured it with a steel rule :-)

Regards Steve G

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