Do's and dont's for new overhauled car?

Question

My car has now new piston rings, connecting rod bearings, new valve seals, and I have no other means of transportation. What are your recomendations so as to avoid possible troubles if i will use my car?

Answer 1

I'm a mechanic, and I have rebuilt more engines than I can count in my lifetime. There are many things you should do to insure your engine will last as long as you want it to.
Understand this: Even the best of engine builders have engines blow up on them. An example would be the NASCAR engine builders (who are the best in the world) have engines that fail. I have always believed "IF" an engine stays together for the first 1,000 miles, then it will stay stay together for a long time. You must watch for signs of anything that doesn't look, sound, or smell right. The break in oil is just that, break in oil, and should be changed around 400 miles on the engine. The engine will be tight for a good couple of weeks if it was built properly, and should not be turned up more than 3,000 - 4,000 RPM's. You don't want to break the rings as they are really working hard to seat, and wear their own pattern in the piston walls. When they are in this stage they are very likely to snap if put under to much of a load, and this also has a lot to do with how much ring gap the builder allowed on assembly. Keep an eye on the gauges every little bit to make sure you don't have anything such as overheating or drop in oil pressure. The oil pressure should remain steady, and not vary up and down. I believe you can't look at the dipstick too much, so check it and check it often for the first 1,000 miles. After the initial break in period of about 400 miles, change the oil and filter. If you can, cut the filter apart, and inspect it for metal with a magnet. You may very well have some metal as very tiny particles, but not more than what you may find smaller than a pencil erraser, if more then something may not be right, and you may want to be concerned. I wrap the oil filter with magnetic material to capture any particles that are floating around. I don't reccomend going to a detergent oil for the first 1,000 miles and if you can use a good quality 30w and not the multi weight such as 10w/30w type. A smart thing to do is; after about a week, go over the bolts and re-torque them on the intake. Watch for excessive water coming out the exhaust pipes, as this woud indicate the head bolts are not torqued enough. Depending on the type of heads and engine, the torque specifications for the heads will vary, and should always be torqued with a torque wrench. Also; torque up the exhaust manifolds (headers) after running for a week, or if you see any signs of black blow out around the flange where they bolt to the engine. Check any and all bolts you can get to on the engine for being loose. When one goes that deep into an engine, it is almost impossible to tighten every bolt without missing one, so check them! Put a piece of newspaper under the engine at night to capture any leak you may have, and fix it before it has a chance to cost you big time. I don't care what anyone else tells you about the oil change stuff, just know this; I don't believe you can change your oil enough for the first 2,000 miles. Once you hit the 1,000 miles, and you have changed the oil over to what you intend to run in it, and you have no problems then you can start pushing the engine up the RPM range. The first 20 minutes of break in is the most critical, and should be ran steady at the cam manufacture reccomendations in order to break in the cam and related components. For the initial 20 minutes you will be looking for things like leaks in the cooling system, oil loss, gas loss, or anything that might look out of sort. I feel like once the rings seat, you can run the vehicle as hard as you wish, but not before then. It will be normal for the engine to put a lot of oil through the engine during the first 400 miles or until the piston rings seat, and begin to do their job. As an example: depending on the type of rings you use, some take longer than others to seat, and a quart of oil a day can easily go through the engine during this period. Many factors come into play such as, accuracy of the bore, ring gap, material the rings are made of, and if the rings were staggered as they should be. Rings seal off by building pressure between the oil and the compression rings, so depending on the amount of blow by you get, dictates the amount of oil it will consume. It will use oil for a while, then all of a sudden it will stop just like you turned a switch off, and not use any oil at all. I don't reccomend using a synthetic oil until it is broke in fully as in about 2,000 miles or more. Know that an engine during the break in period will run hotter than it normally would so temperatures of say 185 - 195 are very common even without a thermostat. After the initial break in of 20 minutes, change the oil and filter, cut apart the filter that came off the engine and check for metal. Top everything off, set the timing, and go driving the vehicle. Use an up and down start/stop kind of break in when driving, don't just go hit the freeway just yet. Don't over wind the engine either. After you have about 400 miles on the engine it would be good to go for a 55 MPH drive for 20-40 minutes at a time, and watch your gauges. I think that once you hit that magic 1,000 miles you should be good to go, and should have no problems with it, and you should drive as you would normally drive. I build many race engines, and once we hit 400-500 miles, we change to the oil we intend to use, and beat the crap out of the engine. If its going to come apart, it will do it during the first 1,000 miles. Just remember to keep an eye on the gauges, keep the fluid levels under check, and re-torque the bolts, and you should be just fine.
Glad I could help you. Good Luck!!!

Answer 2

1st 500 miles drive under 60MPH and vary your speed - in other words try not to keep a steady speed for long periods of time. Don't use your cruise control.

Change the oil and filter at 500 miles.

After that, drive normally, but avoid high RPMs until you have about 1,500 miles on the rebuild.

Then, you're broken in and all should be well. Change the oil and filter every 3,000 miles or 90 days, whichever comes first.

Answer 3

warm it up every time it is cold about 5 minutes. change the oil at 1000 miles.drive it normally not hard acceleration or revit up to its limit.. if you do these things for about 5ooo miles you will be fine,.. if you have a taxhometer on the dash don't rev over 2500 rpm for this time.. you only need to do the oil the first 1000.after that every 3000miles like clock work.

Answer 4

Make sure that the engine has break-in oil in it.
Don't over rev.
Don't over accelerate.
Maintain proper oil levels.
I suggest using synthetic oils and Engine Sentry starting with your first regular oil/filter change to ensure maximum engine life/performance.
Enjoy your new engine!

Answer 5

good to see crutchfield fans out there!! been dealing with them for almost 20 yrs no problems! crutchfield rocks

Answer 6

get AAA. then drive normally.

Answer 7

dont drive stupidly and dont crash it