Break in new bearings?

sts70004

Registered User
I finally got my car all back together, and besides bending that plate that goes between the bellhousing and the engine (it now slightly rubs on the flywheel... Somewhat irritating. Anyone got a line on a cheap one for a 5 speed???) it all went together smoothly. I know that the stock gauge with the oil pressure mod is fairly useless, I did it anyway, for the first day it read pretty high compared to normal range, and now its settling about to where I think it should be. My questions are:

1) Is there any special procedure for breaking in bearings?

2) Do I have to baby it for a while? Am I good to drive like normal?

3) If so, keep it out of boost? And for how long?

I really don't know the answers to any of these questions :S

Just FYI as well all the clearances I got were right in the middle of the "Desired" range in my repair manual. Sorry I don't remember the numbers off the top of my head.
 
if you installed rings as well it would be good not to horse the car for the first 500 miles and don't hold a steady rpm for more than a few minutes for example running down the highway vary ur speed the whole time don't hold one speed that will help seat the rings then change oil and have fun with the car
 
No I was really lazy and I had just done head gaskets like a year ago, and I was foolish and put off the rings :( I'll probably regret that in like 20,000 miles haha. Anyway, so just bearings, I don't drive it like a bat out of hell but I do get into boost at least once a day so I can get back to that huh?
 
run it with straight 30 in it, the first 1000 miles of a new engine should be the hardest miles in its life, if you can't break it in the first 1000 miles it won't break, change the oil after 500 and again at a thousand, cut open the filter and see whats really going on, also high zinc oil is better for the engine, very difficult to be had, some offroad oils contain a lot of zinc but they can get pretty pricey i've seen it usually go for around $9-$12 /quart


like what was said previously, don't steady state it, that usually applies to seating rings but applies to bearings as well

typically on a street engine you want the crank endplay to be 4 - 12 thousandths, i usually bias the tight side for street engines and bias the loose side for race engines
 
When you break in an engine, you are supposed to use a break in oil. They have added zinc and other additives that help facilitate the process. I would not wrap it to the moon as the new bearings CAN get cooked if you do that and not seat properly (at first) causing early blow by concerns. But, what I did on mine was the 500 mile drive, and then had at it.

SWS
 
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