Run in a new built engine

Hi

What oil do you recommend to run in a new built engine (4G63)? What procedure do you recommend to run the engine in on the dyno (Dynapack)?

Hi Adrian

Here's a link to a thread on the old forum about the same thing. Andre answered with the process he uses at post 5.

http://www.learntotune.com/discussions/topic/tune-from-scratch-on-a-brand-new-engine/

Thanks for posting that up Michael. I was about to try and dig it up!

Key thing is to use a relatively low quality mineral based oil for the run in period. It's all detailed in that post though.

Just wondering if it would be an idea to put it in your articles section or maybe make it a sticky thread. I think it would be a common question for noobs.

Good idea Michael!

Thank you for the helpful answers. I just rememberd, that I already read the articel in the old forum. Great infos, all I have to know. Good idea to put it into the articel section, because the most people run in their engines complety wrong an let the car idle after the first startup for extended periods of time.

Adrian I don' know if you can get it in Switzerland but Penrite (an Australian company) makes a running in oil in their 10tenths range and it is a full mineral oil. It is what I tend to use for the first 5000kms but if I can't get it I substitute it for a mineral Valvoline or Nulon oil or even mineral diesel oil in any of these brands (diesel oil is great for keeping things clean). Don't know what brands others use but I have found Penrite to be about the best but then again I'm biased towards Australian products.

In France we don't have Penrite (at least not in automotive store). I guess the situation is the same in Switzerland.

Personally I use the Shell Helix HX5 (mineral oil + cleaning agent). It doesn't cost much and it does the job.

I've used dedicated 'running in' oils but ultimately I don;t feel they offer any real benefit over a run of the mill mineral based engine oil. It really comes down to what you can easily get access to. I wouldn't beat yourself up if you can't get proper running in oil.

@ Andre I agree it's not worth extra effort if it isn't easily available or more expensive. A general purpose mineral oil will do the job.

@ Ludo. I won't use Shell products. I lived in Darwin back in the late 1980s when I was doing my apprenticeship and the dealership I was at was testing different oils so they could organise a contract for lubricants. In warmer climates Shell 's viscosity regularly degraded leaving engines without much oil pressure to the point where we could hear big ends knocking at idle. While that was 29 years ago and Shell will have worked on their products through R&D I haven't felt the need to use their products again.

I don't use Castrol products either, even though the very same dealership entered a contract with the local Castrol supplier, because their GTX range tended to gum up engines.