[stiboost21]

Originally Posted by Szumita

i didnt beat on it before 1k.

+1

for some reason dealerships say to keep it under 60 mph for the 1st 1k miles

[raindance]

Here are my statistics. I've owned a lot of Subarus since 1985. Six of them were bought brand new with between 5 and 20 miles on them. Two of the new ones were STi's. I broke in them per the manual. Put ****loads of miles on them (well except for the '05, just had to have an '08). And guess what? Not one problem from any of the engines. Not one. No oil use at all. No smoke. Nada. Nothing. My '08 doesn't use one drop of oil. I drive it hard. It doesn't knock, doesn't smoke, doesn't pull timing at 5200, none of the stuff that some are talking about here and on other threads. Maybe it's just luck, maybe not. But I know how I'll always break in my Subarus.
-rain-

[supermarkus]

Originally Posted by WRXGuyInUSA

*raises hand*

Went through the gears WOT to redline with about 20 miles on it...

I think I had about 40 before I ran it all the way up. I wanted to see if I could feel it hesitate around 3200rpm. I could. After that it ran smoothly up to redline in 3rd. I don't do that very often at all, but if I'm in a situation where I have to run it out, like somebody not letting me pass, I will let 'er rip. I've been setting my rev beep to 4k, and generally stay under, but I don't baby the car at all. It needs to see full boost and full vac from time to time to properly break in IMO. I think the worst thing to do for break in is highway driving.

If it breaks, it will get fixed.

[nytejade]

I want to see a distribution of the "performance gain." Does he provide this? Also, does he claim out of the 300+ samples that NONE of them experience a "performance loss?"

[SirMattieP]

Originally Posted by supermarkus

I think I had about 40 before I ran it all the way up. I wanted to see if I could feel it hesitate around 3200rpm. I could. After that it ran smoothly up to redline in 3rd. I don't do that very often at all, but if I'm in a situation where I have to run it out, like somebody not letting me pass, I will let 'er rip. I've been setting my rev beep to 4k, and generally stay under, but I don't baby the car at all. It needs to see full boost and full vac from time to time to properly break in IMO. I think the worst thing to do for break in is highway driving.

If it breaks, it will get fixed.

W0rd. Thats what i do every now and then. Chilll.

[jph]

Originally Posted by stiboost21

+1

for some reason dealerships say to keep it under 60 mph for the 1st 1k miles

they told me to keep it under 100


J.

[cookin]

Originally Posted by raindance

Here are my statistics. I've owned a lot of Subarus since 1985. Six of them were bought brand new with between 5 and 20 miles on them. Two of the new ones were STi's. I broke in them per the manual. Put ****loads of miles on them (well except for the '05, just had to have an '08). And guess what? Not one problem from any of the engines. Not one. No oil use at all. No smoke. Nada. Nothing. My '08 doesn't use one drop of oil. I drive it hard. It doesn't knock, doesn't smoke, doesn't pull timing at 5200, none of the stuff that some are talking about here and on other threads. Maybe it's just luck, maybe not. But I know how I'll always break in my Subarus.
-rain-

+1! I've owned multiple Subaru's (2) sti's, WRX, and an LGT. All broke in per the mfg recommendations. I even followed the 600 mile break in on my 03 Silverado (no driving over 60mph for the 600). I've had no problems with oil comsumption or any mechanical problems to date. I figure there is no reason to change on my 08. 400 miles now and 1k can't come fast enough. I love this car. I can't say how much better it runs in stock form compaired to the stock 07. Night and day in my mind. Just my 2cents.

brandon

[raindance]

I feel ya cookin. That's the big problem with doing the recommended break in. You gotta wait. It's sorta like sex. The longer you wait, the bluer your balls. But dude when it comes, look out!
-rain-

[paikman]

The harder break-in has been proven on many cars and motorcycles in particular. Either way, its your car, choose what you're comfortable with

[SirMattieP]

Originally Posted by raindance

I feel ya cookin. That's the big problem with doing the recommended break in. You gotta wait. It's sorta like sex. The longer you wait, the bluer your balls. But dude when it comes, look out!
-rain-

Haha w0rd! No but it sucks major balls, i still have about 500 miles to go... Half way Seems like its going slower and slower just getting there lol Although my gas tanks are going faster and faster Weirddd lolol

[07STILimited]

Originally Posted by paikman

The harder break-in has been proven on many cars and motorcycles in particular. Either way, its your car, choose what you're comfortable with

Proven to do what?

[OA4S]

But then a lot of publications also state not to use sythetic oil for X amount of miles. What about cars that leave the factory with synthetic oil.. like Porsche, VW, BMW? And going with the gentle break in thing, Type Rs were track tested before they were shipped out to dealers. Theres so much conflicting info out there that I dont know who to believe. I did my own break in routine, which is kind of inbetween: under 4k for 300 miles (in the city where RPM varies a lot), low boost til 500 miles, couple runs til redline after that then called it broken in and got protuned @ ~800 miles.. then changed to synthetic @ 1k.

[07STILimited]

Originally Posted by OA4S

But then a lot of publications also state not to use sythetic oil for X amount of miles. What about cars that leave the factory with synthetic oil.. like Porsche, VW, BMW? And going with the gentle break in thing, Type Rs were track tested before they were shipped out to dealers. Theres so much conflicting info out there that I dont know who to believe.

That's why you have an owner's manual. Engines are different and the correct break in procedure will be explained in your manual. It will ALWAYS be some form of a LIGHT break in with varying engine speeds to help gently seat the rings. As for oil, if your car comes out of the factory with synthetic then obviously it will break in just fine using synthetic. If it comes out of the factory with conventional it is probably a good idea to leave it in there until the car is properly broken in so that you don't have any issues.

[BuzSTid]

my 2 cents
a motor is a complex moving assembly where the sum of the parts is basically an average of multiple stacked tolerance fields, the manufacturers tend to err to the safe side to prevent additional warrantee claims.

the more time that is spent ensuring that the tolerances on the components are within a narrow spec the better a motor will work. given the fact that machining processes have dramatically improved in the past couple of decades, the common wear surfaces require less time to "bed" in. i have seeen articles on factory tours of motor assembly plants where the engines were revved to redline repeatedly tho ensure that there was no imminent catastrophic failure due to a marginal casting/forging.

YMMV

[07STILimited]

Originally Posted by BuzSTid

i have seeen articles on factory tours of motor assembly plants where the engines were revved to redline repeatedly tho ensure that there was no imminent catastrophic failure due to a marginal casting/forging.

YMMV

Was this under load? Revving a free spinning engine to redline is completely different than beating up a new car. Many prop plane manufacturers will recommend what some would consider to be a "hard break in." This thread is about driving the cars hard for the first thousand miles not revving the engines to redline for a split second when they are not even in the car yet.