LDK Crate Engine Break In

[Brian74]

I am on a rather long build, but I hope to get to a point soon where I can run this thing. When I bought this LDK crate motor, I remember ZZP telling me that the break in procedures involved immediately starting it up and driving it under load under various RPM's. Has anyone else bought an LDK crate motor? I guess I could see trailering my car out to a vacant street and running it under load immediately and hoping for the best, lol. This engine is on a newly rewired ECM, Older transmission that I do not yet know the functionality of, a newly built Goblin chassis, Opal injectors, E69 factory tune, and whatever else could go wrong. Has anyone heard of any other break in procedures for the LDK that do not require immediately running it under load?

 

[Desert Sasqwatch]

I found this relatively same description in multiple places, some from the piston manufacturers (JE, Maul, etc). Looks like that first engine run needs to be driving, unless you can put it on a dyno.

1. Keep in mind that there shouldn’t be any metal-to-metal contact happening within your engine other than the rings to the cylinder walls. The rings are the ONLY things we are interested in breaking in or seating. The thing that seats rings is cylinder pressure. Rings and pistons are designed so that cylinder pressure sneaks behind the compression rings and forces them out against the newly honed cylinder wall. Why do we mention this? Because you want to take your warmed-up car out on the road, find a nice straight stretch and do a couple of heavy throttle* runs in third or fourth gear from about 2500-5500 rpm. Each time you hit 5500-6000 rpm, snap your foot off the gas and let the car coast down to 2500 rpm while in gear to pull high vacuum in the cylinders. Repeat this step about five times, and you should have a nicely mated set of rings and cylinders. *NOTE: When we say “heavy throttle,” we are referring to a normally aspirated engine. Modulate the throttle for a turbo or supercharged car to achieve about zero on your boost gauge rather than actual full throttle. This would be roughly equivalent to full throttle in a normally aspirated car.

 

[Gtstorey]

I would disable it from starting and turn it over with the starter until you have oil pressure before actually letting it run. I just drove mine normally to break it in. Hard to do to much on a car that will likely have issues at first and then needing a tune on top of that will make anything else difficult and possibly dangerous.

 

[Brian74]

I found this relatively same description in multiple places, some from the piston manufacturers (JE, Maul, etc). Looks like that first engine run needs to be driving, unless you can put it on a dyno.

1. Keep in mind that there shouldn’t be any metal-to-metal contact happening within your engine other than the rings to the cylinder walls. The rings are the ONLY things we are interested in breaking in or seating. The thing that seats rings is cylinder pressure. Rings and pistons are designed so that cylinder pressure sneaks behind the compression rings and forces them out against the newly honed cylinder wall. Why do we mention this? Because you want to take your warmed-up car out on the road, find a nice straight stretch and do a couple of heavy throttle* runs in third or fourth gear from about 2500-5500 rpm. Each time you hit 5500-6000 rpm, snap your foot off the gas and let the car coast down to 2500 rpm while in gear to pull high vacuum in the cylinders. Repeat this step about five times, and you should have a nicely mated set of rings and cylinders. *NOTE: When we say “heavy throttle,” we are referring to a normally aspirated engine. Modulate the throttle for a turbo or supercharged car to achieve about zero on your boost gauge rather than actual full throttle. This would be roughly equivalent to full throttle in a normally aspirated car.

Ah, nice. That was along the lines of what I was looking for. For some reason I don't remember zzp's docs being as descriptive and they were on no help when I called.

 

[Brian74]

I would disable it from starting and turn it over with the starter until you have oil pressure before actually letting it run. I just drove mine normally to break it in. Hard to do to much on a car that will likely have issues at first and then needing a tune on top of that will make anything else difficult and possibly dangerous.

That is the plan. I will crank this thing as long as I need prior to get oil circulating everywhere.

 

[Gtstorey]

I actually bought a cheap small block Chevy oil pump and pumped the oil into mine before i installed the engine but that might be hard to do with it installed.

 

[aaronc7]

Exactly what I did for a forged LS1. Spark plugs removed (turns over faster, less resistance/no cyl pressure), killed fuel to the injectors and cranked it over a bunch before first start.

First startup all about checking oil pressure, make sure no leaks etc. Let it get up to temp and let it idle/give it some revs etc. Changed oil and filter. Then after that I basically just drove it like normal, just tried to vary RPM a lot and not do constant speed on the highway for hours and hours etc.

 

[duthehustle93]

I am on a rather long build, but I hope to get to a point soon where I can run this thing. When I bought this LDK crate motor, I remember ZZP telling me that the break in procedures involved immediately starting it up and driving it under load under various RPM's. Has anyone else bought an LDK crate motor? I guess I could see trailering my car out to a vacant street and running it under load immediately and hoping for the best, lol. This engine is on a newly rewired ECM, Older transmission that I do not yet know the functionality of, a newly built Goblin chassis, Opal injectors, E69 factory tune, and whatever else could go wrong. Has anyone heard of any other break in procedures for the LDK that do not require immediately running it under load?

Yeah that's pretty accurate. We aren't flat tappet, so the most important thing to focus on is seating the rings, which happens best when the cylinder walls have a fresh cross-hatch, and with elevated cylinder pressure to push the rings against the cylinder walls. I should be done with my goblin next month on a freshly rebuilt engine, and I was planning on towing it to a track day to break it in there, and slowly increase pace each session. Track days don't require the vehicle to be registered, and it's a really good place to be able to vary loads and RPM in a safe environment if this is an option for you.

 

[WA08TC]

I was told/am going to do the same thing. I got 5q 10-30 break in oil.
3rd or 4th high vacuum throttle to about 5500 then engine brake down to about 1500. Repeat 4/5 times. Drive normally (no boost) for about 100 miles then start introducing boost. After about 250 miles change the oil, let 'er eat with Mobile 1