Many years ago, someone posted an article on the internet about the benefits of driving hard to set the rings. It was written by person who builds and races motorcycles. In short, it was his opinion that the rings will set or will not set properly with in the first 50 miles of an engine’s life. This person claims a few good blasts close to redline before the engine has 50 miles on it will increase cylinder pressure and set the rings properly. If one believes this is true, you only have to do it once or twice for the rings to set. After the rings are set, driving hard has no more benefit to the rings. I suppose the next question is what about the valves, camshafts, lifters, rocker arms, rod and main bearings, etc?
Yoffer mentioned changing the oil after a few hundred miles. I have always done the same to new engines and have been criticized for it. Apparently, almost all new cars today come from the factory with special break-in oils that contain higher levels of zinc and phosphorous. These chemicals are added specifically to help the rings seat properly and for many other metal parts that touch each other under pressure to break-in properly. To some, the presence of this special oil implies that rings require time to fully set (no cylinder wall scoring or no glazing). To increase controversy on this subject, some car manufacturers insist that oil remain in the engine for 5,000 miles. Doesn’t VW recommend the first oil change at 10,000 miles?
And for the experts out there, why do manuals tell us to avoid maintaining even speeds during the break in period? To me, even speeds imply stable, light loads on the engine –metal parts are NOT being pushed together hard. I never understood why that is bad for a new engine. Is too little pressure bad? How would light load hurt the engine?
