My SS is finally at the dealership in Denver. Flying out Tuesday to drive it back to Houston.

What is the rule on breaking in a new engine? I assume they will tell me the manufacturer recs? Any practical experience based advice?

I have head that on the new Corvettes they require an oil change after first 500 miles. This has a similar v-8 - the drive is 1000 miles and will be a pain to get a dealer oil change in the middle of it?

Going to be tough to not open it up on the drive......

My LS2 in my TBSS was broken in at the factory. But, they still had me do an oil change before 1.5k.

I broke my GTI in by going to the track twice and tuning it before 1k on it.

Ask one of the techs at their shop when you get there.

It's like plasma tv threads all over again.

Highway miles are actually not a good way to break in a new motor. You want the rings to seat. The best way to do that is to vary the RPMs a lot. Of course, most factory motors now days are already broken in or something. I'd start by looking at what the owner's manual says.

It's in the owners manual. From the manual:

New Vehicle Break-In

Use the following precautions to improve performance:

For the first 1000 km (621 mi):

Do not make full throttle starts.
Avoid downshifting to brake or slow the vehicle.
Do not drive at any one constant speed.
Use moderate acceleration in lower gears.
Avoid vehicle speeds above 110 km/h (68 mph).


Between the first 1000 km (621 mi) and 5000 km (3,107 mi), heavy acceleration in lower gears may be used.
Vehicle speeds above 110 km/h (68 mph) should be limited to five minutes per use.
Avoid making hard stops for the first 350 km (217 mi) to avoid premature wear and early replacement of brakes.

Pulled this from SSForums.com.

From the manual:

New Vehicle Break-In

Use the following precautions to improve performance:

For the first 1000 km (621 mi):

• Do not make full throttle starts.
• Avoid downshifting to brake or slow the vehicle.
• Do not drive at any one constant speed.
• Use moderate acceleration in lower gears.
• Avoid vehicle speeds above 110 km/h (68 mph).

• Between the first 1000 km (621 mi) and 5000 km (3,107 mi), heavy acceleration in lower gears may be used.
• Vehicle speeds above 110 km/h (68 mph) should be limited to five minutes per use.
• Avoid making hard stops for the first 350 km (217 mi) to avoid premature wear and early replacement of brakes.

Lots of debate on ssforums.com

"Ignore it just drive it"

"In there for a reason"

I kind of followed it for some miles

Saw what it said in manual - not much help. I guess I just need to Barry speed/rpm on the trip home? Thinking about changing the oil half way home - overkill?

Have always used Mobil 1 full synthetic - haven't seen any reason to change that practice?

Any practice advice appreciated.

I am a drive it like you stole it kinda guy?

I drove mine from New Orleans to Houston after buying. I didn't use cruise and tried to keep my speed varying a little. I also would put it in 5th for a little rpm occasionally, but only for brief periods. Other than that, I just drive it.

When I hit 1k miles I took it in for a free oil change of Mobil1.

Is there some sort of difficulty in getting a car to Houston? Why are people going out of state to get their car? They have trains and stuff right? Maybe not in Louisiana but for sure in Colorado...

BrazosDog02 said:

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Is there some sort of difficulty in getting a car to Houston? Why are people going out of state to get their car? They have trains and stuff right? Maybe not in Louisiana but for sure in Colorado...

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Because it's more fun to drive your brand new sports sedan home vs waiting for a truck to drop off the car?

I've flown in, picked up cars in El Paso and Louisiana, and driven them home to central Texas. They're fun trips

It's also an exceedingly rare car to find because production was halted, no?

So, finding one near you is challenging.

Last year of production - production ended in February. GM put 20% Discount on them in March. I almost missed out - spent 2 days calling on every single dealer allocation in the country - had deposits on 3 cars that already had deals working and 1 finally fell through in Denver. It was allocation so car was still on a boat headed to CA. Finally got to Denver last Friday. Cost to ship to Houston about what air and fuel will cost me - love road trips but might have chosen to get it shipped if i would have thought about break in....

I have picked up CTS-v's in Phoenix and Boston but they were used. The Boston trip was wild - my wife and I and another couple. Flew into Boston and did the town for 24 hours then headed out at 4 am. Around 5am I hit a piece of debris on road but didn't think anything about it - oil pressure etc. was all good. About 10am it started to warm up outside so turned on AC - 15 mins later realized it was not blowing cold. Debris went through AC Condenser. It was Sunday, in September. 2 days of driving with the windows down sweating our a$$ off. Good thing the other couple was good natured. When we hit New Orleans we got bucket of ice water, 2 sets of doo rags, and towels. whoever was in the front seat had the job of soaking doo rags and handing out cool replacements every 15 minutes or so. It was about 1 pm when we hit I-10 and headed west directly into the sun - brutal. We got a little silly - were stripped down to just shorts and t-shirts and the womens started painting tattoos on all of us in Sharpie. We were a site when we would stop for more ice - 4 of us piling out of a silver Caddy in skull and cross bones doo rags, tatted up, soaking wet, stinking, and giggling like school girls. Yes we are still friends, though they did decline my offer to join us to retrieve the SS......

Complete Idiot said:

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It's in the owners manual. From the manual:

New Vehicle Break-In

Use the following precautions to improve performance:

For the first 1000 km (621 mi):

Do not make full throttle starts.
Avoid downshifting to brake or slow the vehicle.
Do not drive at any one constant speed.
Use moderate acceleration in lower gears.
Avoid vehicle speeds above 110 km/h (68 mph).


Between the first 1000 km (621 mi) and 5000 km (3,107 mi), heavy acceleration in lower gears may be used.
Vehicle speeds above 110 km/h (68 mph) should be limited to five minutes per use.
Avoid making hard stops for the first 350 km (217 mi) to avoid premature wear and early replacement of brakes.

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This is just ridiculous. Wouldn't expect anything else from GM though. Drive it how you want. It has a warranty and I doubt driving it normally like you would on any other drive/trip is going to do any damage.

THIS



LOTS AND LOTS OF IT!

Quote:

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Do not drive at any one constant speed.

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Can someone explain the engineering idea behind this?

https://instagr.am/p/BF194dCj98D

Something about revving to 6K and then yanking your foot off the clutch?

In all seriousness, I've heard to avoid constant speed for extended periods. Figure a upshift/downshift and some throttle here and there could make for a fun drive from Denver.