Ring break-in procedure

[Mugsy]

I do the cam break in and ring break in at the same time.

john
Aircooled.Net Inc.

Could you elaborate?

Thanks,
Andy

[Marc]

What about that "ring seal" Total Seal makes?

It's cheaper at the grocery store - look for the green can labeled "Comet".

[Mugsy]

Haha, nice Marc. I guess you're implying that a clean cylinder will accomplish the same as a clean cylinder with Total Seal ring powder...and I can't agree/disagree, but I'll let you know once I break my engine in.

I just hope you're not saying that you pack Comet into your cylinders before you install them, haha.

Thanks,
Andy

[Bruce2]

:
I always specified that sustained high speed driving should be avoided for the first three hundred miles - stay off the freeway if you have a choice, but if you must drive any significant distance vary your speed as much as practical. At 300 miles an oil change, valve adjustment and inspection were mandatory for warranty coverage.

You are so right Marc.
The reason I am investigating ring break-in is because the rings in my Mexican Bug didn't seat. When I bought it, I was of the belief that you must baby it for the first few hundred miles. With about 10 miles on the clock, I got on the freeway and drove it 70 miles along a straight flat freeway. I started at 50mph and was at 60 by the time I was done. Then the next day it was straight onto the freeway for more 60mph constant speed cruising. After about 300 miles on the clock, I let my friend drive. While attempting to nap, I thought the R's were a little high, but I didn't say anything. After about an hour, I looked. Steady cruising speed was 85 mph! With 155 rear tires and a 4.37R&P, that translates to 4500rpm!

[paul_f]

.
I remember reading about manufacturing techniques, and one example was Toyota. They have their assembly procedures and quality so well controlled that when the car is finished assembly, they don't even start the cars before shipping them out. There's no need to test them, they know they will all work. Now Toyota is not Nissan, but I find it very hard to believe that Nissan would spend such a phenomenal amount of time (3min) on every car when Toyota doesn't.
When I toured VW in Wolfsburg, they just drive the cars off the line, no dynos. I figure when you are building cars at 4000 per day, you can't spend that much time on every car.
However, at Karmann, they had a couple of dyno cells in the middle of the factory floor. We watched one car for 3-4 minutes. I wasn't there long enough to determine if every car went through this, or just the nth car.

Bruce I work with lots of European manufacturers, all the ones I have worked at have both hot tested there engines and tested the cars. (I do diesel engine management btw

Hot test engine is after the end of the engine line in the engine plant. The engines are rigged up using quick connect connectors for everything, filled with hot coolant and then tested. Obviously the engine isn't up to temp immediately but it helps.

The engines go straight to 3000 rpm where they are held for a couple of mins, before going to max speed and then coming back down in steps. In total test time is around 8 mins. A boring job - the guys have 2 cells to run but are sitting for around - I had to spend a night shift at one plant when we had an issue with one of the solenoids trying to find out the root cause of the issue. Once the main test is completed they idle for 30 seconds, and the idle speed is monitored with fixed fuelling to check that the cylinder pressures are even.

At engine plant every single car goes through on a rolling road, but it is normally off the end of line.

This is usually after the water test to check for leaks and the radio test line (where a bloke checks that all 4 speakers work correctly!!!)

This test is usually around 2mins in length, the first stage is to check the ABS works from several points (and that all 4 brakes and handbrake work effectively) and then the second part is to test that the vehicle can reach max speed and the boost is correct.

The gasoline test is shorter however as they are always trying to remove 1 second from the tests.

Most plants have at least 4 rolling roads, and on the entry to the rolling road the headlamp alignment is setup

Paul

[Rosebob]

I have another question, in another thread Jake mentions having gotten less power out of really big valve heads (48 on the intake side) vs more moderate sized valves (42 or 44). What if you upsized the valves but not the port (or at least not as much) essentially making the port the biggest restriction in the head. My thought was that a small valve would create a rather large energy loss when compared to a properly designed small port(almost nozzle like)/big valve setup. I'm trying to remember my fluid dynamics classes from school (p=roe*a*v, etc) but it hurts. Has anyone done any experiments along these lines? If not, Jake I'm moving to southern Georgia in the fall and my type three has what I assume is a stock setup motor and the rings leak a bit (ie, begging me to meddle), would you be interested in some home grown experiments?