Ok so I've had my second wife for 6 days now and so far have put on about 400km (about 250 miles). I've done mostly city driving to incorporate a lot of stop and go situations to keep the RPM range varying and even when I'm cruising I vary the rpms between 2000-3000 for the most part. A handful of times now I've opened up the throttle about half to 2/3rds of the way, taking her all the way up to about 5000 or 5500rpm before shifting (only went this high yesterday).

I want to break in the engine properly and my question is this, how long should I ideally wait until I really go full throttle all the way up to redline? I'm dying to see how fast this thing really is!!

 

I would recommend doing a search. This has been discussed in great detail.

 

Everyone has different views. Some feel gentle break in and other say drive it like you stole it, right off the dealer lot. Middle of the road, which I could agree with, is drive it the way you would with 10,000 miles on the odo from the start.

 

The way to do it is, as you are turning out of the driveway of the dealer when you picked your car up, you nail the throttle and hold it to 7000 and then grab second...

 

you could be doing it now
it's broken in

at around 115 miles i rolled into the throttle progressively in 1st - didn't stomp on it - slipped the clutch and wound it up enough to see the tach go red (only seen this once) for a good 10foot 2nd gear chirp and then the same into 3rd. Done this 4-5 times since. My wife wanted to see what the car will do, she then commented on how she can't believe cars like this are available to the public.

have matted the throttle a few times in 2nd, 3rd and 4th rolling

my car has ~150 miles on it now

no axle hop, clutch binding or sticking to the floor
a little clunkiness 1st to 2nd shift putting around, smooth shifts when you mean it

just don't try to kill it (powershift)

 

You can go WOT now, even the Ford break-in procedure just says to avoid extended open throttle for the first 100 miles. I personally prefer to vary the RPM, and include the full range, so I red lined a number of times. Just let the engine warm up fully and give it some time to cool off, especially the clutch as that's had the most issues with taking abuse.

 

That's how I did it! But I didn't row through all the gears until I had a few hundred miles on her. Now I'm at 1000miles and I plan on never looking back!

 

On my test drive my salesman, an older gentleman said. Drive it like you own it. Now, I didn't rip power shifts, but I did hit redline, I did chirp tires in 2nd and 3rd, I worked the hell out of the brakes and I more than doubled the posted limit. The I proceeded to buy my car, which wasn't the car I tested. I tested a race red 5.0 premium with brembos, but no entertainment package. After some searching they found my Kona blue baby with entertainment and I said....BINGO!!!

I really enjoy my car. I have not been shy about running it right up to the red line. But, most driving is pretty **** sane!

 

Yes, except make sure its warm first.

I totally agree with "drive it like you stole it". But driving it that hard when its stone cold is not smart no matter how many miles it has on it.

 

RIGHT NOW!..

 

I planned on being easy on mine at first but somehow WOT occurred about 100 yards away from the dealership. Just too much fun to resist. The engine was already warm from the test drive. From there I varied the RPMs and did not remain at one constant speed.

 

Awesome feedback. I love all the different points of view.

 

Just... DRIVE it. If you drive it weird off the bat (either babying it, or pounding it into the ground) you're NOT helping.

Just drive it like you would as if it were already broken in, and 2 years/20,000 down the road It will be fine.

 

At 400km, you are LONG overdue for some WOT fun. If you baby it during break-in, you'll get a baby. Break it in as you intend to drive it and you'll be rewarded with a little more power.

 

Many a car has been "broken in"on the dyno. So that should tell you something. I laid two strips of rubber when I drove my 2006 GT off the lot and had it at the track 5 days later. When I sold it last year with 19K on it I had never had a problem with it. Even during the test drive of my GT500, I ran it through the gears fairly hard.

 

Thanks everyone. I went about 90 percent wot last night but wimped out at 6k rpm. This weekend I will go all the way!! Man, I feel like I'm dating some girl in high school. Lol.

 

When I was in high school, the fastest girls went all the way on the first date. Same logic applies to our cars!

 

Speaking of all this... I've never hit the rev limiter on my '06 (realizing we're talkin' 5.0s here, but...)

I know it's in there to prevent hurtin'. How long can you stay on the limiter though? Until you run outta gear or it hooks or...?

Not that I'm trying to grenade the car, naturally... and I don't generally feel it's at it's best power at that point anyway... but just kinda curious the thoughts on that. It may help Chris's feelings about lettin the pony run, though, so I figured I'd ask anyway.

Cheers!

 

I just got my 2011 GT and have been going WOT every chance I can get (empty interstate on ramps usually, as local roads are too crowded and I don't want to be a douche). I just figure these cars are made for that. Hoping I won't pay for it down the line.

 

For a break-in, I just drive it in all types of situations. A little around town, some moderate speed back roads, floor-it onto the interstate to help seat the rings etc. Vary the RPM's all over the place.

If you give the car a good romp for a few minutes, take it easy for a few to let stuff cool down. It's not just the engine breaking-in, but all the gears in the transmission plus the clutch, brakes and differential.

No one-speed cruise-control highway drones for the first 1000 miles either.