F430 Break in period

Hi all,

Does anyone know what reliability tests are done to new 430 engines before they are put into the chasis?

I imagine that some tests are done to prove the design but others might be done to insure reliability for each new engine. New owners are asked to keep the rev's under 5K for a while. Sounds like the standard break in stuff...Why can't you just go out and whip the snot out of your new car?

Chas

 

I dont see why you couldnt. They seem to whip the sh*t out of them as soon as they get out of the gates for their road tests.

 

Although the factory takes the car for a "ride", miles varying, and also uses a dyno, a "real world" and "under load" break in period is a good idea for the motor to properly seal and "adjust" to your driving. A motor not properly broken in will (often) be less powerful or reliable. Best

 

There are some who think since the car is test driven at the factory that break-in is not needed. However, until someone can tell me Ferrari makes the breakin recommendations for no reason, I'll follow them. I did so with my new 430. The period is short compared to most cars anyway. For certain, motors from other manufacturers suffer from not being broken in properly. Lotus goes so far as to get a printout of how the motor was driven (max RPM, etc) at 1K miles. They will void a warranty if abused during breakin, andthat's a Toyota motor.

Dave

 

what does the manual in the 430 say about the break in

 

That is written by Ferrari's legal department and irrelevant.

If you're planning on keeping the car for in excess of 50,000 miles then there is a slight chance, very slight chance, that following the recommendations in the manual might assist in your goal of engine longevity. Otherwise, you are denying yourself a lot of fun in the car for the first 500/1000/1500 miles. If the Ferrari test drivers, the Ferrari engineers running the engine on the dyno all ignore the recommendations, why do you think that you should follow them expecting some kind of mystical reward ?
Has there been anyone on this board, or others, that has reported a problem with their engine that can be attributed to not following recommended break-in procedures ???

 

Respectfully - a motor under load is subjected to much different stress compared to dyno... When racing, motors are not broken in per se, but are torn down regularly. What is your hurry? Be safe rather than sorry. On the other hand, if you don't care the advice is irrelevant. Best

 

For the record, in addition to a dyno process that exceeds anything any mere mortal will throw at the motor (i.e. 8500 RPM for a sustained 15 minutes!), each car is taken for a generous road test, then a track test before it even gets on the boat!

 

I wouldn't be redlining it(an SD3 would be able to detect this) and vary the RPM's and you'll be fine right out of the gate. No need to waste those valuable miles just babying it

 

Agree. 1000km (650miles) can easily be done in the first 2 to 4 weeks. Why hurry? Al

 

You are right...for those that drive their car. For garage queens, 1000 KM can take 12 months to 24 months

 

Race engines need only three 30 minute sessions to run in, but we don't expect 80,000 miles between rebuilds either.

 

It's not really a dyno (although that is one function of the test-bench equipment), but a load-simulator and engine diagnostics system. It simulates actual hard driving, and places heavy loads on the engine in a variety of conditions. The reason is that a provoked engine failure, or even detection of problems under heavy load are all easier to fix at the factory rather than in a customer's car the other side of the world.

But to answer your question directly -- why hurry ? Well, why subject yourself to less-than what the car was designed for for the first xxxx miles ? It's already been shagged hard at the factory, and then for good measure shagged EXTRA hard on the test track before it's been anywhere near you. Any damage, if damage could be done, has been done long before you get anywhere near the car. You couldn't "undo" the damage magically by being "nice" to it for some mystical pre-ordained period. Anwyay, this is what these cars are designed for. The only truly, truly bad thing to do to an engine that is new is to keep a sustained load at the same engine rpm.

As far as I am aware, there has never been an engine failure of a modern road-going Ferrari that has been attributed to not following "break in procedures". Please correct me if I'm wrong.

 

The harder you drive it new, the better break in you get. That is what the ferrari tech told me when I bought the car.

IN other words "Drive it like you stole it" LOL

 

I have no advice on this matter, but my personal experience regarding breaking in a Ferrari is that I have never done it in any of the approx one dozen brand new Ferraris I have bought within the last 20 years.
I have visited the factory several times and been in the vicinity of the factory many times as well, where I have seen new Ferraris being thrashed around the Maranello area and then driven very hard on the track. I have seen the engine test rooms where every engine is run throughout the rev range for periods of up to an hour. The technicians I have spoken to at the factory have advised that the only precaution necessary is to ensure that the engine fluids are at normal operating temperature before you redline the engine. It works for me. I guess I have no leftover authority issues from my childhood where I fear the written word simply because it is written, where all of the other data I have gathered is contrary to the suggestion in the manual to break the car in.
If it really was essential I'm certain the factory, through the miracles of modern technology and computerized engine management systems, could limit the rev range until a certain mileage had been achieved. In the absence of such direct controls it makes sense that there's really nothing that dramatic about runnning the engine at its maximum rev number from the outset. The engine has a rev limiter cutoff if you exceed the redline RPM limit anyway.
The idea that if you don't follow the break in procedure it will lead to a less powerful engine, is akin to telling someone that they will grow hair on their palms if they play with themselves.
Once again this is not my advice - simply my opinion as to how I treat my new Ferraris.

 

I agree with 410SA and I think some of the motivation for the break in is for you to get used to your new car. You want to properly warm up the engine and engine oil/fluids and in the very first few miles be gentle with how you apply the load to the entire working bits of the vehicle. Remember you have tires that are new and the entire drivetrain also- and yes- you are new to the vehicle too.

best regards,
Jerry

 

i have heard this from porsche guys as well . the harder bit , not the stolen bit

 

For what its worth, my 2003 Maserati GT (engine of mechanically similar configuration, assembled on the same production line with the same methods as the F430) needed 10,000 kms of hard driving until the fuel consumption stabilised. Presumably this is because modern engines are produced to very close machine tolerances and require considerably more running to polish the wearing surfaces than engines of older technology?

I'm not sure what this means in the real world, but I intend to put a quick 10k on my new F430 after I take delivery in March!

 

+2

Also...

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

Where did you get that from? Unless the Motronic ECU series has changed recently, this information is not stored.

Regards
Andrew

 

Sorry, I don't want to be confrontational, but this is crap. You're saying that my motor will "adjust to my driving", yet you're advocating me driving in a different way to what I'd normally drive. Unless I'm misunderstanding you and you're really saying "start as you mean to carry on" in which case I'd agree with you. It is essential not to drive the thing at a constant load and constant revs as this could induce pattern-related wear. The cross-hatched machining on the bore is there for a reason -- to induce friction between the rings and the bore in order to cause wear and a tight ring seal. The idea of two pieces of metal to adjust to my driving is certainly novel

Regards
Andrew

 

Cool article. Basically Ferrari's engineers/QA process has been implementing a de-facto "motoman method" and therefore making sure that our rings are already sealed nicely!