Breaking her in...(running her in)

[rtg]

My MCS is coming from a dealer ~500 miles away (I live in Denver but the car will be coming from Salt Lake City) and I'm wondering how those initial miles should be driven. I would love to blast along at 90mph and make the trip in four and half hours but I'm planning on keeping this car for a long time and want to break her in right. I was thinking I should change my speed and gear every half hour or so to vary the revs but I wanted to hear what others suggest I do. So how about it?

TIA
-Ryan

PS - Keep in mind I also need to cross over the Rockies.

[MiniMan7]

I had about an hour trip back to my house from the dealer when I first picked her up.

The best thing to do is vary the revs, and never stay at the same rev for too long. You should also vary the speed alot.

Just try not to stay at a constant speed. You should have no problem.

[BruceK]

Welcome to MINI2!

The question you asked about running-in an engine has been a hotly debated subject on MINI2 for some time.

Specifically, to answer your question about long miles on the highway from dealer to home I had the same issues when I picked up my MINI in New York and drove it home to Texas. During the break-in period, about every 5 minutes I shifted from 4th to 5th for five minutes, then to 6th for 5 minutes and back down again. Since the gearing is so tall on the Cooper S it's easy to follow that and still maintain freeway speeds. And as MiniMan7 indicates, it's important to vary vehicle speed as well.

To see other opinions on breaking the engine in (by the book or not), do a Search for "break-in" or "running-in" (UK term) and you'll find lots of threads on the subject.

Here's just one of those threads:

http://www.mini2.com/forum/showthrea...threadid=21252

[Buz Duz]

This is the way to run them in