Running in tips

[corrado]

Running in is why I stick to Nicasil, the thought of 1,000 miles of running in a cast barrell isn't my idea of fun, plus that'll cost £120 in petrol [couldn't be arsed to work out the oil cost too]. Money that could have been spent on a nicasil kit.

[tonydevon]

blimey, 1000 miles, take me about 10 years to run it in LOL

[soosh]

Running in is why I stick to Nicasil, the thought of 1,000 miles of running in a cast barrell isn't my idea of fun, plus that'll cost £120 in petrol [couldn't be arsed to work out the oil cost too]. Money that could have been spent on a nicasil kit.

1000 miles? What bore clearence is that based on?

[victor]

[goldeneye]

when i worked for Hepolite, we used to "lap in" certain rings in cast iron "pots" (basically like the bore of an engine) with a constant oil/water/chalky substance mixture pumped into it. on massive Delapena machines with vertical arms pumping a bunch of rings on mandrels up and down, until they lapped up, and were checked on a ring gauge for gap and light tightness. these were always chrome rings, whether cast iron or steel.f****n awful messy job i kept away from as much as possible, always scruffy c*nt5 who worked on there! the pots were used for a certain amount of time , until they were re-bored to the next ring size (i.e. 88mm, would become a new 90mm pot) until they were no sizes left , and would be melted down in the foundry and recast as blanks. personally, i run in cast barrels for three tanks of petrol, and also leave them on fast tickover down the bottom of the garden for as long as i can. nicasil...50 miles and kick its head in.

[victor]

Seems as if most people are successful with quite short running in periods.

If you take an engine that requires 2000 miles, say a new Avanti kit, and take it apart every, say, 100 miles and investigate the wear of the individual parts; what difference will you be able to measure and where...?

[shocky]

here how i run my cast cylinders in use kero as a lube and washout, then a few hundred at medium speeds but thrashed through the gears getting exhast gasses into the ring lands and pushing the rings into the bore to remove high spots always use mineral oil to start with then when i few lts have been used switch to the cheapest synth oil i can get
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3-ENGINE-BORE ... 2ec5b6a78c

[goldeneye]

as an after thought to the above post, there was also certain rings we would "bank up" an a massive heavy mandrel, fit it into a lathe , and set it away with a scotchbrite wheel de-burring the OD, heavy job, the mandrel wieghed 40 lbs, you had to manouver it on an old cinncinati lathe....30 mandrels an hour.. 150 rings on a mandrel. if you were over 45 years old, you could refuse to go on the job the cheap cast rings got "cork wheeled",( basically, a massive double grinder, but instead of grit wheels, solid cork wheels 4 foot in diameter, oil cooled , and a rotary hopper feeding rings through to take the burrs off the points on the gap and the worst on the squarer section rings. i laugh when i see rings for 30 quid a pair..... i must have made billions of pounds worth of the fuckers!

[victor]

From the gigantic SIP catalogue:

The aim of the running in period is for the relevant engine parts to integrate themselves and not for all contact surfaces to even each other out through a process of polishing as is the commonly held misbelief surrounding new cylinder parts. The recommended running in time is actually about 1 hour and not 1500km (1000mls) as some people mistakenly believe.

[soosh]

From the gigantic SIP catalogue:

The aim of the running in period is for the relevant engine parts to integrate themselves and not for all contact surfaces to even each other out through a process of polishing as is the commonly held misbelief surrounding new cylinder parts. The recommended running in time is actually about 1 hour and not 1500km (1000mls) as some people mistakenly believe.

Dont think there will be a method that everyone will agree on that is "the way". My way has been laughed at before but have proven many times its reliable and works but you will have others who will do 700 odd miles on differnt jetting,different oils to carry out this process and they swear by it.Who is wrong and who is right? Maybe that way is for people who have sod all else to do as it can take forever!