I have 1600 miles on my truck and had planned on hauling a load as part of the break-in between 500 and 1000 mi.

The miles accumulated faster than planned, but this weekend I am going to load up with about 500 pounds of sand bags as I don't have a trailer yet.

I know this is an essential part of the break-in and welcome any suggestions offered.

Thanks for any responses.

 

ripnroar, congratson your new truck,dont waste your time with only 500lbs of sand , little or no benefityou need more weight than that,rent a car haul trailer and tow freind/family car,and pull some hills too,good luck hope this helps,dont use cruise control.

 

dieseldavesr,

Thanks for your info. Your right, even if I took out the tool box and filled the bed to the rails, the CTD would hardly notice it.

Something I read about was glazing of the cylinder walls before the rings have a chance to properly seat, then they never do and its a oil burner forever. And this comes from not working the motor on break-in.

 

Agree with dieseldavesr - added 400 lbs of sand (bags) to
the bed of my '05 3500 SRW - to see if it improved ride.

"May" have improved ride a bit - but the CTD didn't
have a clue it was back there!

 

Put about 1500lbs in there so your fuel mileage will drop some and then yo will complain when you go to the pump like the rest of us
Borrow your friends TT and go camping, it's a holiday anyway. Oh yeah leave that 1500lbs of weight in the bed while you are towing that TT your CTD will just love it. If you drive for about a month with the weight in the bed it will help.

 

No holiday for me this weekend!! I work Sunday thru Thursday and have for the past year or so. As such I don't get many holidays off.

And they make me take double time and a half pay for those holidays too.So the next weekend sometimes I'll go somewhere when most everyone else has blown their wad and are off the road.

I'm some what leary about towing hills without gages. Guess I'll have to get busy this week and install some.

 

ive got 1200 miles on my 05 now. is there any way to break it in without towing i dont have a way to get a trailer to tow around? i do drive it very hard though.

 

Found this page:

http://www.thedieselstop.com/content...iesel%20Engine

Here is some pieces from it.

Heat is important to assist wear for break-in but too much can cause major problems. This is the reason we should not subject the engine to significant loading for the first 1000 miles of its operation. Loading heavily will introduce more fuel to the cylinder, and will add significant amounts of heat and pressure to the cylinder components. Couple that scenario with new rings on a freshly honed cylinder wall and we can only imagine the amount of friction and heat being produced and absorbed by the rings. Furthermore, the engine oil, lubricating the cylinder walls, will flash burn when it contacts the very hot rings. The burned oil will leave a hard, enamel like residue on the cylinder wall, commonly known as oil glazing.

Well why not run the engine at idle or under no load? This is bad too. It can create a similar condition to glazing. The rings need to expand a little during this initial break-in period, just not so much that they overheat and flash the engine oil. The engine needs to be moderately loaded in order to break in correctly. Running the engine under very light or no load prevents the oil film placed on the cylinder wall from being scraped away by the expanding compression rings. The rings will instead “hydroplane” or ride over the deposited oil film, allowing it to be exposed to the cylinder combustion. The oil film will then partially burn on the cylinder leaving a residue that will build up and oxidize over time. Eventually this leaves a hard deposit on the cylinder wall that is very similar to the glaze left from flash burning. My caution to those just running the engine as a normal daily driver (without some loading) and especially those who love to idle their vehicles, expect some VERY extended break-in periods (up to 30,000 miles on one I know of). Expect oil consumption forever due to oil glazing. The rings never really seat well if they cannot expand from the dynamics and heat that a load produces.

DO put a load on the engine at around 1000 miles, and get the thing hot! Diesels are designed to work, and in many cases, they operate best under a load. Baptize your engine with a nice "initiation load," to introduce it to hard work. Keep the revs up (but watch the EGTs), and make sure the coolant temps rise. Hooking up your trailer and finding some hills to pull works great for this. After the 1000 mile pull, just drive it normally, always making sure to let the engine get up to normal operating temps (no 1-mile trips to 7-Eleven). Towing is ok but remember to not overload and to monitor your gauges carefully erring on the side of caution. Under these conditions, I have seen most diesels completely break-in between 10-15,000 miles, and have always been able to tell that point from mileage gains. One may also notice that the "symphony" of the engine also changes slightly at this point.



Reading this got me to think alot and get motivated towards putting some sort of load on my truck soon after passing the 1000mi. marker.

Plan two, rent a car trailer and drag it around the Sierra Foothills with my 72' Chevelle on it.

 

Don't worry about guages as long as you stay within the design parameters of the truck. It is suppose to be able to handle those types of loads. But if you add any fueling boxes or whatever then you should also add gauges at that time. If the truck can't handle the designe parameter loads then take it back

 

Here's a good way to break in the truck. Go rent a dump trailer for the day. Load it up full of dirt from the local yard. Drive it around all day long. When done take the dirt back to the yard and drop the trailer off.

MikeyB