I have a 2007 5.9 with 2,400 miles on it. If I am reading the owners manual correctly for proper break in I should put the engine under a load before it reaches 6,000 miles. I was planning a 300-500 mile trip with a 27' trailer in a few weeks. Is this a good idea? I never did this with my other diesels (none were cummins). Thanks in advance for your help.

Rich

 

Hook to the trailer and go. The load will help the engine wear in much faster. I towed with my truck for the first time at about 1500 miles.
Will

 

The trailer is a great idea. If you get a chance, hook up to it before your trip. Run it hard with the trialer, your truck will respond well to this. My truck and my last truck too were both purchased on a Monday. We camp almost every weekend and I wanted to have 500 miles on it before I towed with them. After 500 miles I hook em up and go to it.

 

Nothing on the engine needs to be broken in. What needs to happen is for the rings to set in, relative to the cylinder walls. Best way to do this is load the engine towing. So load her up and give it the go pedal. Don't worry about mileage just yet. The sooner the rings set the better ie. less blow-by, no oil consumption, cylinder pressure, mileage will get better. I haven't seen a 07 5.9 yet. Does it have a egr setup?

 

No, the 5.9's don't have the emissions. ALl the above posts are correct, the 500 mile NO TOW rule is for the rear gears. Keeoing it under 60 MPH for the first 500 miles of towing is also for the rear gears, not the cummins. I bought mine on July 10 and went to driving it around. BOught it 4 days before I needed to pull my horse trailer 8+ hours. It had 680 Miles on it the first time I hooked it up, 110+ degree heat. I had changed the factory oil and Installed AMSOIK ATF in the Manual trans at the same time. Loaded it up and went easy for 100 miles then Basically set the cruise on 65-70. I currently have almost 7,000 miles and both of my oil analysis say my engine is wearing in AHEAD of schedule... My truck had 16 hours of heavy pulling in the Heat before it reached 1500 miles!

 

I agree with the previous posters the engine needs to work to properly break in the rings. I retired from a Caterpiller Dealership and we used to put all our overhauled engines on a engine dyno to break them in before giving them back to the customer this is even more necisary with keystone (tapered) Piston rings.
Jim O

 

Cummins mech told me that the rings wouldnt seat unless you pulled a good sized load for a couple of hundred milles. Said these engines needed to pull. Soooo, at 3000 miles I loaded up my 14 foot trailer with all my wifes junk and pulled it to Amarillo and back to OKC. Believe me that was a good sized load!
My truck doesnt burn oil and the Oil stays fairly clean.

 

I started out at the 500 mile point loading up the bed with a good-sized load and running it that way for a few hundred miles or so. At 1500 miles I changed out the factory fluids in the engine, diffs, tranny and x-fer case and hooked a 4-horse trailer with 4 drafts on board, gave it a 3K mile workout with that load alone. I am up and down altitudes, winding mountain roads and have worked the truck real good. My engine oil analysis has been good all along and just keeps getting better. I have about 24K on the truck, no issues whatsoever in the engine or dirvetrain.

CD

 

Not hijacking this thread but I was wondering if hauling a heavy payload in the bed like a slide-in camper (2500 lbs.) does the same for break-in as pulling a heavy trailer?

 

Thundercloud, This is just my opinion .......but I don't think that a slide in camper loads it enough. You could just go to Uhaul and rent a car hauler and put a heavy car/truck/suv on it and pull it up some hills.

The more weight the better, imo. You want to work the engine and get the water temps up. It will thank you for it later.

 

Thanks for the info. I will definately work the engine hard soon. I am currently getting between 18-19 MPG (hand calc) in a mix of city and hwy. My last psd never got above 17.8 on the hwy.

 

mine started towing at 150 miles and did not have any gear problems its had other issues but i think this truck was put together after a holiday that involved a lot of drinking before they showed up for work

 

Pulling a heavier trailer is preferred but if you don't have one to use then a 2500-lb camper will work better then nothing at all. If you use the camper in the bed method, you will need to drive your truck longer to get it broke in when compared to pulling a 5-10,000 LB trailer. When I wanted to get mine broke in and I did not have a trailer to use, I loaded some weight in the bed of the truck. Then my wife and I took it on vacation, a 33-hr non-stop drive, except for fuel from IA to OR and then back home 7 days later via Yellowstone Park. If you can’t do several 33 hours drives like I did with your camper on, then leave your camper on for a month or two as it will help work the engine more then if you drove it around empty.

JMHO