OK I have about 500 miles on my truck now. I have been driving like a little old lady. Well maybe not that slow but not ******* it either. How do you all break in your CTD's? Should I drive it like I stole it or just take it easy? Should I be able to spin the tires from a dead stop or will that take some upgrades?

Thanks! Usta

 

Dont worry about babying the CTD, it is made to work hard. I dont hot rod mine but I do get on it every now and then to keep the injectors clean. Also, around town I lock out overdrive if I am going to be driving under 50 mph so that the engine does not lug. If you have the 05 and an auto the Tow/Haul button does not lock out overdrive but does hold the gears longer.

 

I've got 18,500 miles on my truck. For the first 1000 miles I didn't let the motor get above 2500 rpms. No full throttle until 1500 miles. Until the coolant and oil reach operating temperature (you can tell on the oil because at idle the gauge will be pretty far down) I keep it below 2000 rpms and feather the throttle.

Other than that, the only thing that babying it will help is your wallet. Don't completely beat on it, but don't be afraid to use its power. I find if I've been babying it for a while I need to run it through its paces at full throttle to make it run better.

Good luck, this truck will last you a very long time.

 

I drove 500 miles easy, varied the speed, no towing.
Then I drove 500 miles towing heavy (5 ton) under 50 mph.
Then I drove it hard towing hills at 70mph, high egt's, let her work.
Changed oil early at 5,000. Changed rear diff early at 10,000.
Changed trans fluid early at 20,000.

After the initial low speed towing I consider the gloves off.
I understand that high (not excessive) egt's are a good thing.
I also understand that most of the break-in rules are for the differential, not the the engine.

So far, so good.

 

I changed the oil first time at 1600 miles, did tranny and diff at 8000. I still wish that these trucks came with an EGT from the factory, I think that would be a very useful feature.

Something I've recently noticed is that very slight changes in engine temperature produce large changes in how much power the engine puts out. The thing runs less boost (via the boost meter in my ear) and doesn't accelerate as fast (via the accelerometer in my rear end). I guess the computer does this to help prevent overheating, but this is the middle of winter! I'm thinking there may be something clogging the intercooler/radiator/condenser.

 

I was talking to some workers at the local Cummins shop and they said that the Dodge engine doesn't wear-in until 60-80K. They have opened these engines up at 150K and they still could see the cross hatching on the cylinder walls. They could be yankin' me, but not to sell me an engine.

The engine is not what you have to worry about with your Dodge. You want to wear in the drive train. Once that is done, just keep an eye on the egt.

 

Rons Rig, That makes sense, as a mechanic friend of mine who works on diesels advised me not to switch to synthetic oil until 50,000 miles instead of the 20,000 recomended by Dodge. He says the rings will still be seating until about then.

 

best way to break an engine is to operate it at full load as soon as possable... the 500 mile thing is to help break in the trans & diff's...

that is a good thing... you should still just be able to see the cross hatch when the engine does need a rebuild...[like 500,000 miles...]

 

My buddy just replaced the head an head gaket on his 2001.5 at 380,000 miles and there was still cross hatch in the cylinders. This thing was never run easy. It towed heavy from day one (10,000 - 30,000) evey day.

 

Only thing you need to do is keep it at or below 50mph during your first 500 miles OF TOWING (make for a long first trip;-). This is to properly break in the ring gear in the rear diff. This is clearly stated in the manual. Failure to do so could result in destruction of the rear differential at your expense (The folks at FOURWHEELER Magazine destroyed a Dana rear diff on a Titan by towing too fast when it was new - Nissan covered it even though it was their fault; most likey since they had it for "long term testing").

 

my 500 miles at 50 mph was done in three days. It worked OK - I picked up my new 5ver in Indiana and towed it 100 miles to my parents house in Michigan. It was the first time I'd ever pulled anything that big with any truck and 50 mph seemed plenty fast to start. The next day we started out for NJ and did 350 miles at 50 - it was snowing and I still was getting a feel for the 5ver. Another hour at 50 mph the next day and we hit the hills of PA. At this point it was not longer snowing and I was used to driving with that big thing in back.

The only part that got us was pulling a long grade running hard. Boost at 25 psi and the tube blew off my X-monitor. It took about a minute to figure out what was going on, but in that minute we were sure the truck was about to explode .

 

personally I was gun shy of putting the whip to it when it was new - but I was coming from a gasser world.

As soon as I towed heavy with it (@ approx. 4000 mi) it immediately picked up 1 MPG and had more uumph. I didn't really believe tht towing/ loading the engine heavy would do this but it did.

I'd say drive it like a normal person and pay attention to the owners manual recommendations for towing to break in the driveline components, after that... PUT THE WHIP TO IT and for God's sake TOW SOMETHING HEAvY ... oh yeah... AND WHIP IT HARD. You'll be impressed with the results.

Good luck.

 

Engine doesnt really need too much break-in.
The driveline does.

 

So far as the engine goes, baby it until the temperature gets to normal, then drive the crap out of it.

 

What Haulin' said.

I was always taught you should break it in the way you intend to use it, be it a truck a tractor, whatever.

Just don't dog on it until it's up to operating temperature, then just use it the way it was designed to be used. people get way to freaky about this break in thing.