Okay, after a week, I have mostly city driving miles with lots of stop signs and stop lights on my new 08 C6Z. What is the best way to get the break in miles and why?
I only have about 50 miles in a week because I have a 2 1/2 year old and a 7 month old and it is just hard to get out and drive, as they are more important that getting to drive the Z. That said, I want to get the right miles in prep for some stomping (mostly at the drag strip). Thanks.
Do a search here and you'll find this subject covered. But having broken in alot of new cars w/ no problems I'll give you my 2 cents about what I've picked up over the years. Stop and go is great for the 1st 100-200 mls w/ no full throttle and max 50 mph. This is good for the brakes, rear, clutch and trans especially. After 500 miles the motor is mostly broken in. Your brakes are broken in also. The rear and trans take 1000 mls to break in so no high speed or you will get the dreaded whine in the rear as some have. My dealer told me he has seen many Z's getting the rear warranteed due to improper break in related to abuse before 1000 mls. No full throttle for the 1000 mls. At 1000 mls as the book says you can start getting on it gradually and have some fun. The break in is pretty important for the long term. Also I like to do some slow figure eights in a parking lot during the first 500 miles to work in the rear fluid into the rear clutch pak which helps speed up the break in and avoid the rear chatter some get. Remember your clutch is like your brake pads and have to mate to your flywheel so no holeshots till done w/ the break in. I drop the oil btwn 500 and 1000 mls, because new engines shed a bit of metal during break in while everything meshes. It's a 75 dollar insurance policy for a 75000 dollar car,your call. There are no filters on the rrear or trans so I drop those fluids after 4-5000 mls because of the meshing of new gears and switch to Amsoil fluids which I find to be good stuff. Then go kick the sh## out of it. Oh best of luck w/ the new Z!!! Congrats on the babies!
Last edited by seamus2154 : 06-08-2008 at 09:00 PM.
Excellent Advice. Thanks Seamus. I would rather be safe
than sorry, as I hope to keep this one many years. Yeah, I could get a new one every few years, but I wouldn't have bought it in the first place if it wasn't going to be fun for me every time I want. Yeah, ZR-1 might be slightly faster in the Quarter (but I think one would have to be even better launching to get that difference), but the Z is faster than the 66 L-72 that I used to drive or the 67 L-36.... by a pretty good shot.
Great advice if you want to make sure you get the most of your car. yes, it might be fine treating it like you stole it, but my experience with new cars leads me to believe that it loses something when you run it harder than you would if you wanted to keep it a long time. Can't wait to see what I can get at the track... after 1000 miles.
This weekend I have a family GTG and I'd normally bring my truck and do some 'wheeling, but I talked to the local sheriff (small town USA) and he agreed to let me have 3 miles of open highway in a valley near where I grew up to open up the Corvette.
I've been driving the car as much as possible and I have about 1600 miles. I changed oil at 1000 miles, and I can put on maybe 4-500 more miles by the weekend...
Should I feel free to have at it and run the car through 4 gears at full throttle? Should I get the oil changed again? Change tranny and diff fluids?
If the car shouldn't be driven hard yet, so be it, but ... I have a good chance to have some fun and race my cousins '91 300zx TT that's all riced out and has, he claims, 440hp to the rear wheels. He also claims to have some kind of dash-mounted intertial timer to time 0-60's and 1/4 miles, etc.
Warm it up, fluids and tires, and then wind it up. You're ready to go. If you haven't punched it yet, I'd bring the power on progressively till you get a sense for what's under the hood. Then before you drop the hammer, buckle up, hold on and be ready cause when you do punch it she's going to run. I'd also leave the active handling and traction control on until you've got some seat time with the pedal down. Have fun. WHOOOPEEE!
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