I recently bought a CTD, my first one, 22 miles on it. Any advice for breaking in the first few thousand miles? (Ive heard the joke "150,000 miles is just broke in") Do I run it like a stole it, run it like I would normally, or baby it? The dealership I bought it from is 150 miles away(its still there I havent picked it up yet) and I was looking for advice. Thanx

 

for the first 500. . .be easy. . .the trans is wearing in, the axels are wearing in , everything is still seating. . .after about 500 miles put something heavy behind it and drive it like you stole it.

your mileage off the lot wont be that good, however after 10-15K your mileage will go up.

just be easy for the first 500

 

LOTS of complete hot / cold cycles. No short trips around the corner. If you start it, drive it around until it's up to full operating temp, then shut it down and allow it to cool completely. Figure on making at least 8 - 10 miles trips to get it up to full temp. This helps the process of getting everything fully seated and broken in.

 

I broke mine in on a trip to Az from SC 5000 mile round trip, runnin 75 and 80. 91,000 on the clicker now and no probs.

 

Thanks for the advice.

 

I agree with Watermelon either put some weight in the bed or hook it to a 2-4,000 lb trailer and run it for a good 4-5,000 miles. But first get your 500-mile diff gear break in before you haul or pull a trailer. IMO the longer you can run it non stop during this 4-5,000 mile run the better. My wife and I drove mine for 33 hours non-stop except for fuel with about 1100 lbs in the bed plus luggage in the back seat. My self I think that is the best and only way to break in a diesel engine. Also those who do break in their engine that way usually have good running engines.

I know some say that is too hard on the engine but when I drove long haul we would take a new or even a remanufactured engine and load the truck up to 80,000 lbs to break them in and we never had any problems so such. In fact the person who built our engines wanted them broke in that way. One thing to remember is that these engines were designed to be worked hard all day long 7 days a week and not drive 1-2 miles to the grocery store and back home.

JMHO

 

Is driving em hard enought or is it mandatory to upt a load on em???

 

After you get 5 or 6 hundred miles on it. Take it on a short road trip and hold it tight for a few miles. Loading is not mandatory. Lets face it , most CTDs arent worked anyway.

 

See that's what i'm looking at. Not saying i'm buying it to be a show truck but I don't tow really at all. other than my 600 lb yamaha grizzly 660 but that goes in the bed without an issue. but i'm buying it because I researched and i want a few things, decent mpg, stick shift, reliablity, long lasting. So that leads me to the only solution which is a CTD which fullfils my requierements. I won't have to worry about driving it for short trips. to go anywhere I need to at least go 8 miles to get into town. I might be able to borrow a trailer from someone. plus i want to break it in good because my philosophy is go all out and spend a nice chunk of change on a truck and then keep it and take care of it for many many years. at least 10 or more

 

I had to pull my camper (8500lbs) to get mine to "break in" I don't think empty you can work it hard enough to get it broken in correctly. Even doing that every weekend and driving it empty every week day, it still took about 10k miles to get it fully broken in. Good luck with your new ride, I know you'll enjoy it.