[Shotimes] Interesting...porting the intake

[Bruce Malachuk]

even though I've always bought used cars, and had plenty of hand me down
ones from my family, every one of the new cars my parents ever had were run
hard in the first 100 miles or so. I can remember a 91 Sable with a 3.8 that
my father got as a company car. Well the first night he had it on the way
home from the dealer, he couldn't resist taking it home the backway through
a fairly steep and windy mountain road. He had been in love with FWD cars
cause of the ability to power out of corners so well. Well at the time I was
14-15 and was riding home with him, but it was a constant mash the gas, then
let the engine brake the car befoer the turn. And many of these turns were
rated at like 15-20mph. Then as soon as the apex of the turn was reached,
mash the gas again to the next corner. Well this one stretch of roads was
about 8 miles of that up hill in september in the Catskills of NY. He drove
the car lightly for the following day for about 200 miles on a family trip
to visit my uncle in Vermont. The very following day he had the oil changed.

The acceleration and power that engine produced is what hooked me on the
Taurus & Sable body way back when, and when that car was handed to me at 75k
for me to drive to and from High School, I can safely say that it sure felt
stronger than any 3.8 Sable or Taurus I have ever been in. I just had the
oppertunity to work on a 92 Sable, 3.8 with 37k miles on it a few weeks
back. That car was old woman driven, and prolly "gently" broken in. Even
after a full tune, new motormount, tranny flush and fill, and a PS flush,
that car still didn't feel as strong as that 91 I had in HS. I broke 2 front
motor mounts in that 91 that I had in the first year of driving it. Little
did my parents know how I really drove that car, loads of 0-60 runs from
stoplight run with my friends when we off the mountain, but never going over
that cause we were all "new" drivers and didn't want to lose our licenses.
But that car was broken in hard, and it ran really strong.

I really believe, you break in a car like its a got some power and it will
feel like that all its life. You breakin like an old lady and the car will
feel like one all its life. Right there could be the difference as to why
some feel stronger than others.

Bruce
94 Opal Frost MTX
93 Black ATX - winter beater then parts car :-)

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Ron Porter" <ronporter@prodigy.net>
To: "'John Weidenbenner'" <johnjweid@earthlink.net>; "'SHOtimes'"
<shotimes@autox.team.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 10:55 AM
Subject: RE: [Shotimes] Interesting...porting the intake


> Supposedly it is mostly the rings, followed by the wear patterns on the
> bearings. For all of the articles that I save, the one I didn't was a Pat
> Bedard article in C&D in maybe the late '80s on this subject. He was
talking
> to a Ford engineer (IIRC) about break-in, and the engineer described the
> "drive it like you stole it" method. The engineer brought up an example of
a
> press fleet car (a GT 5.0....I think...it's been awhile!!) that was
flogged
> unmercifully. When Ford got it back, they said it was the
strongest-running
> GT that they ever experienced! They supposedly removed the engine to tear
it
> down to see if they could determine exactly why that was.
>
> Personal experience: My two brand-new SHOs were broken in this way (my
wife
> burned the tire on the'99 driving out of the dealership!!). Both the '89
and
> '99 were strong runners in relation to other SHOs out there. In fact when
> the '99 had about 2K on it, it went to Atlanta for the Convention and was
> flogged at the track and dragstrip in 100-degree heat. After it got
through
> the full 10K to really loosen it up, it was the best (at the time) running
> Gen 3 SHO at the dragstrip (and yes, Kirk, at a couple of different
> tracks!!)
>
> Ron Porter
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: shotimes-admin@autox.team.net [mailto:shotimes-admin@autox.team.net]
> On Behalf Of John Weidenbenner
> Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 2:20 AM
> To: SHOtimes
> Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Interesting...porting the intake
>
>
> What difference does that make? Looser bearings? More or less
> sealing/friction of the piston rings? "Bedding" in the engine block (like
> making the brakes work "better")?
>
> John W.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Paul Nimz" <niks@dlogue.net>
> To: "Dave Kegel" <d.kegel@comcast.net>; "SHOtimes"
<shotimes@autox.team.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 06, 2003 12:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [Shotimes] Interesting...porting the intake
>
>
> > I think it is in how the motor is broke in.
> >
> > Paul Nimz
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