not knowing a great deal about the technical side of cars, I tend to listen to my father.
Well, there is nothing wrong with that, and I'm a great believer in respecting ones elders (take note all you young whipper-snappers out there!
). However, I also think it is extremely important to recognise that engines are very, very different from a generation ago!
Having just re-built his 1.6L Golf engine for his Reynard Formula 2, he believes running it in will be of no benefit and that the long drive wouldnt do any harm whatsoever, if not good? There is good reason there to listen to my old man given his expierence with building race cars from scratch (2 clubmans) and building and maintaining his current Reynard - incluing the engine.
OMFG - a race engine is a very different beast to a road car engine. A race engine is all about achieving the absolute maximum power release, and if it blows up 10 feet after the chequered flag, then you have reached perfection.
A road car engine is all about durability. Yes, I'm sure we all want the most powerful GTI engine under the bonnet, but it won't be much use if it doesn't last very long between major rebuilds.
Honest question (and with all due respect Mr. TT) - what makes you believe that running in will do it good, or a long drive would be bad for it?
Like I said before, running it in at a constant speed, particularly in one go, for 600miles, and then simply reverting to the GLF principle afterwards is a recipe for disaster - in road car, or racing engines. The most important thing to do, is to vary the heat "cycles", and gradually build up over a generous period of time/miles, until you can eventually reach a stage of full throttle for extended periods of time (this should only really be reached after a minimum of 3,000 miles).
The vehicle handbook does touch on these principles, in a very basic and simplistic way. The car manufacturer needs to ensure that the running in procedure will be understood by the "lowest common denominator", hence why is isn't very detailed. However, that doesn't mean that the running in period can be fine tuned - particularly if the owner/driver has some basic mechanical understanding or aptitude. My own running in schedules, published in a couple of separate threads on this fourm, simply show a greater degree of refinement over the manufacturers own methods. Indeed, I always show my schedule to the relevent master technician at the relevent stealer, and they are always impressed, and often wish the manufacturers would "beef-up" their own published schedules.
PS - 10th digit is an 8 so I assume its a 2008 model then???
Yup, correct.
Also, if the first six digits of your VIN are "WVWZZZ" then that is definately a Euro spec VIN. North American market (USA, Canada & Mexico) use a very different VIN system.
