Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Running in

Apologies if there is already a thread on this but I've not been able to find one.

Having done just 240 miles in the Plus 4, the last 120 or so have been at a steady 70ish on the motorway at around 3,000ish revs. The other miles were clocked up around country and town with max revs around 3kish up towards 4k on the very odd occasion.

I've since been told by a friend that I should be pottering about and avoiding the motorway for the first 1-2k miles to avoid damage. There is no guidance in the Morgan instruction manual (or at least I've not managed to find it), so what are the rules on this?

Does the new GDI engine need running in and if so why don't Morgan give guidance?

Would the 120 motorway miles cause any issues?

What is the recommended conduct for the remaining running in period (if in fact there is one and if so how long is it)?

More to the point is the paranoia justified in these days of modern engines?

Cheers

My understanding is that all new engines nowadays are run up and bench tested before being shipped. So I would expect the Ford GDI to go through the same process even when supplied to 3rd party. Materials and build quality are much better nowadays. If you think about it if it was in a Ford you would just drive it.

The main thing is not to labour the engine, in other words be in too low a gear when on hills or at low speeds. I would say how you've been driving is fine. And 70 at 3k rpm is not going do any harm, and even 4k rpm will be fine. I am a firm believer of an early oil and filter change, at 3k miles or at least 5k miles, it will help prolong the engine life. Once you get to around 3k miles I would start to Rev the engine a bit more, now and again and then it will start to free up naturally. So the odd spurt in a higher gear when overtaking or want a burst of speed. Bumbling about forever will just leave the engine tight. I would even consider changing the oil again at 6k miles.

I always run in for 1000 miles and take a similar approach to Adrian. However that fact that you do not need to change the oil until the first service must mean that new engines require very little running in.

All the new cars I've had since about 2000 all came with roughly the same the instruction:

Avoid excess revs in any gear, some had a specific limit for the frst 240 miles, 500 miles and others didn't.
Keep the revs changing, don't stay at any fixed speed.
Really avoid driving in a high gear at low revs (labouring).

All didn't require a first oil change, the BMW 320 and Mercedes E350 first service were both at 12 months.

The +4 has a ford engine, Mazda gearbox and a Differential from a component supplier to GM in Thailand.

In the absence of any other instruction I'd probably change the oil and filter at 6 months and for the first 1000 miles be generally kind to the motor and not thrash it or make it suffer! .

There's no need to run in a modern engine, just driving it in a normal fashion is perfectly ok. But be sensible, don't slog it at low revs, that not good for an engine new or old. If you are typical of most Morgan owners and don't do high mileages, the first annual service is perfectly adequate.

Now done just 600 miles in our +4 and have been driving it much along the lines others have said here - mainly on A/B roads changing gear, maintain reasonable revs and not allowing engine to labour. This weekend was the first time I had dropped a gear and overtaken another car maxing about 4 k revs.

I have just booked 1,000 mile check up service and will get oil changed then also. Probably not strictly necessary but, like Adrian, believe an early oil/filter change is better than not.

Just out of interest, first fuel fill brim to brim (267 to 570 miles) shows 39 mpg. Most importantly, really enjoying driving the car though, hope you are too

If you buy a Lamborghini, McLaren, Aston.... or any other exotica, you will be advised to run in the engine. I always run them in. Even my tractor needed a run in.

1,000 miles of pottering about, frequent gear changes, under 4,000 rpm (depending on engine) for the first 500 and keep the revs constantly moving, next 500 gradually move the revs up. Don't sit at one speed.... and don't labour the engine.

I doubt you've done any damage at all.

It's interesting that there are two schools of thought on the subject - I recall with one of my sports cars that some new owners followed the 'drive it like you stole it' advice and thrashed their engines from day one. I prefer a little patience and have always been rewarded with quiet, oil tight engines.

BMW Oilhead boxer motorbike engines are interesting from a running in point of view. Owners who treat them gently whilst running in, find that they generally consume oil until at least 15,000 miles as the cylinder bores have glazed over.
The advice given to me by my dealer was to run them in to 500 miles without slogging at low revs then start revving through the range to max and no use of fully synthetic oil until the first annual service. Following that advice, none of my bikes used oil.
My Audi TT, bought used with a lady first owner, drank oil. Probably treated the engine far too gently!

Was she a hairdresser too?

No argument with any of the above. More a touch of opposite advice.

On a recent MOCA run, one of the 'brothers' in his (new to him) Anniversary +8 suffered massive misfiring.

Cutting to the chase: the car had been driven gently with long life as an objective and everything had coked up.

On our last run Smithy confessed to driving with 5,000rpm. We still have to find out what gear he was in. Here we have a 100km/hr, 62mph speed limit. Aargh!