Question about Break-In

[Ir-Kingu]

As a newbie I'm going to ask this question;
excuse me if this topic has been beat to death.

Does "Break In," mean higher then normal Wear metals? Is there a correlation between Elevated (relative to Universal Averages) wear metals and "Break In."

For example my 05 Frontier had wear metals in-line with the universals on its first UOA. Shouldn't I have expected wear metals to be significantly higher?

http://theoildrop.server101.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=3;t=002431

I have heard many explanations about how during break in the rings are seating in the cylinders, valves are seating into the valve seats...

If this was really, the case wouldn't that mean higher wear numbers then the universal averages show?

 

[Ugly3]

The answer to your question is yes, you should normally see elevated wear metals in a UOA during the "break-in" period.

 

[JHZR2]

I think a lot of it depends on the manufacturing process. A lot of engines these days come from the factory more or less 'broken in', there is less going on in there than one would think.

There is usually an assumption that there is lots of leftover dirt and junk in the engine from manufacturing. Maybe so, but I think that is a little bit overdone too. I just pulled the factory filter in my 04 saab 9-3, when I did a halfway filter change and UOA on the factory fill in there. I saw a few metal particulates, but nothing significant at all.

JMH