I’ve had the habit of cranking for a few seconds before plunging the pedal setting the choke to fire it up, when it has sat for a few weeks or longer. Can’t remember how I got in this habit; probably from my dad eons ago.
My nephew would borrow my pricy zero turn mower and off the start he’d open it up full and I'd cringe. I said give it half a min to run before doing this. Maybe old school stuff. I know a well-reputed motor builder who says ‘break-in’ is unnecessary. Lol, drive it out of the shop like ya stole it. Mechanics I knew back in the day (my brother was one then) seemed picky about a 500 mile break in and I’ve stuck with it.
Reminds me of a three run drag race one night a bud had against a brand new gorgeous gray ’71 Challenger driven by a kid who looked 16 with his girlfriend along. Window sticker on and dealer plate. We were sitting in a parking lot shooting da chit and he came up saying “Anybody wanna race?”
One buddy with his ’68 GTO answered 1st so I rode shotgun. On the 3rd run, the kid pulled off to the side halfway in the run. We pulled off and got out walking back to see what his problem was. It was smoking and knocking seeing thick blue haze in his headlights. Come to find the Dodge had less than a 100 miles on it. He looked quite worried. Never got da story; but wondered if the kid’s dad was a sales guy at a nearby Dodge dealership having taken the car home for the night and he snuck it out for a ride. It was around 10:30 when this went on.
