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Welcome to the forum Andrew!..Wise choice on the manual with the very nice 1LT wheels. Drive it for 500mi..then get an oil change to Synthetic and that will get rid of all the factory/break-in metal shavings and synthetic is best for these little engines..better gas mileage and longer engine life..I know the excitement of a new car..drive it fast and hard after the first 10mi..good for beak-in and don't do any mods until you drive enough miles to get bored..any mods are really not needed with all that you have.

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3 hours ago, Retired old Gearhead said:

 drive it fast and hard after the first 10mi..good for beak-in  

Gearhead is right on as usual! If driven hard, engine is much less likely to build carbon deposits on valves and pistons.   With carbon deposits, the valves do not close completely, causing hot gases to escape prematurely past the valves, which further deteriorates the valves. We got 16 of those valves in the 1.4 ecotec! Then you get loss of compression, rough idle, misfire, etc.

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Welcome! We'll obviously want pics as soon as allowable. :)

 

Gearhead's right on about the early oil change, too. Always a good idea on a brand new car after the break-in period.

 

And yes, little engines will work better for longer if you let them rev. Having a stick shift will help that quite a bit - should be fun. These are nimble, responsive little cars for the price you pay.

 

Again, welcome!

 

Duncan B)

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21 hours ago, Duncan said:

  Always a good idea on a brand new car after the break-in period

Duncan B)

Duncan, enjoy reading your posts. But I have to differ on requiring oil change soon after break-in period, because owner's manual stipulates break-in period of only 500 miles.

 

If there are any leftover metal shavings in the engine, those will be trapped by the oil filter continuously. That is one of the main functions of in-line oil filters. If someone does perform oil & filter change after only 500 miles, I would be shocked if they find any metal shavings in the oil. Any such debris will be trapped into the filter. Therefore it is beneficial to change oil filter at every oil change.

 

I would have the first oil change performed around half the recommended oil change miles. No reason to dump original good quality oil any sooner than that. My new Spark is approaching 1000 miles, and the oil looks as clear as new, and not a drop lower than when I drove off the lot. Same with all 4 tires. No drop in psi. No leaks anywhere. Everything is working! I am amazed at the initial car quality of probably the cheapest car on the market. 

Edited by Bobby MSME
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Thanks for the welcome everyone! I plan on changing the oil soon, just to be safe. In my line of work, I get good Dexos full synthetic for pretty cheap and it never hurts to have new oil! ;) I'm a nut about maintenance anyway so no big deal there. Also, I've found that this car does love to rev! Shouldn't be hard to keep those valves clean. I'll get some pics very soon and post them up!

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1 hour ago, andrewbedwards89 said:

 I've found that this car does love to rev! Shouldn't be hard to keep those valves clean. I'll get some pics very soon and post them up!

My 2017 LS seldom RARELY goes above 4000 rpm, even when I jump on the gas pedal to merge with fast traffic. Cruising at 60 mph, the engine is loafing at barely 2000 rpm.  But you are right, the rpm's go up fast when gas pedal is touched. That is typical for small 4 cylinder overhead cam engines. 

 

In the very old days, new cars came with so called "break-in oil". Now-a-days the cars are manufactured with much tighter tolerances, and basically do not need to be "broken-in". So they are shipped with same recommended oil for future oil changes.

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