i know most people are going to say you should break in the motor on the dyno and some say you should drive like a grandma for like 750 miles. Also it depends on where you get your car dyno'ed.

i would like to hear from some reputable people on what the best route would be.

btw its a gsr all forged internals bolt ons supertech springs crower stage 3 cams....etc...

i have a basemap on my hondata s300 right now for a gsr.


so if some of you honda gureas could put a little knowledge in i would appreciate it very much

 

there is no break in process all you gotta do is seat the rings if the motor was built right and u have a good tuner throw it on the dyno and make power

 

there are so many schools of thought but i have to agree.

back in the day with the rpms for 10 mins and all that is because the cam lobes relied on splashing of oil for lubrication and they needed to wear into the lifters.

i fired my car up, idled til the fan came on, put it on the trailer, went to evans.

never had a problem. dyno'd originally in juneish 07, trapped 148mph til i sold it last year. only had the head off because i lifted it.

 

Personally on my car...i let it run for about 30 mins at idle...did an oil change....drove it up and down the block a few times with about 50% throttle....did another oil change...then straight to the dyno



i get free oil and filters..so maybe i just like doing oil changes LOL rather be safe then sorry

 

It's been said in this thread. Get your car to idle & check for leaks. After your car has gotten up to operating temps (10-15 minute idle), shut her off if you didn't find any leaks. You should be good to take it to your tuner

 

Initial startup process for new cylinders/rings:
Fill the motor up with 30W non detergent oil (quality does not matter). Just buy the cheapest you can find. Also, pick up the cheapest oil filter you can find (usually Fram). Check the dipstick periodically to see when the oil pan is full. Try not to fill higher than the upper most dot on the dip stick. It should be around 4 quarts (remember, you need a little extra oil for the vtec oil line).
Fill the motor with a 50/50 mixture of coolant to water. Believe it or not, the more water this mixture has, the cooler the engine will run. But, you need antifreeze in colder climates to prevent coolant freeze/expansion, as well as to prevent the water pump and sleeves from corroding. So, you would be fine to run 70/30 water/coolant ratio in the summer. Water does evaporate though, so check the level a little more often.
Make SURE you have your oil drain plug and oil filter installed, as well as your fill cap re-tightened.
Now, disconnect the ecu and turn the motor over for roughly 30 seconds to build up oil pressure. This is the easiest way to ensure you will not be injecting fuel and spark into the cylinders. Reinstall the ecu you will be using.
Fire the motor up and check for leaks. Make sure to check around the vtec oil line, as well as around the corners of the head, and underneath the distributor. These are common places for motors in general to leak oil. Make sure the oil pressure light extinguishes immediately. If not, turn the car off and troubleshoot. Let the car reach full operating temperature. Immediately begin to tune the car for a 14.1-15.1 AFR at idle. The closer to 14.7:1 the better. That's it. For the rest of the tuning, I'd suggest a street tune first then tune on the dyno, but every tuner has his/her own ways.

Oil changing schedule:
Startup - 30w non detergent, change after warm up
after 20 miles - your favorite non-syn
after 100 miles - your favorite non-syn
after 500 miles - your favorite non-syn
after 1000 miles - your favorite non-syn/synthetic (it is now safe to run synthetic)

You should stop seeing metal shavings in the oil after the 100 mile oil change. I strongly recommend using a magnetic oil drain plug for freshly built motors. You don't want all those shavings being pumped to the bearings, cams, or splashing on the cylinder walls...bad. Don't worry though, they will be there, no matter how close the clearances are.

Now for the break in. Try to vary the revs as much as possible, with alot of short blasts. It is very important that you let the engine "brake" itself by just letting off the throttle and letting the vehicle slow down on it's own, while in gear. This creates a vaccum in the cylinder and forces the rings outward, which wears down the peaks in the cylinder's fresh hone. Do this for the first 20 miles, and then proceed to beat the **** out of the motor, up to it's maximum rev range, as long as it is tuned accordingly. As long as the bearings are within spec and the rod bolts were torqued correctly, there is NOTHING to worry about.

I guarantee you WILL NOT burn oil using this break in method. If you do, you probably have leaky valve seals or bad rings/cylinder hone, or maybe possibly even other major problems with alignment of the sleeves themselves.

 

alright. i also read that most people run non detergant oil for the first start up let it run till engine is warmed up. drain the oil and refill it with non detergant oil. not sure wheather or not you change the filter too ( i would imagine since small metal shaving may get in there).

also they said they would do a compression test every 50 miles and once the pressure in the cylinders were withing 5 psi or less. the rings are set.

 

"break in" oil, warm the car up, let it idle 20-30 minutes, get it running properly, check your work, leaks etc. change the oil and filter, put whatever oil your gona use in, and drive it around for 30 minutes varying the throttle, come back, change the oil and filter once again. beat the **** out of the car and enjoy it.

 

i want my car to last....so im not gonna beat the **** out of it.

 

and also its runnning on a basemap so i need to get it tuned so i cant beat the **** out of it.

bad information

 

tuned then beat it.. great information if built correctly..


just like any new car, you want to get into the upper RPMs to seat everything correctly.

do some research on breaking in a new engine and youll understand why.

 

then dont rebuild your engine, get a low mileage one from a junkyard and swap it in directly, change the oil, and drive it like a bitch

 

Backed off the lift from idling for 15 minutes and oil change....moved 10 feet onto a Dyno Dynamics....started 9500 rpm pulls....that was 2007, car is outside and I drive it daily. Let me restate that...beat the **** out of it daily.

 

You want to beat on it a little more than normal. because if you don't then oil will glazed over the cylinder walls and the rings will not seat properly. You want to beat on it in short bursts.

 

i warmed my engine checked for leaks and coolant. changed the oil and beat the crap out of it.

 

Then your rings aren't going to seat and you are going to burn oil.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is a complete idiot. During the "break-in" process you are doing "1" thing, seating the rings. Nothing else is getting broken in.

To properly seat the rings you need to get the motor really hot,which intails beating on it.. and allow for coast downs in gear. Coast down in gears, will build up crank case pressure under the pistons which will expand the rings and get a full seat against the wall.

Setting correct AFR's to drive has to do with setting the correct injector offset. A Basemap from your tuner or someone that knows what they are doing will give you enough room for error if the injectors are caliberated correctly in the software.

-Prime the car with the valvecover off, to make sure oil gets to the top of the head

-Start the car, allow it to warm up, fans to kick on and while you are waiting for all of that, check for leaks.

-Drive the car, varying rpm and allow for coast down in gears.. Do WOT pulls in one gear and allow for full coast downs

Thats the break in process..

Every motor i build, every car i tune or new motors i'm tuning i ride with the customer on break-ins.. i tune the car while its on break-ins, i go the extra step to help my customers learn and make sure their stuff will last.

 

i think alot of ppl think the bearings have to break-in but that is very false. if you have bearing failure its nothing to do with breakin

 

build the engine
put in 10w30 brad penn race
let it heat up and tuned it for 14,7 afr
no leaks, turn it off and make it ready for roadaction
take it out and while streettuning making 3rth gear pulls and coastdowns for the first 50-100miles.
took it to the track and made 3-4 runs and then changed oil + filter for again 10w30 Brad penn race. (don't have the cash for the oil, oil is expensive here !)

once i ran 102+mph i knew break in was good (stock cr gsr with s2s1's, s2 intake and oem exhaust mani in a EG coupe). as long as it runs the mph i'm golden.

 

For the most part this info is ok except the subject of oil.

Saying that initial fill oil quality does not matter is very foolish, a motor should always have high quality oil and filter even more so when it is brand new and fresh. It doesn't make sense to start up your pride build with junk, poor additive oil. Correctly built motors will seat the rings fine with synthetic also. Some of these myths just won't die!!

Before you get defensive and talk about how much experience you have etc, just think about what you are saying. I suggest you educate yourself more on motor oils, I used to think along the same lines a number of years ago.....

 

start it let it run at 2500 rpm for 10-15 min then drive it like you stole it 500 mile breakin is for poeple who are unsure of the building work the rings set as soon as you turn motor over

 

yeah for the most part this is what i do. my current engine has 215-220psi compression and around 5-8% leakdown. 1500 miles so far, 475 hp, 20 dyno pulls, a day at the track and weekends of romping on.


when im first turning the motor over to build oil pressure, i take the spark plugs out so the starting doesnt have to fight the compression of the engine to turn over. engine braking is very important in the process. after a good romp doing this ive seen between 26 and 27 inches of vacuum while engine braking. normally i pull 23.5" at idle and 25.3" on engine decel. this method works.

 

well my plan was going to start the car let it warm up and check for leaks. if everything checks out. then take the car to mike at king and have him break it in/ tune it on the dyno

 

thats what i did startup let idle no leaks on the trailer to the dyno tuner takes car of the rest

 

yeah sounds like a safe and best way. thanks everyone

 

LOL - sort of used this method with Brad Penn break-in oil - worked like a charm as per sig....