Any ideas on breaking in a new B18C5 H1 motor? When I raced Porsches we just raced right from the get go.... w/o any special break-in.

What about my B18c5?

What are the other racers doing? This is a race only motor...

We are shooting for 1 year rebiuld???
CTR's, Full race ported head, big cam, Hondata...run 110 octane

Paul
AZ #51 ITR H1
Looking for plexi...lightweight hood.....hatch???

 

On a fresh engine, I usually take one day to break in an engine.

First, I drive around at very low speed around the shop parking lot for about 30 minutes just as a sanity check to make sure things are ok, coolant not overheating, no leaks, etc.

Then at the track, I drive four sessions. The first session, I set a redline of 5000 rpm and drive mostly at part throttle. Each following session, I raise the redline by 1000 rpm and start to drive with heavier throttle openings. By the fourth session at 8000 rpm and full throttle, it should be nicely broken in (change the oil after this). After that, it's time to race!

These are high rpm engines, so it is probably wise to run them in nicely, since the associated stresses are so high. But everyone has their opinions on break-in, but I figure it's better safe than sorry.

 

I think the best way is to start the car up and let it idle a good 15-20 min. Make sure everything is good. Use a non-detergent oil during break in. Go out and do some 30-55mph runs in 3rd or 4th gear and let the engine decell on it's own, no braking. Do this about 7-8 times. There's a more elaborate write up on this somewhere, but this is the gist of it. Basically place a load on the engine like this to properly seat the rings. If it was a street car I'd say drive normal (don't baby, but don't dog it) for about 500-1000 miles. Oil change then go have fun. Since it's a race motor with a yearly rebuild, change the oil and go track the **** out of it after this. The consensus of breaking the motor in like you will be driving it seems to hold true.

You are using OEM pistons/rings so I think proper break-in (whatever that actually is) may be less crucial then with a forged bottom end. Only reason I say this is from my understanding and past experience, forged pistons have a high rate of silicone in them and expand and contract more so then an OEM cast piston and seem to have more issues with blow-by. This may have no result at all during break-in, just how they are. As long as the block was align-honed properly (or possibly bored and honed depending) and all tolerances are in check you should be ok.

 

why not have whoever built the motor for you break it in on an engine dyno

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by black3door &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">why not have whoever built the motor for you break it in on an engine dyno </TD></TR></TABLE>

In a perfect world.....

Fact of the matter is most rebuild themselves and don't exactly have access and more then most shops don't even have access to one themselves.

 

i put 1000 street miles on my H2 prepped motor before taking it on track.. 500 of nothing over 5 grand, etc, and 500 of easy driving not going up to redline or anything but using vtec.. i had the luxury of a platable vehicle though.. had I not, i would have probably done as advised, taking it easy and building up RPMs with each session as mentioned earlier..

 

I think my engine builder said it best; "If you break it in slow, it'll be a slow motor. If you break it in fast, it'll be a fast motor".

I think running a few sessions like Gansan explained works pretty well, and that's essentially how I do it.

$.02

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johng &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I think my engine builder said it best; [i]"If you break it in slow, it'll be a slow motor. If you break it in fast, it'll be a fast motor" </TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree.... Hey Paul, You know how I ran at California Speedway a couple of weeks ago? That was breaking in a brand new B20 motor. Were at Mid Ohio now so we'll see just how good it is this weekend?

Cheers,
Kiwi

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Mr Milano &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">The consensus of breaking the motor in like you will be driving it seems to hold true.</TD></TR></TABLE>

 

from one of the best motor builders in the US...:
http://www.importbuilders.com/breakin.html

 

Why not ask the folks that put the motor together (meaning, not ask folks that assemble many or few motors, rather ask the actual person that did the work on this motor)?

 

always use mobil-1 to break in your motors. synthetic oils can be soooo slippery that the rings do not seat right. mobil-1 is used as the break in oil by porsche, lotus, ferrari, corvettes from the factory, vipers, ect. it has modifiers in it to assist with ring seating. why use dino iol at all? what did you pay for that motor anyway? dino oil sucks by comparison. now i dont build high test honda motors, but i used to rebuild kubota, komatsu, and offshore diesels for a living. they make nsx motors look cheap.

 

hundredbuckhatch,

I thought Slick 50 would be good what do you think???

Maybe I could combine that with a A/F of 18:1 ???
I heard that that was good for the first 1000 miles but only if I have a place to leave it WFO for long periods.......

and WFO???

That means full throttle... I forgot you might not know what it means since you drive like a old lady on the track... not to put old ladies down though : )

You know if you get real bored and this is the best you can come up with perhaps you should invest in a razor and shave your palms : )
I heard they are getting real hairy or maybe you should just get a date!

I'll see you in Sept loser...


Besides that stuff......
I appreciate the real responses on my break-in question!!!

Thanks,
Paul

 

For my GT4 engine, I ran it for 20-30 minutes in the shop between 2000-3000 rpms. CHanged the oil. Then ran it in the practice session on track limiting rpm to 5000 for the first lap and then going up 500 rpms for each additional lap. Changed oil at the end of the session. Ran the **** out of it..........never had a problem until I shifted from 5th gear at 90+ mph down to second gear. It done blowed up.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by johng &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I think my engine builder said it best; "If you break it in slow, it'll be a slow motor. If you break it in fast, it'll be a fast motor".</TD></TR></TABLE>

was he talking about how fast it will be back at his shop for a rebuild? J/K

I agree that the engine should be driven progressivly harder over the course of a day, cooling (and checking for leaks, etc) in between sessions.