I posted in the EG forum but I did not get detailed answeres.

So here's the deal:

I have a motor with 10miles on it directly from Honda. It was one of Nikos' trainwrecked TSX motors. This is NOT a built motor, just stock from Honda.

I bougt the tranny separate so before mating the two together, I installed a new Competition Clutch with resurfaced oem flywheel.

Now, I need to break both the motor, AND the clutch in.

I've heard that it's best to run your car hard through the gears to break the motor in. Surely, that can't be good for breaking in the clutch.

What are your thoughts on this?

 

since there are few ways of breaking in your motor, other being taking it slow and geting on it gradually, i will say go with that one. I never used the hard break in process on my 2 rebuilds. Always used the daily driven, slow driving method where you get on it gardually and let the car slow down by its self while in gear. Did this to my buddys LS/VTEC and my gsr-t setup and works like charm. Everyone has their own way so you gotta choose.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by litterbox &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've heard that it's best to run your car hard through the gears to break the motor in. Surely, that can't be good for breaking in the clutch.

What are your thoughts on this?

</TD></TR></TABLE>

I have never heard about breaking in a motor by driving it hard. IMO that is bad for the engine because the piston rings valves etc should not be stressed while they are trying to get properly seated in the valve seals and cylinder walls. As for breaking in both the clutch and the engine at the same time what is so abnormal about having to do both at the same time, as everytime someone buys a brand new car that is what is supposed to be done to it.

I would just go with typical breakin procedures for a new car. No harsh stopping, keep revs below 4000ish rpms no constant speed driving and you should be all good.

 

There are two schools of thought on breaking in an engine. One of them is basically a really "rough" break in while the other is a relatively soft break in that is recommended by most dealerships. Heres a link to the "rough" break in.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm

 

When it comes to a break in it really doesn't matter what you do. We build our race motors and put them on the dyno the day we finish them to say 9k on a V8. The first pull always gives us the lowest number. Normally by the second or third the valves have set in and sealed. All this talk about setting the rings in is a procedure that was true ooh say about 15-20 years ago. This was done because of miss machined parts from the machines we used back then. Today 98% of your rings are seated from the factory. They run your rings through cylinders and take of excess metal. Now before you do any breaking in just allow the engine to warm up to operating temp. and then take her out on the road. Whether you beat it in easy or hard the second you take the car to 8 or 9k the seats are gonna be were they would have been from the start.