Engine break in? What's your take on it.

Thx for the info....... nothing like getting it right.......
 
i have just over 500 miles and was about to change my oil. I have not red lined it yet or even had the vtec kick in. i usually shift at 2.5 or 3 and rarely go above 4.5k (on ramps and what not).
should i start to get on it? should i change my oil? (i just imagine metallic chips in the oil from break in, i got it with 11 miles on it)
 
If I had to do it over again (I'm at about 9300 miles), I'd follow the advice in this thread. I pushed mine a little harder than you are but rarely VTEC'd, rarely accelerated hard, etc. and ended up using some oil during the initial 7000 miles. It doesn't seem to be using oil since my last oil change but the fact that it did is going to make me wonder about this car forever. (I'm totally bummed because my "perfect" Honda obviously isn't perfect. :()

Can't speak to changing the oil. In my case, I went with what both the manual and my local dealer said and didn't change the oil for the first time until it got down to 15% on the meter. Never done it that way before, but I've never had an engine that used 0w20 oil, either. I figured Honda must have a pretty good handle on the metallic chips issue or they wouldn't be telling me to quit worrying about it.

That's my opinion. But I don't pretend to know as much as some of the other people here, much less the Honda folks who designed the engine... :)
 
Honestly, I didn't treat my si any different during break in than I do now. I have around 1200 miles on it now. I've redlined it more than I haven't. Banged the rev limiter. Spun the tires. It still feels like the day I bought it. Maybe a little stronger actually. Not low on oil and had no problems. A friend of mine told me to drive it during break in how I'm gonna drive it for the rest of its life. He believes if you baby it during break in then hot rod it all its life your going to have nothing but issues. Probably just a old myth though.
 
420Coupe said:
WHORE the living SH!T out of it for the break it, ensure a proper piston ring seal. Not sure if i can find it but there was a study done with a K20Z3 stock vs stock same block lettering as well AAAA 1 coupe 1 sedan. In the study one was babied and one was not, both dyno'd same day same dyno same tires etc tire PSI all factors that could be controlled were, and were identical. The one that was whored put out about 5wtq over the babied and about 7 whp difference, this was averaged out between 3 pulls compared between the two cars. Also the babied was getting worse mpg over the one that was whored-in for break-in.
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Very descriptive. You have a way with words!
 
I've broken mine in pretty aggressively. I've got about 1,300 miles now and have been in VTEC territory on a daily basis since about 50 miles or so. Just checked oil and I appear to be consuming none (knock on wood)!
 
^wow, I beat on my ilx (shares the same motor) for a solid week and overreved it once and am still at 90% with more miles. But, then again, I baby the car almost every day and shift at 2k or below on cold starts (car seems to like that better).
 
Not sure about the exact miles but i know that i didn't get the service due soon thing on my Si until i hit 11300 kms (7000 miles)and it didn't get changed until 12325 kms
And i drove it like i stole it around town the first few weeks i had it often v-techin', also did a fair bit of highway miles approx 8000 kms of the 12325 kms were highway mileage and most of the highway cruising was at 125 km/h or 77 mph with the occasional bump up to 210 km/h or 132 mph.
During this time i had to add 2 liters of oil to it, first time caught me by surprise,had just finished a 3000 km run in the car and was just refueling to do another 3000 km run and remembered them saying something about oil consumption with the K24 and checked and sure enough it wasn't on the stick, so added a liter and a half and got it good again and hit the highway again and had to add the other half liter to it before it hit its first service.
 
so...my car is ******?

i babied it and didnt hit vtec till 890 miles...even then i didn't hit it all the time. i always let it warm up. normally i shift at 2800rpm...what did i do wrong?
 
momo said:
so...my car is ******?

i babied it and didnt hit vtec till 890 miles...even then i didn't hit it all the time. i always let it warm up. normally i shift at 2800rpm...what did i do wrong?
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Your car is going to be fine ......... but you need to go though the rpm ranges........... tak're up to redline and let're down easy............ hold near RL for 5 to 20 sec. ... (if the noise bothers you crank up the radio)........ But it's good to take it though it's paces once and a while.......
 
momo said:
great...oh, rechecked my mileage...i'm actually 2,032 miles at 60%. my mistake
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It's not like the straw that broke the camels back.......... these engines will go a couple 100 thou .............. what the difference is between when to start RL'ing one that's new is something that will get you a extra sec. on the drag strip........ It's not an engine goes to the scrap yard thing........ but it's good to go full range with the rpm's from time to time..... One reason is to get the oil rings seated(and most new engines have such hard walls now days it takes a little more to seat 'em)
Another reason to RL is to keep from creating a ridge on the wall of the cylinder which though time if not done it will have a hard time down the road getting the rpm to go past the point you normally run.......... you could go to say.... 20000m and still start your redlining it's not going to hurt but the longer you wait the less it will preform down the road........ No worry's Mate ........
 
I did maybe 500 miles taking it easy then at 501 miles hit redline and drove it like I would normally would.... 131K miles and has never burned a single drop of oil..
 
Anonymous said:
If I had to do it over again (I'm at about 9300 miles), I'd follow the advice in this thread. I pushed mine a little harder than you are but rarely VTEC'd, rarely accelerated hard, etc. and ended up using some oil during the initial 7000 miles. It doesn't seem to be using oil since my last oil change but the fact that it did is going to make me wonder about this car forever. (I'm totally bummed because my "perfect" Honda obviously isn't perfect. :()

Can't speak to changing the oil. In my case, I went with what both the manual and my local dealer said and didn't change the oil for the first time until it got down to 15% on the meter. Never done it that way before, but I've never had an engine that used 0w20 oil, either. I figured Honda must have a pretty good handle on the metallic chips issue or they wouldn't be telling me to quit worrying about it.

That's my opinion. But I don't pretend to know as much as some of the other people here, much less the Honda folks who designed the engine... :)
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I did the same thing on my 2012 si. I babied it the first few thousand miles and it seemed to be using a good bit of oil. (i would say probably 1.5 quarts in 7k miles) I took the car in after it chimed in at 15% and have not noticed much oil consumption after the first oil change(although i am sure that the rings are seated now that i missed a gear from 3-4 and went down to 2nd and knocked her about 8k rpms :) ). I now have almost 9600 miles on it.
 
Since I asked myself the same exact questions here are my 2 cents. I believe one should drive it like they plan to for the future but for short periods in the beginning. The SIs at least are built and meant to be revved so not revving them a bit in the first 1k would actually not break in the engine since it would not even be exposed to those ranges. That being said when I drive my new Si I vtec it for a fast take over once or twice a trip and then drive it like any regular sedan not higher than 3 4 k in between.

The only thing I tend not to do break in or not is to go all the way with it when the engine is still cold, I wait for the cold light to go away and when the engine smooths down I have some fun. Either wise I think it is guaranteed wear out on the engine in the long term.

For that matter I found for city driving is difficult to always go high rev and max the engine since getting to 60 or 80 km is so easy now :)
 
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