Break in period (make me feel good)

[SlippyFist]

i got my DE5 a few months ago with 4 miles on it lol. i tried really hard to behave for those first 500 miles but it's really hard to do so with these cars. so i did end up ripping it in 2nd/3rd gear quite a few times but i avoided redlining it for multiple gears and otherwise driving it really hard. i had a 9th gen Si before this and it was a lot easier to get through break-in with it.

but man, those first 500 miles take forever to reach, and now every time i look down at the odometer, i'm like damn i can't believe i already have that many miles now

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[lilDumpsterRat]

You could literally take the engine out of the car when it's brand new, pin the rpms at 6800 RPM straight for 18 hrs then shut it down wet, no cool off. And it'd be fine. It probably wouldn't even eat more oil or have any issues whatsoever compared to a coddled engine. this is all ridiculous. the tolerances and materials used on 21st century engines are amazing. Im not aware of any experience EVER in the last 20 years where a car had a performance engine perform less well than a coddled engine because it didnt follow an elaborate break in.

 

[Superhatch]

You could literally take the engine out of the car when it's brand new, pin the rpms at 6800 RPM straight for 18 hrs then shut it down wet, no cool off. And it'd be fine. It probably wouldn't even eat more oil or have any issues whatsoever compared to a coddled engine. this is all ridiculous. the tolerances and materials used on 21st century engines are amazing. Im not aware of any experience EVER in the last 20 years where a car had a performance engine perform less well than a coddled engine because it didnt follow an elaborate break in.

So why does every mfg of any modern engine (cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, etc) ALL have break in procedures? Also anecdotal evidence doesn't count when talking about a mass produced item.

 

[fredzy]

So why does every mfg of any modern engine (cars, trucks, motorcycles, boats, etc) ALL have break in procedures? Also anecdotal evidence doesn't count when talking about a mass produced item.

Despite what everyone thinks about modern engineering and manufacturing, there are imperfections all throughout the engine - high spots on bearings, shafts, rings, walls - that will wear in in those first few miles. The break-in requirement addresses the very low probability of a worst-of-worst case resulting in warranty $$. Driving like you stole it off the lot probably won't cause you any problems. But driving easy almost definitely won't.

The break-in is basically to avoid overheating those high spots. The #1 actual risk is ring seals. If you overheat the rings, compression will be affected. Meaning power and efficiency loss, oil burning. Good luck telling a bad break-in car from a perfect break-in car. But engines do get replaced due to excessive oil consumption all the time. Subaru engines at least

Hot bearings can stick and spin - how many times have we seen a spun bearing attributed to improper break-in? Never. Except maybe Subaru again I can't help myself. My Subaru engine will make me pay for this

I'm in the camp that believes driving harder that usual while avoiding WOT/redline or extended hard driving during break-in is the best way to get everything seated. Tinfoil hat warning - I think the window to get the rings seated optimally is short, so a prolonged beak-in won't HURT anything, but also doesn't result in optimal performance. A Honda engineer might agree with that but it would never be worth the risk for the OEM to recommend anything like that as it would be very easy for people to get that wrong.

 

[fredzy]

I'm in the camp that believes driving harder that usual while avoiding WOT/redline or extended hard driving during break-in is the best way to get everything seated.

Also forgot to add for OP's sake that yeah, a few WOT redline pulls here and there aren't going to cause any issues

 

[Rhorn]

Hey guys, I was told that these motors are already broken in from the factory but it seems people have different definitions of what that means. Ihave 150-200 miles on the fl5. I had planned on staying pretty chill until the 500-600 mile range the manual suggests until yesterday happened where i was out with the boys (Supra and 911): After the car was warm i did a couple pulls up to 7k rpm from 1st through 3rd. Today I wake up and feel like an idiot. Any thoughts?

Considering how new everything is, if you really broke something you'd know immediately.

 

[atucker80]

You could literally take the engine out of the car when it's brand new, pin the rpms at 6800 RPM straight for 18 hrs then shut it down wet, no cool off. And it'd be fine. It probably wouldn't even eat more oil or have any issues whatsoever compared to a coddled engine. this is all ridiculous. the tolerances and materials used on 21st century engines are amazing. Im not aware of any experience EVER in the last 20 years where a car had a performance engine perform less well than a coddled engine because it didnt follow an elaborate break in.

Couldn't agree more. The shit manufacturers do for torture testing and vetting of engines before sending them out to consumers is absolutely wild. (Ford's was pretty well documented on the 5.0, and I'm pretty certain Honda isn't doing less.. lol)

Will defects happen? Absolutely, but to think you can trace them back to the difference in break in period is absolutely absurd. If a failure occurs, it was going to fail regardless.

 

[AspecR]

You could literally take the engine out of the car when it's brand new, pin the rpms at 6800 RPM straight for 18 hrs then shut it down wet, no cool off. And it'd be fine. It probably wouldn't even eat more oil or have any issues whatsoever compared to a coddled engine. this is all ridiculous. the tolerances and materials used on 21st century engines are amazing. Im not aware of any experience EVER in the last 20 years where a car had a performance engine perform less well than a coddled engine because it didnt follow an elaborate break in.

Well said, at my dealership we’ve had guys that did crazy strict break ins and guys that were beating the limiter before they left the compound. There’s never been discernible difference in performance or longevity between any of the cars. We took a 410whp FK8 in on trade that had 122k miles and that was beat on from day 1. It’s still running somewhere in northern Florida right now.

 

[Fresh]

Based off your initial post, I’ll make you feel good… I drive mine like I stole it half the time since it had 0 miles on it from the dealer. They say no break-in… I believe it anymore… and I used to work at Honda R&D Americas… So if the engineers there say it, it’s legit.

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