Did I goof my break-in?

BoostedSiCoupe

Banned
Banned
Joined
Mar 25, 2018
Threads
45
Messages
1,194
Reaction score
1,059
Location
Cesspool
Vehicle(s)
2019 Civic Si
Country flag
my break in consisted of mostly not shifing higher than 4k for 550 miles. maybe 4 or 5 times i went to 5k.

i dont know if one could really damage an engine by driving hard for the first 600 miles. ppl always say it could happen but ive never seen or read of an example where a persons engine was damaged by not following break in procedures.

some ppl even say its better to drive it hard during break in. so i dont know the real answer to this elusive break in theory.
Sponsored

 

NHCivicGuy

Senior Member
Joined
Oct 10, 2018
Threads
26
Messages
1,337
Reaction score
908
Location
NH
Vehicle(s)
2021 R
Country flag
my break in consisted of mostly not shifing higher than 4k for 550 miles. maybe 4 or 5 times i went to 5k.

i dont know if one could really damage an engine by driving hard for the first 600 miles. ppl always say it could happen but ive never seen or read of an example where a persons engine was damaged by not following break in procedures.

some ppl even say its better to drive it hard during break in. so i dont know the real answer to this elusive break in theory.
My thought on this is that it probably won't be likely to happen right away, but long term wise I am sure the reliability may not be as good and something may be more likely to pop up in the future. I don't have anything to back this statement up, but just my initial thoughts.
 

Luckyarmpit

Senior Member
First Name
Mike
Joined
Oct 31, 2017
Threads
26
Messages
536
Reaction score
402
Location
Garner, NC
Vehicle(s)
2018 VW Golf R, 2003 Wrangler TJ
Country flag
I babied my Si for the first 1000 miles. No hard acceleration, no high-rev takeoffs. An IC engine has over 200 moving parts to it, and I figured that even though Honda is one of the world's largest engine manufacturers, it's probably a good idea to give the engine time to 'settle in'. My hopes are that it provides me long, trouble-free engine life.
 

VooDuuChild

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Threads
22
Messages
403
Reaction score
276
Location
Westsiiiiiiiide
Vehicle(s)
2018 Civic Si, Boosted Street and Track Monster 91 CRX Si.
Country flag
Thanks, asshat.

I didn't ask if the car was ruined. I was asking if one falters the break-in period by not mixing up the driving. Everywhere they say to vary things like the RPM's, speeds and gears, but they don't say what happens if you don't. In other words, does it just "delay" the break-in, or are you going through that period and not doing as suggested without any possible reproach?

And responses such as yours or "people don't break in engines" are not helpful to what it is that I'm asking.
Wow....lol....calm down....it was a joke....to add a brief moment of levity....oh wait, this is 2018 where everyone's offended. My bad.
 

Leetcivx

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 7, 2016
Threads
12
Messages
332
Reaction score
281
Location
Lehigh valley
Vehicle(s)
2018 Si
Country flag
I didn't do any break in. I was Vit stage 1 the second week i had my Si. No issues at all. Still on the stock clutch and no slip.
 


Hijinx

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 7, 2016
Threads
2
Messages
64
Reaction score
40
Location
Montgomery, AL
Vehicle(s)
2014 Fiesta ST, 2016 Civic LX
Country flag
Thanks, asshat.

I didn't ask if the car was ruined. I was asking if one falters the break-in period by not mixing up the driving. Everywhere they say to vary things like the RPM's, speeds and gears, but they don't say what happens if you don't. In other words, does it just "delay" the break-in, or are you going through that period and not doing as suggested without any possible reproach?

And responses such as yours or "people don't break in engines" are not helpful to what it is that I'm asking.
I traveled over 1000 miles to get my AB Si Sedan. I got it through family, so it was a fun trip. Anyway, my car was 100% fresh off the trailer with 1 or 2 miles. The day I arrived in town, the car had just arrived. We did the paperwork, and I took it home. A couple days later, I drove it back over 1000 miles. I then put K-tuner on and started fiddling at 1200 miles. At 1500 miles, I loaded up TSP Stage 1 (in school, don’t have time to tune it myself). My car is now closing in on 3000 miles with no issues.

Don’t put too much thought into it.
 

pidigi

Member
First Name
Patrick
Joined
Dec 16, 2017
Threads
0
Messages
7
Reaction score
6
Location
Montreal
Vehicle(s)
Civic X SI
Country flag
Bought a new Si with 15 miles on it. I did some spirited driving right off the lot. Not like bouncing off the rev limiter or massive clutch dump launches or anything. But I did do quite a bit of quick accelerations, and bringing up the RPM's up just before red line to shift. Was just doing this occasionally, to get a feel for what the car had to offer.

The dealer told me nothing about a break in period. I only found out about this through research. If I have damaged something, what would it most likely be?
Don't worry about it. The break in of a car involves self micro adjustments of countless friction surfaces. Most moving parts will do an initial settle in. But how to induces the best settle in, we don't really know for sure. We might think to keep the engine below 3000 rpm because it sounds reasonnable, but hey, if we had 6 digits on each hand it would be 3456 rpm :).

For all we know, it might be beneficial to have a few spirited drives with the car. What would happen if you drive below 2500rpm for 3000 miles and suddenly go wild after the "break in".

The best you can do IMO is to change the oil when the car says so, put proper gasoline, and have fun.
 

D-RobIMW

www.imwtuned.com
First Name
Derek
Joined
Oct 15, 2017
Threads
1
Messages
379
Reaction score
1,075
Location
Carlisle, PA
Vehicle(s)
2017 Civic Si, 2019 Accord Sport 2.0T, 2001 Integra Type R, 2019 RDX A-Spec
Country flag
Engine "break-in" is about ring seal more than anything.

And that occurs real fast; like the first 20 minutes of run time with any kind of cylinder pressure. If they aren't seated by then, they never will be.

I had my car on the dyno for tuning at 30 miles. You're fine.
 

MuffinMcFluffin

Senior Member
First Name
Brandon
Joined
Jan 15, 2018
Threads
33
Messages
713
Reaction score
306
Location
Elk Grove, CA
Vehicle(s)
1999 Honda Civic EX, 2019 Honda Civic Si
Country flag
Wow....lol....calm down....it was a joke....to add a brief moment of levity....oh wait, this is 2018 where everyone's offended. My bad.
No no no no no, I am not one of those people. I'm on your end 1000% and then past you. I will never associate with any of them. They drive me insane.

I am not offended. I am bothered... and there is a big difference. It is bestowed back onto you, not me. As a reader, your post did not come from a place of levity. It came from a place of pompousness. It sounded like a "first world problems" resolver. It contributed absolutely nothing to the thread, including levity or cleverness. Not to mention it came from a misconstrued perspective... that is, unless you were referring to the OP. If you were responding to my post though, I am not coming from a place of "breaking the car" or something.

Every single article, video, and post about engine break-in always mentioned to vary the driving and limit the push you give. What they fail to ever mention is what happens when you don't vary your driving but you maintain under those limits. It's obviously not broken in yet, but is that "first 1000 miles" a necessity to do the break-in period in? They never say, and I'm curious to find out. It's like breaking in a television or headphones, vary the content and don't overdo any one thing at any time. But what if you play the same song over and over or loop the same clip over and over? While you don't damage the thing by keeping under certain limits, you also haven't broken it in yet... but have you passed the point where you are evenly distributing everything and you can still make up the ground on the back-end, even if you're past the "first 100 hours" or the "first 50 hours"? In the case of these two devices, no you are not. I am curious to know how engines and clutches work with this exact same thing.

There was no support whatsoever in saying "That won't work, give me your keys." No wink-wink, no deviance from a direct thought and intent... just blatant trollism. And that has absolutely nothing to do with my sensitivity levels, because I mock those who are in that camp way more than you do. They make me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

By the way, the main reason I ask this is because if the new Civic Si releases before Thanksgiving, I am traveling 480 miles south to visit family for the holiday and back, which marks... you guessed it... about 1000 miles. I want to know if I should look to rent a car for that trip to better soothe out my brand new $25k investment for all future-proofing purposes. I want to baby the hell out of this thing and get it right. There are too many times that I've skirted past doing something conventionally and it has cost me down the road. There is no need to get this one wrong here, so I'm seeking assistance from you all individuals because those videos and articles were none too helpful.
 

dblotii

Member
First Name
David
Joined
Feb 19, 2018
Threads
0
Messages
46
Reaction score
78
Location
NY
Vehicle(s)
05 Si
The technology (design, materials, manufacturing, tribology) of engine pistons, valvetrain, rings and bearings have progressed tremendously in the past few decades to the point where the parts that are most sensitive to the "break-in" period, the piston and ring assembly, are nearly bullet-proof and relatively insensitive to what you do to the engine for the first several hundred miles. On a modern engine, the rings really seat during the first minutes to hours of operation, and hardly wear at all for the next 600 hours. I have seen rings on many test engines that have a perfect face contact profile at the end of general durability testing. The main thing that happens on a modern engine during the break-in period is that engine friction declines because the piston ring tension relaxes due to the time-at-temperature. So following the manufacturer recomended break-in driving is the safe thing to do, but is unlikely to effect the life and performance of the engine.

Dave
 


VooDuuChild

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 30, 2018
Threads
22
Messages
403
Reaction score
276
Location
Westsiiiiiiiide
Vehicle(s)
2018 Civic Si, Boosted Street and Track Monster 91 CRX Si.
Country flag
No no no no no, I am not one of those people. I'm on your end 1000% and then past you. I will never associate with any of them. They drive me insane.

I am not offended. I am bothered... and there is a big difference. It is bestowed back onto you, not me. As a reader, your post did not come from a place of levity. It came from a place of pompousness. It sounded like a "first world problems" resolver. It contributed absolutely nothing to the thread, including levity or cleverness. Not to mention it came from a misconstrued perspective... that is, unless you were referring to the OP. If you were responding to my post though, I am not coming from a place of "breaking the car" or something.

Every single article, video, and post about engine break-in always mentioned to vary the driving and limit the push you give. What they fail to ever mention is what happens when you don't vary your driving but you maintain under those limits. It's obviously not broken in yet, but is that "first 1000 miles" a necessity to do the break-in period in? They never say, and I'm curious to find out. It's like breaking in a television or headphones, vary the content and don't overdo any one thing at any time. But what if you play the same song over and over or loop the same clip over and over? While you don't damage the thing by keeping under certain limits, you also haven't broken it in yet... but have you passed the point where you are evenly distributing everything and you can still make up the ground on the back-end, even if you're past the "first 100 hours" or the "first 50 hours"? In the case of these two devices, no you are not. I am curious to know how engines and clutches work with this exact same thing.

There was no support whatsoever in saying "That won't work, give me your keys." No wink-wink, no deviance from a direct thought and intent... just blatant trollism. And that has absolutely nothing to do with my sensitivity levels, because I mock those who are in that camp way more than you do. They make me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

By the way, the main reason I ask this is because if the new Civic Si releases before Thanksgiving, I am traveling 480 miles south to visit family for the holiday and back, which marks... you guessed it... about 1000 miles. I want to know if I should look to rent a car for that trip to better soothe out my brand new $25k investment for all future-proofing purposes. I want to baby the hell out of this thing and get it right. There are too many times that I've skirted past doing something conventionally and it has cost me down the road. There is no need to get this one wrong here, so I'm seeking assistance from you all individuals because those videos and articles were none too helpful.
It was a reply to the OP.....or I would have hit the reply button to your response, which would have it quoted just like here to you to indicate as such.
 

SpinRush

Senior Member
First Name
Big Will
Joined
Oct 23, 2018
Threads
28
Messages
171
Reaction score
131
Location
Japan
Vehicle(s)
FK8 ( Waiting )
Country flag
Thanks, asshat.

I didn't ask if the car was ruined. I was asking if one falters the break-in period by not mixing up the driving. Everywhere they say to vary things like the RPM's, speeds and gears, but they don't say what happens if you don't. In other words, does it just "delay" the break-in, or are you going through that period and not doing as suggested without any possible reproach?

And responses such as yours or "people don't break in engines" are not helpful to what it is that I'm asking.
I think he was kidding. I think you snapped at him too quickly. He didn't call you any names either.
 


 


Top