As an avid reader of these posts and a proud new owner of an 03 Silverstone, I am trying to do the right thing....

On one hand, I hear alot of talk about not VTEC'ing for the first 600 miles. While on the other hand their have been posts about driving it hard so the engine "seats" the rings properly. I have heard in the past that you drive the car the way you want it to perform from day 1.

Any truth to this and if I have 400 miles on mine already is it too late to save it?

Anybody ever have a problem with an S2k that wasn't broken in according to Honda spec's of no VTEC for 600 Miles?

 

The sales manager told me it was an engine designed to be abused from day one. He said go for it. I didn't read the manual either, and did it. I have not experienced any problems. Car still runs well, coming up on 2 years.

What is interesting, is that my car can go a few more MPH in each gear than those that did hold to the 600+ miles before going above X RPMs.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by walkabt
[B]The sales manager told me it was an engine designed to be abused from day one.

 

Wasn't stupid, I didn't thrash it, but I did take it to Las Vegas and varied the RPMs over a longer stretch.

Also, although the sales manager didn't know his stuff, it doesn't mean that they don't know it all the time. I don't think your analogy of medical advice from a completely different field is the same as a car person knowing cars or not. Obviously, I wouldn't take legal advice from a doctor either, but you would hope a car person knows the cars he sells. Unfortunately, that isn't always true, but I have only experienced that with the Honda dealer.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by walkabt
[B]

 

The key to breaking an engine in, is to follow the manufacturers recs. You can vary your speed but don't exceed the 5500 rpm that Honda recommends. If you know anything about new engines or rebuilts, you'll know why this is so important. Every engine part has to syncronize properly before you can get optimum performance from it. For those of you who did not follow these instructions and are still running okay! Just chalk it up to luck.

 

I would say don't worry about it. Those that postulate driving hard is the way to break it in usually say the bulk of the break-in happens in the first twenty miles. I am personally in the camp of "break it in how you plan to drive it." I have had more than one race engine builder tell me this is sound advice, and you won't break anything, or cause excessive wear barring any lube problems or "abuse". Of course your motor was designed to live a lot longer than a race engine. And any reciprocating metal THING will continue to break-in for the rest of it's life. Eventually changing from "breaking in" to "wearing out". You've already done the biggest and most noticeable part of your break-in. Things will continue to settle in for the next thousands of miles, but you shouldn't notice any big changes in the motor unless it breaks. However, you spent $30,000+ on this car, I recommend following the instructions, Honda know their motor more intimately than anyone else. (i did, because I want it to last longer than 200 laps ). If you don't want to follow the manual be prepared for the (unlikely) chance you'll have to pay for something that breaks, and do whatever makes you happy. Hope your motor turns out to be a strong one! enjoy!

EDIT* - and as rule: don't trust car salesmen, no matter what, they are there to take your money first, and satisfy your fears second.....

 

a rev my engine up to 9000 the first day i got it and since. still running good. no problem so far.

 

Revved off the dealer lot

2 years and no engine problems.

I'm worried about the health of my tranny these days, not my rock solid 4 banger.....

 

walkabt, you do realize that the top speed for the first five gears is limited only by the gearing and the engine RPM limit? (the sixth is limited by air resistance for most stock S2000s). Thus if your S goes faster in the lower gears than other S2000s, then either your speedo is wrong, someone installed a different transmission in your car than the rest of us (gear ratio change), or your ECU has a higher rev limit than the rest of us.

Otherwise you're kind of saying that for each revolution of your wheels vs another S2k, you go a bit further