This may be totally contradictory to what the Honda manual states but my uncle's friend who owns a Honda dealership here in the Philippines, along with a group of other dealers, were invited to the Honda plant in Japan a few months back.

As they were going through the assembly line of the engines, which by the way are totally separate from the body / chassis assembly, each and every engine is hooked up to a computer and allowed to rev freely. By freely, he meant all the way to kissing the redline level. Remember, these are brand new engines that are just about to be installed on probably a Civic or Accord.

Obviously, most of the dealers were puzzled by this because of the break-in rule. The Japanese engineers said that they do this in order to make sure that every last pin, bolt, clip, piston ring, valve and etc. are up to specs. Put simply, if the engine is supposed to churn out 150HP @ 5,500 rpms -- then it better produce those 150 horses, if it doesn't, it won't get into your car.

So what?!? It's just the engine, there is no load on it, therefore not much strain since no body to carry around.

Well, my question is how many of you have received their S2000 with 0 kilometers / mph on them? Mine had 5 kmh. If any of you got their S2 with 0 kmh / mph, then don't bother reading on, this probably isn't true. But my uncle's friend said that Honda has a test track of around 3 to 4 kilometers. This is where they "punish" the cars that come out of the plant. Meaning they rev them hard, break hard, go through bumps and rough terrain.

If the test driver and engineer don't find any weird noises or performance problems with the cars, they are then ready for sale. Mind you, they do this with the more common Civic and Accord. So, they probably "baby" the S2000 since it's a low production model -- yeah right.

 

Here's the scoop. The break in instructions in the manual are simplified for the average driver. What your uncle's friend saw is not inconsistent with the theory of engine break-in. Here is the theory:

1) do not keep the engine under high load (on the test bench, even if revved to 9000 rpm, it is an unloaded engine)
2) do not keep the engine at constant revs (yes, even idle) - varying revs and loads is important
3) the engine actually takes a few thousand miles to truly break-in. The 600 miles is just a guideline. That's why the factory engineers recommend minimum of 5000-7500 miles before the first oil change. Factory oil has additives that help the engine break in.

Hope this helps.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by IS200
[B]This may be totally contradictory to what the Honda manual states but my uncle's friend who owns a Honda dealership here in the Philippines, along with a group of other dealers, were invited to the Honda plant in Japan a few months back.

 

My local Honda Dealer has said on a number of occasions that running in the engine is not that necessary. The most important thing not to do is Labour it (Very low revs 800-1700 IN GEAR up hill etc). The Honda technician who used to service my Integra R said that the only ITR he ever had to do any engine work on was one owned by an older couple who refused to rev the engine. All they did was drive around sedately in fifth gear!

Also, the ITR I bought was an ex demonstrator and from 0-3500 miles had been driven VERY hard by many people. I would not have even entertained the notion of buying an ex-demo but for the fact of the 3 year Honda warranty. However, in the time I owned the car (up to 42000 miles) it didn't use a drop of oil and nothing ever went wrong with anything on it.

I guess if the manual says not to break into VTEC until 600 miles then you should take heed of that, but in my experience it has not done any damage.