<<The Redline conclusion was published in R&T magazine in the last year or so (so it is probably online somewhere). They said that they found a tendency for the crosshatch to

 

I have heard many different opinions and arguments on this, so I think it comes down to personal preference. One thing I do know for certain is that Porsche "breaks in" every single engine on a dyno at the factory prior to installation. If their engineers did not think it is important, then why would they would go to all that trouble and expense.

I wonder if any one has done a study on this by looking at engine longevity of fleet vehicles, (ie. rental cars, company cars, loaners) in relation to the same cars bought by consumers who follow the break in procedure.

 

<<Aha, fold-over of the flaps of metal. Many OEMs almost totally avoid this in the first place by using high tech honing procedures and tools>>

One point...the Vette motors are built using flex hones or comparable right at the factory...maybe they are in fact more compatible than usualwith a synthetic oil break-in procedure for this reason!!!

I would be surprised if Honda was not using similarly advanced machining techniques but I don't know what they are doing other than using high tech liners. Anyone care to chime in?

Stan

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by E30M3:
[B]I would be surprised if Honda was not using similarly advanced machining techniques but I don't know what they are doing other than using high tech liners.

 

<<I wonder if any one has done a study on this by looking at engine longevity of fleet vehicles, (ie. rental cars, company cars, loaners) in relation to the same cars bought by consumers who follow the break in procedure.>>

I know of at least one study. I'll try to find it. High performance street engine run for about 200,000 miles lots of dyno tests and measurements compared to a typically broken in and lubricated motor. It had very little bore wear using synth and an upper cylinder lubricant...no ridge at the top of the bore, good leak downs, "slow" break in.

Often when an engine is rebuilt you will find a ridge at the top of the bore. This is the original bore surface which was never touched by the rings since the rings are located a small distance down from the top of the piston. The area touched by the rings has increased in diameter due to wear. Often this ridge has to be removed before the piston and rod can be taken out, since the rings catch on it.

Mobil 1 got over a million miles out of a bimmer motor, don't recall what they did for break-in.

Stan

 

Hi guys-

I don't know about you, but I drove the S2000 somewhat conservatively for the first 300 miles- about 5 hours of engine operation, 10 cold starts or so. After that I started to open it up little by little, 1000 rpm higher every 100 miles. By 1000 miles I was redlining, and the car has no problems- it was actually used at the track, conservatively- 7500-7900 self imposed redline, stock brakes...

I still use dino oil in the motor. Although I'd like to think it's broken in, I think using mineral oil until I hit 5K miles won't hurt the engine. For what it's worth I use Redline 20w50 in the Type R, which has 20K *hard* miles on top of 20K street miles.

-Nick

 

Esp. since Thanksgiving Day I have a real problem with "fold-over".
What the hell are you guys talking about anyway? Your discussion gives me a headache!

 

I once bought a "new" car that had been a demo for about 3,000 miles. Obviously, having been a demo, several people beat the crap out of it with no regard for break in. I paid the price later. The O rings didn't seat correctly, and all sorts of things went haywire. I sold it at 10,000 miles. It wasn't worth the headache!

 

Interesting recent Tech article if you're into this sort of thing...
http://www.aftermarketworld.com/ar/ar90058.htm

Note that they say (excerpt below) that the flex-hone or plateau hone approach has a quicker break-in (2 hours running time) compared to conventional (3-12 hours) and yet lower wear in the long run. Lots of interrelated variables. I'm sure that Honda has a very well thought out approach given the high tech exotic liners they utilize.


<<The advantages of a plateau finish, regardless of how it

 

So here's an interesting puzzle. I have 2 people in my company that bought new Ferrari F355 spyders. Both of these cars were delivered with more than a few miles on them. When asked why this was the case, they were told that Ferrari tests every car that comes off the assembly line on their test track before delivering them to the customers. This statement has been verified (informally) in an random sample of Ferrari owners.

Now, one would assume that testing a Ferrari would require reving the be-jesus out of it. So the question is, why would the factory risk ruining a Ferrari engine if break-in was absolutely required? Maybe technology has advanced to where the tolerances, materials, and lubricants do not require as much setting time as they used to.

I don't know the answer, but I just find this one puzzling.