Seems like these cars will have a "break-in program" when new.

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by Decep

Hopefully I can control my butt warmer with the touchscreen? I love fumbling for buttons that have no feel whatsoever while I’m driving.

At least we have all those airbags for when we crash while looking for the buttwarmer icon. :/

[racingfool]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

"I tried it and it was good on my custom built superbike engine so it is good for everything"

I don't think that ring and cylinder wall know what kind of engine they're in.

I have some past experience that make this guys info believable to me.

engine manufacturers now use a much finer honing pattern in the
cylinders than they once did. This in turn changes the break-in requirements

the window of opportunity for achieving an exceptional ring seal is much
smaller with newer engines than it was with the older "rough honed" engines.

In addition, there is a lot less heat build up in the cylinders from
ring friction due to the finer honing pattern used in modern engines.

vastly improved metal casting and machining technologies which are now used.
This means that the "wearing in" of the new parts involves
significantly less friction and actual wear than it did in the distant past

I bought a new car and broke it in easy as per the manual.
Every time I changed oil, the oil smelled like gasoline,
and the engine always seemed down on power compared to friends similar cars.

Spun a rod bearing at at 180,000 miles and had a friend rebuild it.
He called me to come and look at something. When I got there
he showed me that the cylinders still had the crosshatching.
180,000 mile and the rings didn't get broken in.

10 years later I buy a used car from a friend with over 100,000 miles on it.
If you look up "drive it like you stole it" you'll find this guys picture.
From the moment he drove the car off the lot when new,
he bounced every shift off the rev limiter. He would warm it up first.

That was the best running engine of any car I've owned. Free revving, never used a drop of oil.

Maybe 10 years later I ran across the breakinsecrets page and it added up.

[Ultramaroon]

The honing marks are supposed to be there. Only the microscopic high points are supposed to be lapped off by the rings until the force between the rings and cylinder wall reach a kind of equilibrium where engine oil remains only in the valleys to lubricate the compression rings above the scrapers. The drive-it-hard technique is not to break down the honing marks, it's to seat the rings in the lands as quickly as possible. There might be a tiny smidge of something to the theory but the only way to test is to have a population of engines broken in a specific way compression/leakdown tested against another population of those gently broken in.

While I can't say what happened with your previous engine, the fact that you could still see the honing marks after 180 Kmi is a testament more to the effectiveness of your air filter than anything else.

[racingfool]

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

The honing marks are supposed to be there.

Not that much.

Originally Posted by Ultramaroon

the only way to test is to have a population of engines broken in a specific way
compression/leakdown tested against another population of those gently broken in.

He has several pictures.

Although these pistons came out of engines which were raced for a
full season, they weren't set-up with any special clearances or other preparation.

These engines were never worked on prior to being raced.
They were totally stock as built by Honda.

The only difference was the break in method they used...

The piston on the right was broken in as
per MotoMan's instructions.

After a full season of hard racing:

- Perfect Ring Seal ...
- No Scuffing ...
- Lots of Trophies !!!

Look at all the blow by on the easy break in.
I can almost smell the gasoline in the oil on my Mitsubishi.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/BreakInF3Pistons.jpg

[TommyW]

A lot comes down to oil changes in the early miles. Waiting 3,000 miles on a new engine is just too long. Using break in oil is another good practice as the rings will seat a lot quicker

[Ultramaroon]

Originally Posted by racingfool

Not that much.

I'm not disagreeing with the technique outright. I'm just suggesting that there isn't anything wrong with break-in by the book, and to look elsewhere for the cause of the blow-by issue on that engine. Did someone pull the wrong size rings off of the shelf that day?