Curious how people have made out with this? mrfred, did u go through with this?

 

Yup. Worked out great. I believe English used a stock size piston and ended up with a PTW clearance of about 0.0045" which is perfect. I ended up keeping the balance shafts and went with 8.5:1 CR pistons. If I were to do it again, I think I'd remove the the balance shafts and go with a higher compression ratio piston. The low comp pistons are hurting my gas mileage.

 

This is not Evo related but it worked for me in my 97 integra Gsr. Basically I money shifted and bent all the valves in the head so I decided to do a poor mans type-r build with out taking out the engine. Took the head off. Took the oil pan off. Took the pistons and rods out. Had a friend of mines ball hone all the sleeves. Clearanced the rings. Put the usdm-itr pistons and rods with arp bolts in it reusing the old oem bearings lol. Assembled the motor etc. I broke it in by doing 140mph + within the first 5 miles of the engine "rebuild". Never burned oil. Had 260+ compression all across. Had over 200 passes on it down the strip and 70k miles. Just my experience with the whole drop in rebuild.

 

I used to use the same break-in method when I rebuilt ATV, dirt bike, and street bike motors.. Never had the ***** to do this in a car. I always followed manufactures recommendations or engine builders recommendations for car/ truck engines.

Are you reffering to this method for your break-in procedure?

High RPM break-in

- There seems to be an open debate, in other performance car forums, on whether this procedure of breaking in a new or "drop-in" build, is acceptable. Seems better suited for small displacement/ high comp/ high revving motors.. But I could be wrong..

I'm just curious to know which method is better. Mrfred, how did you break-in your "drop in" build? If you don't mind me asking.. From reading your current posts, it looks like you've had great success so far. Or better yet, what was ER's recommendation?

 

English breaks in all their motors. I believe they run 30 wt dino and do a combo of boost and vacuum. One thing to watch with wot break-in is not to kill a journal bearing turbo with non-zddp break-in oil.

 

Thanks mrfred. That seems to be the typical break in procedure. Good note on burning up JB turbos, at WOT, with oils that don't have the proper amount ZDDP in their "break-in oil"...

 

Bingo! That is what I followed but I skipped out the part with the part trothle. Since it was a n/a motor with oem cams and injectors. I saw no need to part throttle it. I gave her the onion in all the gears until 5th gear stopped pulling and let it decel on its own to create the vacuum in the combustion chambers. I wouldn't recommend this to any one. I did this on 5 lane highway at 3-4 am in the morning. We are going to be breaking in my friends 2.0L n/a Honda motor the same way I did it but not go so fast this week.

 

I am considering doing a drop-in setup for my EVO 8. However, instead of using aftermarket rods and pistons, I want to go with the modified 1G DSM "Big" 6-bolt rods that DSM Graveyard supplies along with brand new OEM EVO 9 pistons and rings. The reason I want to go this route is that I will be replacing the piston with essentially (almost) the same exact size piston, so the lack of machining should not create any ring sealing issues. Just a quick hone, mic the pistons and bores, and install with new rod bearings. We know the stock EVO piston is pretty damn good. So what I am basically replacing are the rods, which are stronger than the stock forged EVO rods. I know this is a lot of work/hassle for just replacing rods to slightly stronger ones, but my goals are 550-600whp on a 35R and these rods should be able to handle it.

 

How much money are you really saving by not buying a set of hbeam rods and pistons?

 

I trust these rods over manley h-beams

Let's see, a Buschur 2.O is 3k plus ~$400 shipping, a lot of time in labor- compared to maybe $600 for pistons, rings, and rod bearings. And I have a set of these rods from my DSM days- they can be found for cheap and dsmg has them. I would say that's a lot cheaper

 

Bumping this for more information/updates. I want to replace my pistons, rings, bearings and rods but don't want to pay for a short block. Miles on my 9 engine are unknown, body has 70k on it.

 

Granted I didn't do it in an evo, but my STi was drop in's for quite a while with 600whp

 

Works great, less costly. If you have a shop nearby that knows what they are doing, go for it. If motor mileage/history is unknown, do a balance shaft delete while its under the knife.

 

I'd like to do it myself and just have a shop inspect and hone the cylinders

 

I hate to be that resurrection guy, but how is your motor doing mrfred? Have the drop-in pistons and rods held up? Thanks