Heard great things about its handling - and construction quality.. I guess (?) it's being made in Japan?

Last current engr. thought I encountered re "break-in" - focusses upon avoidance of any *sustained* (even 5000) engine speeds (like Interstates). Say: keep constantly changing RPM with occasional bursts to 5K and beyond, gradually increasing the peak #. This after a couple hundred miles of mainly around town ez- running (no hard, max-accel. even at lower RPM, initially). Many starts from 'cold' seem to help this initial bedding in (much more wear anytime, at start-up than after full warmup).

This approach is said to properly wear down (not gouge out!) just the thin fragile peaks of the intentionally slightly-rough cylinder finish - made that way so as to hold-in-place a tad of oil film for the rings.. for at least a couple hundred-thou miles of use.

The brief excursions beyond 5K - actually squish the con-rod oil-film a tad, but also sl. stretch (!) the rods themselves! (well within elastic limits) letting the top-ring begin a little smoothing of that thin band of new territory - above its customary top locale.

This is at least the most coherent explanation I've heard, but real purists would need to take a dozen new cars, tear-down for precise measurements (and pix of \ufffd-in surfaces), reassemble and treat groups of 3? differently. I haven't done that :(



Bon appetit


Ashton

PS - couldn't hoit to change oil at ~ 1000 first time - and NOT switch to the several snazzy synthetic oils til at least .. 5? 7000? = you WANT no fancy slickness additives in an *intentional* wearing-in period.

(This can morph into finicky lore though - some folk put in non-detergent oil of appropriate weight, at just the first oil change. Then go to regular additive-happy stuff until going synthetic for the long haul and minimum varnish deposits.)

No telling though, what trade-off Honda made with their "break-in" formula: between best wear-in? OR idiots who will over-rev from day 1..

{sigh}