I’m sure there is someplace in either Sac or Bay Area, right?
I’m sure there is in Sacramento, that’s about 2 hours away from me. I should be alright driving that far on a stock tune though right?
I don’t want to risk doing damage making the drive not to mention the initial break in period while untuned if tuning is needed.
Understandable… but a stock ecu isn’t going to run a high(er) compression motor the way it should, and probably won’t pass emissions.
You can contact your tuner and have them send you a base map, they should have something similar to your specs, or even a stock SiR II b16a map. So long as you’re just doing your “break in” type driving then you should be fine. I drove my car 120mi round trip to San Diego during my break in, and then again another 80mi from where I assembled the car to where I live (and in turn where my tuner is). It’s not an easy drive since you can’t just cruise on the freeway and need to constantly change speed and rpm, but it’s not too bad.
Yeah, I’m beginning to see that. I just read the entire “post your b17 build” thread and there’s a lot of good info in there (largely coming from you and colin). You made a comment on that thread about someone you knew blowing up a fresh rebuild from washing out the rings in 500 miles so it seems that getting a tune immediately is necessary. I’m not sure I’ll be able to break the engine in and make the drive without risking ring damage. Would you consider that a legitimate concern or am I being paranoid? Would I need to get an ecu chipped with a “best guess” type of tune in order to postpone getting a real tune long enough to get it to a trustworthy tuner?
This build is going to be for my daily driver and I’m not out to build a race car or anything. I’ve just always wanted a b17 swap and since I’ll be spending a large amount of money on a rebuild I figure I might as well build it up a little so I can really enjoy it.
Whoops, I was typing when you posted that. Guess I’m on the right track anyway. Thanks guys!
I would run a basemap from Phearable. I’ve had three cars that have used their maps on mild-built motors and the idle was great, plugs burned beautifully… I’d be confident breaking in the motor on one of their chips. But definitely a tune will get you the closest to burning correctly.
My emission test was showing high HCs at idle, on my basemap lol… the tech had to adjust my distributor to get it to pass.
As far as my brothers motor that blew, there we’re a ton of factors that lead to that… The plugs showed an awesome burn. It was faulty machine work and shitty bearings, along with some incorrect torque specs used on the main caps. The bearings had aweful signs of wear on them. I believe those factors were a ton more at fault than the basemap.
Yeah, I think generally the bad mapping would lead to wear/damage over a longer period of time, not just a few hundred or thousand miles. My engine ran fine for a couple years before the compression dropped. Plus, during the break in period you’re not running high rpm so in general things are a lot safer.
Maybe I’m mistaken but don’t you make a few short pulls at WOT to set the rings initially?
You give short bursts, never ‘riding’ at one particular RPM.
After a short drive, making sure there are no leaks etc, then yes you can take it to redline (to make sure the vtec system is functioning and that clearances are all in spec) but this does NOT mean that you are safe to redline or rev high everywhere you go.
But yes, imo, you want to utilize the whole powerband when initially breaking in a motor (say, in the first 15miles)
My tuner breaks in freshly built motors on the dyno and fully tunes them right away.
This, in my opinion, is the best way to break in a fresh rebuild. That way there isn’t really any guess work on what your A/F is at, so you don’t have to worry (as much) about melting or scarring the pistons or the walls.
If you have a basic set up though that has been done before, a chip from Pherable (spelling?) should be fine for a little while . Then get it tuned as soon as possible 
Yeah I wish I could do the break in on a dyno. Unfortunately for me trailering the car that far would be very impractical.
I did have my break-in myself and half on the dyno because I don’t drive the car enough to do the whole break in myself in any reasonable amount of time. Here’s the basic break in procedure I used, it originated from a well known and respected senior member on this board who I won’t name in case I didn’t get the procedure 100% correct when he told me.
The Big 3 Rules:
- Use ONLY non-detergent oil till at least 3k miles
- Idle at 2000rpm upon startup for 20min to warm up and begin to seat rings
- No Vtec till after 500mi mark
The Procedure:
-
Disconnect distributor and disable injectors (ecu fuse). Turn engine over to prime oil pump. Wait till oil pressure light goes off or until your gauge reads that there’s sufficient pressure.
-
Connect distributor and injectors. Make sure distributor is set in the middle or slightly retarded. Start engine.
-
Look for oil/coolant/fuel leaks. Have radiator cap off to help burp the system.
-
If everything is OK then start to idle the car at 2k rpm. Do this for 20min. You want to warm the engine up quickly to reduce wear. Fan will kick on twice when it’s fully warmed up.
-
Once warmed up, set the ignition timing.
-
Road Test
- Full throttle to 3.5k, not over, shift lightly. Bring up to 50mph and load decel.
- Repeat 3-4 times.
- Then 2-3 more pulls the same technique but up to 5k - NO VTEC
- Return home
- Check oil, coolant… Initial break in is done.
- no cruising at steady rpm
- no hard shifting till after 500mi (mainly if you have a new clutch)
8 ) Change oil at 500mi mark
- keep it under 4k for 1st 100mi
- keep it under 5k for 100-500mi
- vtec fine as much as you want after 500mi
- Change oil at 3k. OK to use synthetic at this point.
- no need to change oil between 500mi and 3k mile changes
*** I did this process pretty much exactly for around 200mi then put it on the dyno and Church did the rest. Also not mentioned here is that you must not cruise at a fixed rpm for that first 500mi. I was very careful to CONSTANTLY be varying my speed and rpm while driving. This meant constantly shifting, accelerating, decelerating, exiting the freeway, getting back on the freeway…etc
Most of that is how I broke mine in…
However I swapped out teg ND30 oil right after the first warm up cycle.
And I hit vtec after oh, 3 miles. I figure if its built properly and clearances are in spec, you’re good. And also, if you’re confident in your basemap/tune.
Thanks for posting that Colin! I’ve seen you post it before but good info can’t be posted too many times! I guess I misremembered the part about no vtec and got hung up on the full throttle to “x” rpms.
I’m involved about this as well. I brought up my b20 to 10.5 over the 8.8 it use to be. I’m just traversing my fingertips that it will complete pollution without issues. . . . .
Colin: I need to rebuild my B17a and I was considering a set up similar to yours…Did you ever get it tuned and what did it put out? I already have nearly the same setup in a B18c…
I was wondering if the higher comp might make me fail NOx, but if you say you barely failed I might consider that. I had stock JDM B16(unknown amount of miles) that I took to the BAR, I got it to pass visually but wouldn’t pass NOx
I just feel like its a shame to rebuild the motor and not bump the CR a bit since its so low stock. I was weighing getting attempting to BAR my GSR with the B18C that’s in it currently, or rebuild the original B17 (245K miles) and try to get it to pass smog. I want to be legal, I’ve already had 4 trips to the BAR in the last 5 years. Cops don’t play around here
It’s sort of a long story, and I can go into details later if you want. You should be able to get it to pass so long as you have a tune special for smog or run the stock ECU (stock ECU might pass) and obvious,y you need a cat. And I’d suggest a normal cat, not a high flow. I’d run a stock cat for smog then a high flow for smog.
IMO the b17a is pretty useless unless you bump up the compression. Mine put down 182 or 186 (I forget) on the hub dyno at Church. With his velocity stock intake (no filter) and the muffler removed it made 200.1 
Unfortunately I put a hole in the block at the track a few months back so that motor is no more. I’m working on building an ITR motor now.
Weak…
… Because now you’ll put down a bunch more power than me lol.