I´ve seen a while ago, someone ask if you could attach an electric motor to the front pulley, to "break in" the engine in a stand.



I saw today a bicycle with a Honda starter as engine, running of a small battery. Weird yes.



Anybody tried to connect an external 12v low amp source to the oem starter to break in the engine? How long till the starter dies?



That´s a cool experiment someone could try, and maybe log "before and after" compression readings

 

A starter will not last very long at all. Starters draw a lot of current even with no load on them.



There's really no such thing as a "low amp source", all you can do is cut the voltage, and the way starters are wired, decreased voltage makes current go UP.



However... motoring new engines to lap them in is nothing new. I've heard of people doing this with short blocks to break in the piston rings, and their methods generally were to drip oil into the cylinders every hour or so and listen for a change in the way the rings sounded. Fresh cylinders and rings can make a lot of noise. I'm not sure how the best way to do it for a rotary would be.



That said, I've never had a rebuilt engine not start on the first or second crank, either.