bill99gxe

Member RussMaxManiac (aka Silver Bullet) has followed my recommendation about the break-in process by using a dino oil until the 10 to 12k point to see how long it takes for the J32s to go to normal wear levels. He is my test case for how long a CL takes to break-in. He is at 9k+ and is expected to change the oil again in the coming days/weeks.

We'll know more at that point, but I suspect that the wear levels in the next analysis will be within the average wear levels.

My contention is that going to a synthetic early (i.e. before 3k) in combination with going extended drain intervals doesn't allows everything to "seat" properly and continues allow excess bearing wear for a longer period of time as well as never allowing a natural "flush" of the wear metals from break-in through more frequent oil changes early on in a motor's life.

I'm not necessarily disputing that doing several 3k changes with a synthetic after the initial factory wouldn't yield a similar break-in result, but I would suspect a synthetic would prolong the presence of excess wear metals simply by a synthetics properties of not allowing for as much wear compared to a conventional dino.

If anyone with a brand new car wants to see how a synthetic allows for wear in such fashion, then I'll be happy to help.

In looking at the spreadsheet results, when members eCo and fender changed to synthetic after their first oil change in each of their 3 vehicles, you can see that their wear levels are a bit higher than member Bluto's wear levels. Bluto's vehicle did not go to synthetic until 11k or so. In each instance, relatively long drain intervals (6 to 9k) were utilized.

bill99gxe

Generally, 5 or 6k intervals on synthetic are perfectly fine.


It's when you push it up to the 10k area on a single oil filter that you start running into excessive wear, especially if you are using a lower quality filter such as the Fram-spec Honda OEM US/Canada filters.


Excessive wear does not immediately imply your engine is toast or it has a mechanical problem. It only implies that you are creating a more acidic environment in future oil changes which will cause subsequent oils and their additive packages not to last as long. That, over time, can cause sludge buildup, and then you have a mess on your hands. It isn't something that occurs overnight.

fender4

My only goal is to find the happy oil /filter change rate. I also sell my cars around the 200k mark. If I have a high concentration of Iron and it gets higher I will probably sell before 200k.

russianDude

Yeah, all I care is 200K miles out of this engine.... Lets say being super carefull (doing 3K changes using synthetic oil) will make your engine go up to 300K miles instead 200K miles.... I dont care
Transmission is what you need to warry about, Honda engines are allright