So, I emailed blackstone laboritories who is an independent oil tester who I've been using the past year. I asked them if they've ever come accross anything such as a break in oil. Here's the email.

-----------------------begin email----------------------------------

Shing: I am sorry about the delay in getting you a reply. I went on
vacation and Jim (the other analyst) did not have a chance to reply tothe
E-mail questions. In answer to your questions below:

At 10:47 AM 5/30/01 -0700, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I've been having your lab do analysis on two of my cars. Now I've obtained
>a 3rd car, 2001 Honda S2000. As with the other cars, I will start sending
>in the oil when the time comes. But before then, I have a question.
> Honda recommends that the oil from the factory be kept in the engine
>until the "normal wear" change period if possible, which is 7500 miles.
> If not the severe will do at 3750. In the owners manual it is stated
>that this is a special break in oil to help seat the rings. My question
>is, is there such a thing as a special break in oil? If so, what'sdifferent
>about such a beast? This oil btw is 10W-30. My next question is, will
>you be able to see this in tests that you would normally conduct? And
>will having added 1 quart of conventional 10W-30 change the results?
> the car burns oil when new thus the 1 added quart.

There really is no special break-in oil for normal gasoline engines thatwe
know of. The oil they use at the factory oil is typically the same aswhat
you can buy off the shelf. The initial oil in an engine is called break-in
oil because the engine is breaking-in during its use. Break-in of an
engine is essential for all engines and is typically finished after 10,000
miles. We know when the break-in period of the oil has passed, becausewe
have averages on most types of engines. The spectral examination ofthe
oil gives us this information. When an engine is breaking in, the wearand
silicon are both very high, but as the engine gets more miles on it,both
of these drop to normal levels. Also, the addition of a quart of make-up
oil will not hurt anything. Let me know if you have any more questions,or
need any more kits.

Thank you for the work.

Sincerely,
Ryan Stark
Blackstone Labs

>Thank you for your time,
>-Shing
>
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I'll be sending my oil in when I change it... I am at 3500 right now... I'll change at probably 5000.

-Shing

 

Shing, if the oil they use in factory is as same as regular 10w-30 oil, which is recomended to change every 2 to 3000 miles, wouldn't it hurt the engine if you change it at 7,000 miles or even 5,000 miles? I'm also curious about the test result. Thanks for sharing information.

cheers,

 

nope it would not...
if you look at the owners manual... "several" change calles for 3750, normal 7500 miles. doing 5000 is in the middle. Plus 3000 miles has been a Jiffy Lube marketing and it's worked well.

This is only some what relevant here as I am going to be talking about synthetics... but I've done testing with Mobil 1 5W-30 + nissan oil filter on my Maxima. The bottom line is the oil is good for atleast 8000+ miles. There's another maxima owner I know that's tested ULX-110 at 10k miles(ULX btw is a highly refined dino oil) and the oil was just fine. In other words, theres no need to change it at 2000 miles.

BTW the color of the oil is not a good indication of the condition of the oil.

BTW, here are my test results on the mobil 1... http://users.ev1.net/~shinglin/cars/oil/oilrpt.html

-Shing

 

Here in Australia the first oil change is scheduled for 1000km (600 miles), and thereafter every 5000km or 3 months, whichever comes first, if you live in the city like me. Honda assumes that living in a city constitutes "extreme" conditions somehow, even though I only really use my S2000 on country roads.

I don't think there would be such a difference in service schedules if there was really some kind of special oil in the engines from the factory. Incidentally, my car uses about half a litre of oil every 5000km.

 

Personally, since I have actual numbers, when I change over to mobil 1, I won't be changing at 3000, 5000 would be my mine. But I say that if changing at 3000 miles makes you feel more comfortable, by all means do it.

-Shing

 

This should be a question that the guys in Japan should be asking the Honda engineers. Anyone know how to reach them?

 

Thanks, Shing.

S2kRob. That's a good idea.. only if can get in touch with them.. But I heard one of them took his notebook so they might be able to see this post.

cheers,

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by S2kRob
[B]This should be a question that the guys in Japan should be asking the Honda engineers.

 

Thanks for asking the question of people that really know what is in the oil, and posting the response.

Their answer is consistent with that of most experts in the field. I found oil analysis very interesting, especially the fleet studies because many of those managers have such a huge budget tied up in maintenance that they only change oil when they have to. Typically they do an early change on a new vehicle and then let it go sometimes up to 10K miles. An engine that has seen mostly highway miles can often go 15K miles with the oil still testing as acceptable.

I normally change at 200 and 1000 before falling into a 3000 mile routine, but with all the hype about the factory additive I waited until 3000 on my S2000.

An interesting additive is in the new (introduced in

 

When I take delivery on my 2002 S2K, I'm going to change the oil right then and there. I'm a Mobil 1 man, I have been for about 5 years.