Posted: Sep 28 2004 at 7:48pm | IP Logged

Should I wait until the 1200 mile break-in period is over before I switch to synthetic oil?

Posted: Sep 29 2004 at 7:32am | IP Logged

That's what I'll do.

Posted: Sep 29 2004 at 9:00am | IP Logged

I'm waiting until around 3000 miles but not for the standard reasons. I believe in frequent changes during the first few thousand miles. There may be a lot of manufacturing "crud"  in the engine and I changed at 300, 1700 and will again around 3000 to flush it out. I just use a good quality regular oil during these changes because it's cheaper.

The main thing that is breaking/wearing in are piston rings and that occurs quite rapidly. I don't think regular or synthetic has much impact on that. As for the rest of the engine, why would you want to have more wear in your bearings etc.?

If you look lab oil analysis of virgin oils - good regular and synthetic you'll see that the anti-wear chemical packages are very robust - moly,boron,calcium etc. They all have different recipies but all carry SJ/SL & GF2,3 now 4 ratings.

Synthetics will allow longer change intervals, they are more stable. Yes,if you tow,have temperature extremes,drive hard etc. synthetics are very good.

I've seen reports on other forums that Mobil 1 0W-40 produces some very impressive (low) wear numbers in our Endurance V8's 

Posted: Sep 30 2004 at 6:52pm | IP Logged

I was told to wait to around 4000 miles before I switch.  The guy owns a performance shop up here in CT.  His shop does a lot of work on Nissan products.