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Oil during engine break in

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doughairfield

doughairfield

Jedi Trainee
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Does anyone object to running a synthetic blend in the early stages of break in?

I now have 500 miles on my newly rebuilt TR4 motor and I'm going to change the oil again this weekend. I have used Valvoline Max Life synthetic blend as my standard car oil, and used it for the first 500 miles in the TR4.

I'm open to other oil options.
 
You can use anything you please to in your, but I would not have done that in mine.

I've just heard the synthetic is not good from breaking in engines. I have no first hand experience though. Odd thing is some new cars now come with synthetic in the sump. At least I guess its synthetic anyway from the factory.

I believe Joe Gibbs Break in oil is synthetic, but Brad Penn is not.

Did you change out the oil after the 20-30 minute cam break-in?
 
Doug, When was your first oil change?

And I second JP's comment......
 
My first oil change was 20 minutes after the the engine initially turned over and ran. Then I drained the oil. I then put the synthetic blend in for the first 500 miles. My thought being, a blend would be the best of both worlds, synthetic is better b/c it doesn't break down as quick, it costs more so it must be better, etc... Obviously I'm no expert.

By all means, I'm going to pass on the synthetic blend for my next oil change as it seems like kind of a waste since I can't really take advantage of the longer life of synthetic and it tends to leak worse than traditional oil, and I own a British car. Posting this question helped me think this out.
 
Experientially, we used to (and I still do) use 20WT NON-detergent oil for breakin.
The reasons given me 45 years ago were that detergent oil holds particulate matter in suspension, while NON-detergent lets it drop out into the bottom of the pan.

When you do your 500-or-1000-mile break-in change (hot), all the garbage flushes out.

You don't want that stuff floating around in there.

Synthetics have no real place in break-in, from experience.

Sorry.

Dave
 
I used Brad Penn Break In 30w Oil for the first 30 minutes. I'm currently running Brad Penn 20w-50 "Green" Racing Oil with Comp Cams Engine Break In Additive for the first 1000 miles. Then I'll use straight "Green", which is a partial synthetic, from there.
My engine builder customer tells me he's never lost an engine with Comp Cams additive...enough of an endorsement for me, considering the number of race motors he builds.
 
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