"Break in oil" for reman engine

G

guy48065

Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
60
Location
MI
I bought a 2010 Chevy Traverse 19 months ago & it's spent 7 of those in the shop. Truly a TL/DR post but suffice it to say I'm paranoid now that I've got my truck back & it's running good. It's now got an ATK reman 3.6L. The warranty paperwork says they don't recommend syn oil during the 600 mile break in period but the shop doing the work filled it with 5W30 syn blend. I changed the oil & filter at 400 miles and also installed 5W30 blend (Valvoline).
Do I have anything to worry about here? Aside from the possibility of ATK not honoring their warranty thanks to the shop using "wrong" oil for breakin...
 
I'm assuming ATK means full synthetic, you can't really find conventional oil anymore and you can argue that with ATK

my concern is, why does conventional vs. synthetic matter for break-in? I don't think it matters AT ALL, I personally will not trust ATK just based on that requirement.

I have rebuilt 101 engines now (yes Toyotas & 2 Honda engines and mainly 1zzfes), 2 of the engines that I rebuilt were "remanufactured" engines and they had the stamp and the owner spent a lot of money on them, only to have issues later, I don't trust these so-called reman engines companies, are there good engine rebuilders are there? sure, plenty of them but the companies rebuilding these engines aren't very good from my personal experience.

If I were you, I would monitor the oil level, keep it full, and follow the oil change interval suggested by ATK to keep your warranty, yes you can change your oil more often, you wouldn't cause any harm to the engine, only your wallet.

I would suggest using a good quality oil filter during this whole time, you are going to have quite a bit of break-in material and debris from the environment it was re-built in.
 
I think that the recommendation to NOT use a full synthetic oil is due to the oils being a Group IV PAO. There was a time where a full synthetic PAO oil was not beneficial during break-in. But I can't answer as to why.

Years ago, it was recommended to use a conventional (Dino) oil to help with break-in as compared to using a PAO synthetic. Today with full synthetic oils being mostly GroupIII(hydro processed/hydro-cracked) conventional oil, which allows conventional oil to have synthetic benefits, it's Okay to use synthetic oils during break-in. Most conventional oils today are synthetic-blend oils anyway and the synthetic-blend terms is loosely used.

There is so much more to it than what I described.
 
After having 3 Jasper remanufactured engines under the hood of my truck in a year's time (2 were defective from Jasper), I can assure you that the quality of the remanufactured engine, and the company doing the work, is much more important than worrying about the oil that is in it.

I used cheap Formula Shell 5w-30 as break-in oil... but I'm not even sure if it is even available anymore. From the UOA's, it was a mediocre oil.... but was good enough for 500-3000 mile runs, which is all that I needed. I doubt that it had anything synthetic in it, LOL.
 
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Well maybe it's as simple as ATK hasn't rewritten their recommendations in a decade or more. That's a possibility.
 
AKhan87 said:
...I would suggest using a good quality oil filter during this whole time, you are going to have quite a bit of break-in material and debris from the environment it was re-built in...
Click to expand...
I did that. I drained the oil at 400 miles into a clean pan and then slowly poured it into my usual used oil jug. I didn't see any glitter or metal of any kind but the residue in the pan did have some red shop rag lint in there.
I used a Wix filter for my refill but in the future I intend to use AC PF64 filters & use Costco's Dexos-cert full syn oil.
 
oil pan 4 said:
Have you seen new and used car prices?
An engine swap would be a down payment on a used 13 year old car.
Click to expand...
For less than the price of the new engine you can get a good running Traverse.

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atikovi said:
For less than the price of the new engine you can get a good running Traverse.

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Click to expand...
No you can't --you'll just have to deal with someone else's problems. And that's why I'm repairing instead of replacing.
 
atikovi said:
A 13 year Traverse with a bad engine is totalled and belongs in the junk yard. Not sure why anyone would replace the engine, especially with a new one. Throwing good money after bad.
Click to expand...
Disagree. 13 years is less than the AVERAGE age of a car on the west coast. A good running 2010 Traverse is going to sell here between six and $10K. The whole world is not the rust belt.
 
guy48065 said:
No you can't --you'll just have to deal with someone else's problems. And that's why I'm repairing instead of replacing.
Click to expand...
You can IF you put some effort into it. And 7 months in the shop? You're already dealing with someone else's problem. And the engine may be new but what about rest of the car? Not to mention the MI rust.
 
AKhan87 said:
I'm assuming ATK means full synthetic, you can't really find conventional oil anymore and you can argue that with ATK

my concern is, why does conventional vs. synthetic matter for break-in? I don't think it matters AT ALL, I personally will not trust ATK just based on that requirement.

I have rebuilt 101 engines now (yes Toyotas & 2 Honda engines and mainly 1zzfes), 2 of the engines that I rebuilt were "remanufactured" engines and they had the stamp and the owner spent a lot of money on them, only to have issues later, I don't trust these so-called reman engines companies, are there good engine rebuilders are there? sure, plenty of them but the companies rebuilding these engines aren't very good from my personal experience.

If I were you, I would monitor the oil level, keep it full, and follow the oil change interval suggested by ATK to keep your warranty, yes you can change your oil more often, you wouldn't cause any harm to the engine, only your wallet.

I would suggest using a good quality oil filter during this whole time, you are going to have quite a bit of break-in material and debris from the environment it was re-built in.
Click to expand...
I think between cylinder boring and new rings they want conventional oil for proper breaking. I was told the same when I bought a reman engine. The reman/rebuilt engines are not machined with same super expensive machinery the new car company use. Cylinder coatings. Possibly rings designed specifically for new engines.

I have rebuilt one Mustang 289 engine when I was 17. That was a few to many years ago.
 
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ka9mnx said:
I can't imagine why Jasper is still in business?
Click to expand...
I bought a Marshall reman for my Jeep 4.0. Maybe a one off, never happened before or after on a Marshall engine. The oil galley had not been properly cleaned. It has a Y in it, some oil to bearings and some to top end. The section going to the top end was clogged. Engine was started and had oil pressure but no oil to top end. Marshall honored the warranty and provided a second reman engine. But I think I was stuck with labor to do a remove and second install.

What company does do high quality reman engines if not Jasper or Marshall?
 
ka9mnx said:
I can't imagine why Jasper is still in business?
Click to expand...

Not sure. If they keep this up, it won't help.

When you're an engine remanufacturer and you're shipping out GM 5.3's to one customer with a 66% failure rate... that's definitely a problem.
 
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