OEM automotive engine plants use regular "cheapest bidder" oil in many cases. Many of the Walmart oils are likely better than was installed by the factory.
Break in oil
- Thread starter Bigskyguy7911
- Start date
The machining process does help determine what oil you should use for break-in. There are plenty of OEM engines which are on full synthetic 100% of the time and that's not causing problems. Also the average person getting the motor rebuilt for their daily driver isn't looking to blow more cash on fancy oil they're gonna use for 100 miles. Way easier to stomach some cheap conventional.
Break-in oil vs. conventional is like spending extra on some gucci calcium sulfonate-based engine grease instead of the lucas green goop. Sure, it's better on paper, and the marketing tells you it's "cheap insurance" but in this case, you've paid for the insurance of having someone else build the thing. Just follow their advice and safe a few bucks while you're at it. It's a daily driver truck, not a racecar.
Break-in oil vs. conventional is like spending extra on some gucci calcium sulfonate-based engine grease instead of the lucas green goop. Sure, it's better on paper, and the marketing tells you it's "cheap insurance" but in this case, you've paid for the insurance of having someone else build the thing. Just follow their advice and safe a few bucks while you're at it. It's a daily driver truck, not a racecar.
Missed the point. Most of the "break in" recommendations are based on chemistry and/or viscosity - some mantra of "gotta have high ZDDP" or synthetic vs non. Trying to dictate chemistry by dictating a brand is a fools errand.
The engine plants also have processes in place to control for this. They can easily tell their supplier to not change the recipe.. Then again, the drivers that put the first 5 miles on a vehicle between the assembly plant and the shipping yard aren't known to following BITOG break-in guidelines.
Anecdotal and irrelevant story from 40 years ago. My dad worked at an engine shop in college. They were paid by the SC state police to pull 427s out of brand new cruisers, break them in on a dyno, and put them back in. The state police knew their officers weren't following special instructions on brand new cars and it apparently mattered enough to do something about it.
Did you just make that up now?
Do automotive suppliers get to just deliver whatever they want? No, they have contracts.
"Hey honda, you have an annual order for a million gallons of 0w-20. We're fiddling with our recipe. You'll get the new flavor next week. Don't worry, it still meets the same API approvals."
Like I said, did you just make that up now?
You're right. I made it up. Auto manfs don't write contracts. Suppliers can dilly dally with product. Whatever shows up at the loading dock goes into cars.
Guaranteed you made that up.
Guaranteed auto manufacturers oversee their suppliers in a way the product buyer for walmart does not.
I vividly remember a phone call with a ford engineer, being blessed out on a manufacturing parameter change on an injector that didn't impact rate shape of said injector. If we wanted to change the product the customer had to approve. I can't see how this wouldn't apply to motor oil. Maybe there's a motor oil buyer for an manufacturer that can confirm how their purchases are contracted.
Great, but you're all over the road on this. No argument that an automaker oversees their suppliers.
However, I asked you what was the secret sauce that the automaker uses for break-in since you stated that you'd be skeptical of anyone using something from the Walmart shelf for that use. So far I haven't seen anything you've posted to suggest that the automaker doesn't use a standard ILSAC oil or one that carries the automaker's approval. Nor have you given any evidence that an automaker receives a special blend that is somehow different than the current API license, for example.
So you're claiming that either there is some special sauce or that if an API license (or manufacturer approval) that is superseded during a production run, those automakers restrict their supplier to the previous license or approval because it's the only one appropriate for break-in?
I agree with that.
I invite you to re-read post 19. Specifically sentences two, three, and four. I never said walmart oils aren't suitable for break in. I said/implied that an engine builder specifying "brand X" is arbitrary. Castrol edge this month is SQ and last month it wasn't. What changed? If your builder was so specific to specify a specific product, they shouldn't be specifying a product that changes with time. Whatever made Rotella T5 great for break in 5/10/15 years ago has probably changed.
We have seen used oil analysis on bitog for factory fill and know there generally isn't anything special about OCI #1. But we also know that commodity marketed oils change over time and my statement pertains to that aspect.
I'm not sure I'm the one that's all over the place.
And so?
So I have a specific oil question. Mobil 1 0W-40 is available on the Walmart shelf, and it's changed chemistry many times over the past few years. Would this be an appropriate break-in oil?
That the specific aspect of a specifically named oil (real or perceived) that the builder was chasing is not ensured to be constant. I don't know why this is a difficult line to draw.
Any of the given formulations may or may not be/have been. You'd have to ask your builder. Thanks for proving the point.
Right, got ya.