Originally Posted by GB'sXFire
I don't know about that for sure. But all my car's I have had new from the dealer, and all my Chevy 350 rebuilds, I always changed the oil at the 1000 mile mark, which was during the break-in periods of these new or rebuilt motors. Sometimes on the 350's, I changed at the 500 mile mark. Just to get all that worn metal out of the system from rings scrubbing in, etc. I know on all my newer motorcycles, 2004 and up, the manual wants the oil changed at 600 mile mark. I believe this to be true to get rid of all the particales during the break-in period. That's my 2 cents!
Not the case in most instances these days.
Here's the results from my Nissan Altima at 733 miles, and those were fairly hard miles as I was using a more aggressive break in method.
http://img185.imageshack.us/img185/5476/733mileslo3.png
Here's the next one at 2897 miles, right before I went on a road trip from here in Denver to NYC, and then a return trip back to Denver, while pulling a Harbor Freight trailer, and my '89 Honda Hawk GT motorcycle, averaging ~75 mph the whole way back.
http://img262.imageshack.us/img262/5...97mileslo7.png
Next up is my analysis at the 7847 mile mark.
This batch of oil had 4590 miles on it.
http://img136.imageshack.us/my.php?i...87milescq9.png
So, the oil was not changed at the 733 mile mark.
It was changed at the 2897 mile mark.
It was changed at the 7847 mile mark.
As you can see, no real amount of wear from the reports.
You can find my Altima forum posts here:
http://www.nissanclub.com/forums/new...s-results.html
So, I am not going to tell you what to do.
This is my contribution to the discussion, and I can only offer what I know from my personal experience, which includes the year I went to college for my AS in Automotive Engineering.
I personally try my best to change my engine oil in my Altima every 5k miles. But I only use semi-synthetic in it.
For Bat's Crossfire, we will most likely be going with a combination of the car's computer, and oil analysis.
BC.