[Brucelee]

From the study above. Notice the metal wear actually declines in this study as the engine gets older. Specualtion is that the engine is actually breaking in during this initial 20K miles.



Mile F1000 -- James Ashbaucher, December 27, 2004.
Oil/Vehicle miles: 1,030 / 46,000
Oil added after sample: none

There remains a lot of debate about the cause of the initial surge in wear metals in our samples. To help learn something about that, we've taken a sample at the 1,000-mile mark in our flush oil, and we plan on taking a sample again when we drain the flush oil at 3,000 miles. Early on, though, the level of wear metals looks promising -- just a fraction of what we saw last time we tested Mobil 1, even with nearly identical viscosity.

Mile F3000 -- James Ashbaucher, January 28, 2005.
Oil/Vehicle miles: 2,995 / 47,995
Oil added after sample: none

How about that -- in the ensuing mileage, the wear metals doubled! We saw the same thing with copper in the Amsoil test, but to have it double across the board is a first. Of course, it's worth noting that the absolute values remain miniscule -- among the lowest ever recorded in the course of the study.

Notice how each time we change the oil, there is still an initial spike of wear metals, but the spike is smaller at each phase. We are working on a hypothesis: that the true break-in of an engine is at least 20,000 miles, and that, perhaps, during the first year of an engine's use it would be wise to change more frequently, and only start moving toward extended oil changes once the engine is older. It'll be interesting to see what comes up in the Mobil 1 re-test phase.