How's my oil change plan sound?
 

I should have an Evo in a week or so. I'm thinking my oil change plan will be this:

First change at 500, second at 1000, third at 3000, then every 3000 or so after that.

I'm also contemplating doing another change around 100 miles, since I heard that there is a ton of new-engine-shavings (or something like that) in the oil.

Any thoughts/opinions?

Thanks!

-Sean

well...for one...change it the instant you get it with NORMAL 10w-30...non synthetic. After 1500 miles...go back to 10w-30 synthetic and change it every 3k. The regular oil will help allow everything to seat correctly because synthetic doesn't allow the engine good breakin runs. I'm sure a ton of people would agree with me on that...but I didn't do it because I didn't know about it till after I had mine for quite a while.

Do a search...you'll find what I am talking about

And yes I know it voids your warranty...but ask all the tuners around here...it's better for the engine!

Ummm
 

I thought Non-synthetic=warranty void on engine claims.

That sounds very reasonable. That's pretty much what I did with my Evo when I first got it. But keep in mind that it's not just the oil changes you need to worry about. You've got to break in the tranny, diffs (all 3), clutch, and brakes as well.

So what I did was kept it off boost (under 3000 rpm) until the first 500 mile oil change. I was also very careful to properly bed in the pads during the first couple of days of driving. Then I slowly stepped up to about 4-5000 rpm until the 1000 mile oil change. Then I gradually built up to full boost and started approaching the redline over the next 1000-1500 miles. I can honestly say the car never touched the redline for the first 2500 miles (at least). After the 3000 mile oil change, I started driving normally. It took a lot of discipline, but I plan to keep the car a long time and I'm convinced a systematic, controlled break-in period is the way to go.

Emre

And it's not reccomended that you go from synthetic to regular without an oil-flush...I wouldn't do that at all! And most dealerships in Arizona have an extreme weather/performance warranty. At both dealerships I looked at, I was offered lifetime synthetic oil changes and fluid/regular maintainance for like $1,500.00 built into my payments. If you think about that, the price of synthetic oil changes are close to $50.00 ea. I would check with your dealership... {thumbup}

I like your ideas, how many miles do you currently have on your car, and how does it feel? Does the car burn any oil?

And I don't think I'm going to do the syn to dino to syn thing. If it comes from the factory with syn, I'm going tos tick with it...

I think that's overkill..
I wouldn't get to emotional about the oil changes. Changing your oil using the "extreme" driving schedule should be good enough for regular driving. The drivetrain fluids worry me more.
I don't see too many posts on here that "Joe Driver" threw a rod or blew up his turbo. I do see lots of posts on how the transfer cases are falling apart.

The engine is proven... and turbo should be fine...
I'm not so sure about the drivetrain though..

my assumptions are for the daily driver.. not a racer..

Well, only have about 6200 miles on the car at this point, so it's far too early to tell if the break-in procedure made a significant difference. At 6000 miles I took the car to the dealer and had them flush tranny and differential oils. Cost for the tranny and all 3 diffs was well under a couple of hundred bucks. I was surprised how dirty the fluid looked! There was a coppery sheen to the tranny fluid, which is a clear sign that there was metal in it. Now, I finally consider the car fully broken-in.


I stuck with synth as well. To answer your question, the car feels great and burns absolutely no oil (not even at the track).


Emre

My opinion is that you should first change the oil shortly after the break-in period, then once every 3000 miles unless you race/auto-x the car. Then I would consider every racing mile to be 10 normal miles for maintenance purposes. I don't know about the whole non-synthetic break-in procedure. I will happily follow the under-warranty procedures and let the warranty take care of any problems that might arise from doing so. Much easier to argue that than to say, "Well, all the tuners told me to use synthetic for break-in and I still messed up the motor, so fix it under warranty okay?"

i changed my drivetrain fluids at 1200miles.. and yes there was alot of crud in the oil. the plugs had a decent amount of metal shavings as well.

i put redline in the tranny and rear. had originally put redline in the TC, but went back to standard gear oil after reading a few posts that synthetic is not a good idea to put in the tc. I also figured that if i ever did have a problem, that was one less argument i'd have to have with Mitsubishi... i can hear it now.... "your tc isn't covered because you put racing fluid in it.."

first oil change at 2000 miles.. i'm going every 3k now..

everyone has their own philosphy..

Well, that's the whole idea! If you look at the break-in procedure I followed, you'll see that I took it really easy for the first 3000 miles. As you said, it's not the engine that worries me, but the diffs, tranny, clutch, and brakes.

Too many guys get hung up on seating the rings...as if that's the only thing involved in breaking in a car! It's crazy when you hear people talking about how they decided to thrash their engines from new just to make sure the rings were seated well. Umm...OK. But what about everything ELSE in the drivetrain?

Emre

.. very true..

it's hard to know what to do. I spoke with the service techs at my dealer.. and they said i don't have to change drivetrain fluids until 15k...(i'm slowly learning that they don't know too much.. i think i'd trust my car in the hands of some of the people on this board over them)

The safest way to go is don't beat the hell out of it. no fluid change interval is gonna stop 6k sidestepping of the clutch from eventually breaking something.

But changing fluids helps some of us sleep a little better at night. :D

every 3,000 miles is a bit overkill when using synthetic. For most driving styles, I would think the evo would go atleast 6,000 miles w/o problem. If you ever see any results from seeing someones oil get tested, you'll see what I mean. One guy with an evo had his oil tested at I think 7,000 miles and it was fine. Another guy with a camaro made it to 17,000 miles before testing showed he needed to change his synthetic oil. The 3,000 mile oil change is probably one of the best marking scams going right now. Mobile One sure loves it.

This line of thinking is outdated. Most synth oils are fully mixable with dino oils these days.

SC~

has it been proven that it's actually mobil1 10w 30 from the factory?

either way, i doubt it makes any difference.. just change it somewhere between 500 and 1000 and then again at 2000... then at 5000 and you're good..

people put too much thought into this IMO.

i've got 23k on my evo... do my own oil changes every 3k miles.. drive very hard.. engine is very very happy! :D