[6eHonda]

Honda rebuilt my engine a while ago. I'm coming up on 5k miles on the new engine and still have 60% oil life. It seems I've received some conflicting reports: some say you should keep the 'special' fill oil until you hit 15% while the dealership suggests I should change every 3k miles.

Is there any harm in changing it now, at 5k? Have I gone too far? Not far enough? Perhaps I'm overthinking it? I would like to switch back to Mobile 1 synthetic when I do the first change, sound good?

 

[drowned12]

I changed mine at 2k or something and nothing bad happened.

It's not known whether the oil is actually special or if the oil has washout of assembly lube from the bearings and cams and whatnot.

 

[08EX-L]

If the engine was rebuilt at the dealer than they didn't use any special oil, you can change it whenever you want. I will be doing mine every 50% after the first oil change but my car only has 700kms on it lol.

 

[cournot]

Honda rebuilt my engine a while ago. I'm coming up on 5k miles on the new engine and still have 60% oil life. It seems I've received some conflicting reports: some say you should keep the 'special' fill oil until you hit 15% while the dealership suggests I should change every 3k miles.

Is there any harm in changing it now, at 5k? Have I gone too far? Not far enough? Perhaps I'm overthinking it? I would like to switch back to Mobile 1 synthetic when I do the first change, sound good?

No harm changing it now. What sort of rebuild was done? Rings? Valves/seats? Bore hone/overbore?

 

[6eHonda]

I changed mine at 2k or something and nothing bad happened.

It's not known whether the oil is actually special or if the oil has washout of assembly lube from the bearings and cams and whatnot.

How many miles do you have now? What oil did you switch to, Honda Brand?

If the engine was rebuilt at the dealer than they didn't use any special oil, you can change it whenever you want. I will be doing mine every 50% after the first oil change but my car only has 700kms on it lol.

They told me the short block came with oil that was required to be used by Honda. Supposedly the same stuff that comes with a new engine from factory.

No harm changing it now. What sort of rebuild was done? Rings? Valves/seats? Bore hone/overbore?

They had to replace the short block due to oil consumption and wear to the cylinder walls. The extent of the damage was found when they were attempting to replace the rings to fix the consumption. (Well, supposedly anyway.. long story)

----

You guys think I'm cool to use some synthetic oil right away?

 

[drowned12]

I switched from the factory fill to Redline 0W20 because if you look at the UOA for a virgin sample it also has a lot of moly in it compared to regular oils similar to what the UOA looks like for the Honda factory fill. Redline is like $12 a quart though, but it's a group V synthetic...so yeah definitely a true "full" synthetic.

Engine now has about 22k miles over 3 years. Doesn't burn a drop of oil. Currently use Amsoil SS 0W20. I also flog my engine hard on a daily basis.

EDIT:

Where was your engine rebuilt? If a dealership did it, do they have this mysterious "factory fill" oil if such a thing exists? Honda couldn't have shipped them a short block filled with oil unless it was kept upright the entire time. This is important info...because no one really knows if there actually is a special oil or not because if there is then we'd all buy it and change our factory fill at 500 miles to get the wear metals out of it and put fresh factory fill in.

 

[cournot]

I switched from the factory fill to Redline 0W20 because if you look at the UOA for a virgin sample it also has a lot of moly in it compared to regular oils similar to what the UOA looks like for the Honda factory fill. Redline is like $12 a quart though, but it's a group V synthetic...so yeah definitely a true "full" synthetic.

Engine now has about 22k miles over 3 years. Doesn't burn a drop of oil. Currently use Amsoil SS 0W20. I also flog my engine hard on a daily basis.

EDIT:

Where was your engine rebuilt? If a dealership did it, do they have this mysterious "factory fill" oil if such a thing exists? Honda couldn't have shipped them a short block filled with oil unless it was kept upright the entire time. This is important info...because no one really knows if there actually is a special oil or not because if there is then we'd all buy it and change our factory fill at 500 miles to get the wear metals out of it and put fresh factory fill in.

Honda assembly lube itself is super, super high in moly, which is an anti wear additive, so a theory is that the assembly lube washes out into the oil, making it look like "special" factory fill oil.

 

[6eHonda]

I switched from the factory fill to Redline 0W20 because if you look at the UOA for a virgin sample it also has a lot of moly in it compared to regular oils similar to what the UOA looks like for the Honda factory fill. Redline is like $12 a quart though, but it's a group V synthetic...so yeah definitely a true "full" synthetic.

Engine now has about 22k miles over 3 years. Doesn't burn a drop of oil. Currently use Amsoil SS 0W20. I also flog my engine hard on a daily basis.

EDIT:

Where was your engine rebuilt? If a dealership did it, do they have this mysterious "factory fill" oil if such a thing exists? Honda couldn't have shipped them a short block filled with oil unless it was kept upright the entire time. This is important info...because no one really knows if there actually is a special oil or not because if there is then we'd all buy it and change our factory fill at 500 miles to get the wear metals out of it and put fresh factory fill in.

I had it rebuilt at a dealership. They told me about the oil when I asked if I could bring some of my own oil in for them to use after the rebuild.

They said the factory fill oil came shipped with the engine. It didn't sound as if it was actually in the engine, though, but in an accompanying box or something. They made it seem as though Honda was particular about this being used.

They said it didn't have a part # and acted as if it was somewhat mysterious. I think I'm going to go ahead and change it though. I'm really curious to see how it does this next 5000 miles.

 

[drowned12]

Argh the mystery of the factory fill continues...

Swear it's easier to find the identity of the Stig.

 

[slickj35z]

I work at Honda on the parts department technicians side for 2+ years. Many times I have ordered and sent out engine blocks and I never heard of such special oil whenever we do engine rebuilds. The engine blocks we order never comes with oil , nor it comes separate. We only use the oil what's recommended originally ( 5w20 or 0w20 syn-blend).

 

[drowned12]

I work at Honda on the parts department technicians side for 2+ years. Many times I have ordered and sent out engine blocks and I never heard of such special oil whenever we do engine rebuilds. The engine blocks we order never comes with oil , nor it comes separate. We only use the oil what's recommended originally ( 5w20 or 0w20 syn-blend).

Do they spec 5.whatever quarts indicating the engine is bone dry and never been run or do they spec 4 quarts?

If the engine is pre-run at the factory, and delivered empty, you'd think that would wash out all the assembly lube and be a pretty good indicator that draining the factory fill early doesn't really matter.

(EDIT: reading through the service docs on how to rebuild the engine, looks like there's not even a special assembly lube. camshaft for ex. it says just put engine oil on the lobes before installing it).

 

[cournot]

Do they spec 5.whatever quarts indicating the engine is bone dry and never been run or do they spec 4 quarts?

If the engine is pre-run at the factory, and delivered empty, you'd think that would wash out all the assembly lube and be a pretty good indicator that draining the factory fill early doesn't really matter.

(EDIT: reading through the service docs on how to rebuild the engine, looks like there's not even a special assembly lube. camshaft for ex. it says just put engine oil on the lobes before installing it).

Engines are not pre run at the factory. They don't hook it up to an engine dyno and give it a run.

They assemble it, turn the crank a few times by hand or by impact gun to see if everything turns smooth, pack it, and ship it.

 

[slickj35z]

Do they spec 5.whatever quarts indicating the engine is bone dry and never been run or do they spec 4 quarts?

If the engine is pre-run at the factory, and delivered empty, you'd think that would wash out all the assembly lube and be a pretty good indicator that draining the factory fill early doesn't really matter.

(EDIT: reading through the service docs on how to rebuild the engine, looks like there's not even a special assembly lube. camshaft for ex. it says just put engine oil on the lobes before installing it).

We usually spec 5 quarts for non-Si Civics and other smaller engines. While the Accords, Pilots etc (L4 and V6) get 6 quarts.