With all the latest synthetic oils around is it ok to extend the oil changes with our DB2?
Yahoo had a few articles on this recently.
I know my BMW has 15,000 miles before oil changes (although I do more frequently than that)
i’m sure it’s ok for even the db2’s to run 6k or 6 months between changes, i live in hawaii and here the roads and drives are short with a whole lot of stop and go so i do my changes every 2500-3k especially cause it’s a boosted motor…
When our cars rolled off the assembly line Honda recommended an oil change interval of 6500 or 7500 miles (I forget which). And that was with standard oil, not synthetic.
The 3000 mile oil change is complete and utter bullshit, it’s a relatively new thing and many speculate it originated as a way to sell more oil and charge customers more for service - not a way to protect your engine.
I’m still in the break in procedure w/ my b17a and thus still running non-detergent oil and running on different oil change intervals. But in my daily driver (subaru impreza) I run Mobil1 and try to change the oil every 10k miles, but I’m lazy and usually don’t end up changing it until 15k or even 20k. All of the oil degradation information I’ve read has shown synthetic oils to last well past 10-15k miles. What oil change interval you choose is a matter of personal comfort, but if you’re changing it every 3k you’re just throwing away your money and wasting oil.
*now, if you’re running a performance motor, doing racing, or have any other variables like that then you may need to change your intervals accordingly. My DB2 will be seeing about 1/2 of it’s miles on the track, and in that case I plan on changing the oil a bit more often than if I was just doing around town driving.
[QUOTE=Colin;2175206]When our cars rolled off the assembly line Honda recommended an oil change interval of 6500 or 7500 miles (I forget which). And that was with standard oil, not synthetic.
The 3000 mile oil change is complete and utter bullshit, it’s a relatively new thing and many speculate it originated as a way to sell more oil and charge customers more for service - not a way to protect your engine.
I’m still in the break in procedure w/ my b17a and thus still running non-detergent oil and running on different oil change intervals. But in my daily driver (subaru impreza) I run Mobil1 and try to change the oil every 10k miles, but I’m lazy and usually don’t end up changing it until 15k or even 20k. All of the oil degradation information I’ve read has shown synthetic oils to last well past 10-15k miles. What oil change interval you choose is a matter of personal comfort, but if you’re changing it every 3k you’re just throwing away your money and wasting oil.
*now, if you’re running a performance motor, doing racing, or have any other variables like that then you may need to change your intervals accordingly. My DB2 will be seeing about 1/2 of it’s miles on the track, and in that case I plan on changing the oil a bit more often than if I was just doing around town driving.[/QUOTE]
It was originally 7500 miles.
On conventional stuff I’ll let it run 5000 miles tops. I like keeping it fresh to protect my motor and with conventional being somewhat cheap it’s worth piece of mind. If I were to run synthetic, I would let it go to 10k tops. For the really lazy folks, I think you can run amsoil and an amsoil filter for up to 25k miles. As far as time goes, that’s only if you don’t eclipse the mileage before 6 months is over. The time factor is a secondary way to go about changing your oil. It’s more for the older folks who never drive.
the only real way to find out just how long you should go on oil change intervals on a certain motor is to have the oil analyzed. i use Blackstone as i have a very long standing relationship with them and theyve always been very professional and have LOTS of insight.
http://www.blackstone-labs.com/
with my current setup i go 10k miles a time, stock motor with an oil cooler.
you can send trans/diff fluids too, any lubricant actually, and theyll analyze it and give you an estimation on how much longer you can run specific oils in specific setups/settings.
its not cheap, but it saves me from changing my oil more often than needed. (save the planet! lol)
I haven’t used Blackstone yet… but I received two of their sample bottles. Already filled one w/ oil from my Integra and I’m going to do my Subaru as well. Like you said, not cheap, but I’d like to get some more info on what’s going on in my engine. Might not do it for every oil change, but we’ll see.
Did you follow their procedure exactly, like taking the sample when the car was warm? I didn’t get a chance to sample my Integra’s oil when it was warm, not ideal, but I didn’t have a choice. I just wonder how much it matters.
[QUOTE=Colin;2175297]I haven’t used Blackstone yet… but I received two of their sample bottles. Already filled one w/ oil from my Integra and I’m going to do my Subaru as well. Like you said, not cheap, but I’d like to get some more info on what’s going on in my engine. Might not do it for every oil change, but we’ll see.
Did you follow their procedure exactly, like taking the sample when the car was warm? I didn’t get a chance to sample my Integra’s oil when it was warm, not ideal, but I didn’t have a choice. I just wonder how much it matters.[/QUOTE]
yes, i usually send samples in after a REALLY hard driving session, like track days/lapping events, hpde, etc.
it matters only if residual moisture builds up like sitting overnight outside after a big temperature change. they say not to artificially heat the oil either, just so you know.
as long as the car wasnt shut off while water and oil temps were high (i doubt you do this, but some people do), you shouldnt have an issue if the car is garaged overnight. e: youre in socal, you dont have extreme temperature change there, you should be ok 
e2: have you seen any of the blackstone reports? they know so much shit about oil it isnt even funny. i sent in my first sample from the integra and gave them a baseline, from there you start an account with them so they can look back at your previous results and tell you if something is going wrong, how much longer/shorter you can take your oil changes, even if you have a leak somewhere letting dirt passed (via silica content). they prevented me spinning rod bearings in a previous car, saving me from having to totally rebuild after a failure. the money i spend on oil analysis pales in comparison to what i would have spent on a new crank, rod(s), machine work, etc…
I haven’t seen any reports yet (of mine), just examples they have online. I’m definitely looking forward to getting a running log of oil reports for both of my cars.
its especially nice when the specific car has a purpose, like a track day DB2 or daily driver impreza 
having a car that pulls both duties is a bit crazy keeping things organized. they always seems to leave little comments like this gem: “you indicated that this oil has seen 10 track days and by the looks of it, we would never have been able to tell” this analysis came after my original LS snapped the timing belt at 7k and i had to swap in a very sketchy B20 i had access to. you cant imagine my relief when the oil analysis came back with the B20 looking like a brand new engine.
its proactive maintenance, really.