[Jay S]

I like oil analysis on timely intervals, but don’t do it often these days, and are often behind on maintenance. We have a fleet of off road and road equipment, it is hard to keep up. I see the advantage of the bypass filter systems over the long haul. Not sure how helpful it is for break in, the systems is too overwhelmed by contaminate’s, certainly won’t hurt though.

I’ve went to blocking the bypass on my Pontiac’s. Most my Pontiac’s have headers, and I run a tiny filter with no bypass, I admit I am not thrilled with that tiny filter. But I change the oil and filter often, the difference of having the bypass plugged is noticeable on inspections versus the stock bypass. Everything looks better with the bypass plugged, less deep scratch’s on the bearings, I think it is from smaller contaminates. The smaller contaminates are likely especially helpful if you run a roller cam.

For break in we generally change the break in oil and filter once after 30 minutes, and a second time before it hits 500 miles running a high zddp oil, not break in oil with extreme levels. Some engines that are really beat on I will change the oil several times before I hit 500 miles just to make sure I am keeping contaminants out of it. I have not often ran break in oil beyond the first 30 minutes. The blueprint break in oil info is interesting.


One of the engines I built we didn’t have a break in oil handy so I just went and pickup up a Lucas break in additive from Napa. It has an aggressive flat tappet in it. The engine didn’t get running right away and sat more than a year. We ended up putting a bigger engine in the car before it got started, so we pulled it out for the big engine. The oil pan was special for that combo so I drained the oil and switched pans. When I drained the oil it was obvious all the ZDDP additive drained out first and separated from the engine oil. My knee jerk reaction at the time was that was bad and not going to help much. But, after some research, I think that was wrong. No, it likely isn’t as good as a dedicated break in oil, but I think it is still better than a oil with low ZDDP, espically for that first 30 minutes. Even if the film strength ends up a lot lower with additive, the engines still needs the ZDDP for break in, especially with a flat tappet cam. I think it is beneficial on roller engines too, but it is because the ZDDP serves as a micro polisher. It’s job is to help micro-polish parts, most helpful on flat tappet cams when the lifter is getting scrubbed over the cam during break in. The biggest problem I think with 540Rats testing is it does not have much to do with the scrubbing action a flat tappet cam will have.