Like Smitty & most have said, I am guilty of the old school "fiction" and believed the Dino oil break-in regimen...went to automotive school and rebuilt plenty of engines using STP oil treatment (nothing more than semi-synthetic oil additives in the raw back then). Studied a "bit" on oil and came to some personal observations: 1) Dino oils start from complex mineral oils with plenty bad and good within...so begins the long process to filter and "crack" most of the impurities out. Once refined, "man made" synthetic additives are put in for viscosity, anti-corrosion etc. so you essentially have Semi-Synthetic oil already.
Now imagine all the R&D technology used by the oil companies learned since the turn of the century, to separate the best and worse of the Dino oil...into making pure Synthetic oil minus all the impurities to start, then add additives...when 2) some bright guy decided to market it, though twice as expensive to manufacture in the strict sense, it could be sold at 4x the price with all the major benefits of long life, less wear...what makes sense?
Finally, 3) the whole idea of engine break-in is to "work harden" the surfaces...sort of like "seasoning a sauce pan or heat treating working surfaces" not "wear them" par se. Does it makes sense to use the 100% pure stuff just from an intuitive point of view....certainlly makes sense to me, AFTER I came to HDTimeline and the guys here weighed in to help to sort out this stuff. Yeah, I am a "techie" and tend to overthink things...rather than use my "gut"! JMHO
