I took delivery of my X (’04 XE v6) on Wednesday, and I am well on my way to breaking it in. Needless to say I am psyched and I am looking forward to many years of safe operation.

What I am concerned about is my break-in strategy. Once I reach the 1,200 mile mark, my plan is to drain the oil and replace it with Mobil 1 synthetic (5w30) and a Mobil 1 oil filter. After that, I would replace the oil every 7000 miles or so and the oil filter every 3000-3500 miles. Does this sound like a good strategy to keep the engine running?

I tried to scour the board to see if someone covered this question before, but no one did (from what I was able to find). There was the age-old Dino vs. Synth discussion, and some questions about filters (namely stay the you-know-what away from FRAM), but no one really touched on the issue of engine break-in and oil/oil filter changes. I wanted to know what the other members on the board did to break in their XTerra.

MJ

(cross-posted on XTerraFirma and XOC)

Funny you should ask, there's a debate going about this right now:
http://www.xterraownersclub.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=008891