Read the owner's manual - IIRC, it states change oil after 5 hrs. You should know that the engine was run at the plant and the oil dumped for shipping, which seems to me would take care of any aluminum chips that may have been in it, although I doubt any were. It's actually far more important to put the right oil in it for the first run than it is to then turn around and waste perfectly good oil. This would be a synthetic blend 10W30 engine oil by any major manufacturer. Because this engine has an aluminum cylinder bore, the oil might take on a gray opacity as the cylinder breaks in, but this doesn't always happen. I don't remember any such thing on the GVC160 I had a few years ago, but this is the reason Honda recommends changing after 5 hrs.

saxman1, The wording of your reply gives me some reason to believe that you either work or worked at Honda's manufacturing plant. Or am I reading into the reply?
Thanks, also for the response. I'll go back to the manual and look for that recommendation.

Had I read the manual more thoroughly, I would have noticed that first oil change interval. Thanks for pointing that out. That seems a bit more reasonable.

No, I have never been in but one engine factory and that was on a tour. It's just standard practice to run engines before shipping them, and you can't ship with fluids in the mower.

Just another thought; I wouldn't be surprised if they filtered that test oil and used it over and over.:)