The Civic service manual recommends, in its maintenance schedule for the
1997 model, a 30,000 mile change interval for MT oil; the change
interval is exactly the same as for the AT and the CVT.
However, for the 1996 and the 1998 models, it does not
call for a MT oil change until 90,000 miles.
Huh?
I put Red Line MTL in my 5-speed Legend, never changed it in 120,000
miles/15 years and the trans worked fine all that time.
Maybe Honda switched to a synthetic fluid and modified their service
interval. 90K miles seems reasonable for synthetic trans fluid.