Date:         Sun, 6 Feb 2000 14:45:23 -0800
Reply-To:     Doktor Tim <doktortim@ROCKISLAND.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Doktor Tim <doktortim@ROCKISLAND.COM>
Subject:      Re: Vanagon Trivia Answer
In-Reply-To:  <14.b9782e.25cf1c6b@aol.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

At 01:50 PM 02/06/2000 EST, you wrote:
>Hello Volks,
>
>Well, the few responses that I received have more faith in the Waterboxer
>than I thought.
>
>This one '86 Vanagon went from zero to 33,000 miles without any servicing or
>checking of the oil. No other servicing of anything either. What prompted the
>owners to bring it in was that the oil pressure light was on and there was a
>clicking noise coming from the engine. I checked the dipstick and of course
>it read dry.

I add to this example a 100,000 mile Volvo 240 that had 7,500 mile per book
interval documented oil change services 'till the rings and cylinders were
toasted. With the pan off, I poked at the back of the pistons and chunks of
carbon of 5 grams and smaller sizes came falling out of there. The pan had
20 mm or so of tar and chunky carbon mix after draining the fuel saturated
mess.

Got real lucky in that case and obtained a 75,000 mile used motor wherein
when I pulled the oil fill cap, I could see bright aluminum no varish
fitments and beautifully bright cam lobes, no visible image of minor wear
whatsoever. I couldn't document the service interval. No biggy. I didn't
have to due to actual inspection of 30 seconds duration, validated with
compression balance testing taking another 10 minutes, high spec stock with
tight balance. This one had never seen dirty oil.

T.P. Stephens aka Doktor Tim
San Juan Island, WA