Date:         Fri, 1 Dec 2000 08:13:16 +1100
Reply-To:     David Del Ben <ddelben@AIRINTER.COM.AU>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         David Del Ben <ddelben@AIRINTER.COM.AU>
Organization: Air International Transit
Subject:      Re: Oil changing engine damage
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

Well,
I have those 'special' noises most times I change the oil.
Generally, I will mix some of the old oil with Kerosine, and put it back in
the engine, run it on idle for 1/2 minute or so and drain it out again.

An old fitter told me this many years ago - it cleans the engine and thins
out the oil to drain most of it from the engine.
Did it on my previous Dastun since new, and it's still going strong after
210,000km (120,000 miles)
(Little sis has that pride and joy at the moment)

Can't figure that 30 seconds on idle/low load conditions can do any
significant damage.



David Del Ben
85 1.9-Carravelle

-----Original Message-----
From:   Mark Dorm [SMTP:mark_hb@HOTMAIL.COM]
Sent:   Thursday, November 30, 2000 7:15 PM
To:     vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject:        Oil changing engine damage

Okay, so I finally changed my oil all by myself. I've done it on other
cars, but the vanagon is special. I was letting a very special mechanic
charge me a very special price to change my oil for me. Tonight I found out
this mechanic put on the wrong filter, the Mahle made for Golfs without the
antidrain back valve and without the correct bypass valve pressure rating
(something like that). What a special mistake. So of course I screwed the
whole thing up doing it myself. Oil is/was everywhere, and I didn't fill
the filter, a Mahle 108, with oil before installing. The oil light went on
when I turned the engine over, and the engine sound was, well, very
special. After some red blinks and more special engine noise, the oil light
went off and the engine sounded fine, nice and rumbly. So the thing is, how
much damage did I do? Is it safe to say that I took 10,000 miles off the
engine?
One thing I did right was I put Kendal oil in it. Recently heard some good
things about it, and I live in a hot area with dense stop and and stop
traffic (okay so winters here, but it doesn't snow here) so I can use the
heat absorbtion of an organic. I heard the Kendal doesn't coke up like the
 others. And as far as synthetics and quick cold starts, what about
mixing Redline with Kendal. If my understanding is right, Redline is a type
V base synthetic whereas Mobile 1 is a mix of type IV, PAO, and type V,
esters, and Castrol Syntex is a type III with the price tag of a type IV/V.
So if Redline is the best synthetic (nine dollars a quart, I hope so), and
Kendal is the best organic (2.19 a quart, not bad) then why not mix them in
cold weather??? Is Redline mixable?
And one more thing, my rotor is pitted after only 5,000 miles. Isn't that
unusual? I was misfiring a bit (bad plug wire) so I changed the sparks and
plug wires today too, bosch on both accounts - 64.95 for the spark wires,
stuck with W7CCO sparks, and these are single, not tri, not quad, and not
platnum. Both the vw parts places I went to didn't have anything good to
say about platnum plugs, in any configuration.

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