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Date:         Tue, 10 Apr 2001 12:02:50 -0700
Reply-To:     Alan Ruffalo <aruffalo@SPRYNET.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Alan Ruffalo <aruffalo@SPRYNET.COM>
Subject:      Re: [ATF]  Synthetic? Any one try it?
Comments: To: CMathis227@AOL.COM
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

I ran Mobil 1 (5-50W) in Southern California from 92,000 miles to 175,000 miles (changed the oil and filter every 2000 to 2500 miles) when I lost the engine due to a coolant hose breaking while my daughter was driving my 88 Westy. She continued to drive it and the red oil light did not come on due to some incorrect electrical work done on the Westy by McKenna VW in Norwalk, CA. after it was broken into for the radio. The 88 Westy ran strong and was very healthy until this happened. Without the oil light coming on she had no idea that the VW was out of water. It finally froze up and stopped running. Prior to this incident the VW ran like a new vehicle. The Mobil 1 seemed to work fine and the VW ran fine all the time I was doing this. I ended up installing a complete new engine as opposed to a rebuilt short block. I am very happy with the results and after 10,000 miles on the new engine (my next oil change - I will switch back to Mobil 1). It was recommended by my mechanic that I not use a synthetic oil on breaking in the new engine. The van now runs like the day I bought it (brand new).

I do have one question. The new engine seems to be overfilled when I fill the oil mark up the top of the two part mark on dipstick. It will smoke something terrible until it burns the oil off the bottom notch. I have a feeling that there is something wrong with the measurement of the new dipstick. It seems to take too much oil with the new dipstick. I remember my mechanic saying that he accidentally broke my old dipstick and had to buy a new one. Is it possible that he installed the wrong oil dipstick? He is out of business and I can't contact him on this matter now. Does anybody know the correct measurements on the "High & Low" marks on the oil dipstick. I would like to know the measurements from the bottom of the dipstick to the low oil mark and then to the top mark (high oil mark notch) on the oil dipstick. One mechanic thought that he might not have removed the old O' Ring in the engine case when he installed the oil tube on my new engine. There was the thought that the two O' Rings might have changed the measurements on the dipstick reading. I don't know this new mechanic and I don't know if I should put any stock in that theory. Most likely - the new dipstick is not the right dip stick. I have been surprised at the number of mistakes that have come out of McKenna VW on my Westy. They seemed to do everything wrong on the Westy first time around and I had to take it back to correct whatever they did. They often did these corrections without giving me any paperwork ( which I thought was unusual). One time after the Westy had been with them for three weeks for repair while I was traveling - I found out that the McKenna help was having lunch in my Westy. When I got the Westy back - it was full of bread crumbs and even had a beer cap in the tachometer well on the dashboard and a big grease stain on the rear seat. The car also had several hundred miles more on the speedometer ( which they justified by saying they had to drive the vehicle to find out the problem). They never did find the problem and I had to take it to a private mechanic who found the problem within five minutes of looking at the engine. It seems that dealerships can't work on Vanagons. They might be good on new vehicles but they sure can't fix a Vanagon. I made some hefty dollar sum payments paying for their educations to try and fix it though.

Alan Ruffalo 88 Westy

----- Original Message ----- From: "Chuck Mathis" <CMathis227@AOL.COM> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM> Sent: Tuesday, April 10, 2001 4:33 AM Subject: Re: [ATF] Synthetic? Any one try it?

> I've been running Mobil 1 ATF for about 20K miles now. No complaints. Since > I've got low mileage I won't be able to tell if this was a good idea or bad > for another 80K or 90K miles! > > Chuck > '85 Wolfsburg Westy -- 'Roland the Road Buffalo'


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