Date: Mon, 20 May 2002 14:25:25 -0500
Reply-To: Chris Mills <scmills@TNTECH.EDU>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Chris Mills <scmills@TNTECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Duralube
In-Reply-To: <LAW2-F136NZzahL7szm0000200c@hotmail.com>
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>I find this EXCEPTIONALLY hard to believe. I'm not saying it isn't true, it
>is just VERY hard to believe.
>
>On just about any motorcycle I can think of, when oil oil comes out of the
>drain hole it is directly in line with the rear tire. Oil on motorcycle tire
>= Zero traction = Motorcycle wreck. I could be wrong, but I doubt it.
I lost the oil pan plug on my Kawasaki Concours and it was the bit of smoke
from the oil spraying on the pipe, and the SLIGHT squirmy feeling I was
getting from the bike's rear end that alerted me something was up. I was on
a curvy mountain road and I did not wreck. Not to say I wouldn't if it
happened again today.
>Assume that for some reason the guy is an amazing rider and he does not
>wreck, how do we know the bike went 130 miles without any oil?
I went quite a ways with oil draining out of the engine - maybe a whole
thousand feet. I can say as soon as I realized it I pulled over and shut
the engine off. It was soon enough that the oil pressure light did not come
on until my hand touched the key.
>Oh yeah, wasn't this guy, who checks his oil religously, clever enough to
>glance at his instruments (read: bright red OIL PRESSURE LIGHT) at least
>once in a 130 mile trip?
I'm told that an engine will go further than we might expect BUT 130 miles
is a bit hard to believe. Maybe a half a mile? I know we tormented a solid
Fiat 131 engine to death one day by puncturing the oil filter and revving
the engine to high heaven until it seized. Took several minutes. And of
course it had no load on it.
We were in Italy and the NAVY base rules said that a military registered
vehicle that could not pass a safety inspection could not have the title
transferred or registered until it was repaired. This car was suffering
from terminal structural rust and had to be "put down". All cars that had
to be scrapped had to be "given" to the base junkyard and were required to
be complete (had to keep those spare parts off of the black market!!!
Riiiiight!) . A real racket as these cars were not available to the US
service personnel for spare parts. Spupposed to be crushed as is -
complete. Normally stripped by the Italian scrap metal contractor before
crushing. Normally we pulled operational drivetrains and replaced them with
blown drivetrains prior to vehicle turn in. Didn't have time on this
occasion. Lots of good VW's ended their days like this - even a splitty bus.
Snake oil (Duralube) isn't going to help anything beyond a slight smidgen.
Chris Mills in TN
