Date:         Sun, 29 Jan 2006 20:41:35 +0000
Reply-To:     jboldway@COMCAST.NET
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Boldway <jboldway@COMCAST.NET>
Subject:      Synthetic Oil

Date:    Sun, 29 Jan 2006 01:43:09 -0500
From:    robertmstewart <robertmstewart@MAC.COM>
Subject: Synthetic Oil Conversion, What is the best Easy Access Brand,
         and Viscosity?

I know you have heard this before, but I have to ask. I reviewed the
archives and could not find a straight answer.

I have an 88 Vanagon Wolfsburg. It has 211,000 miles on it with a rebuilt
engine and transmission roughly 35,000 miles ago.

I am wondering a couple of things...

1. What is the Best easily available synthetic oils, Mobil 1? i.e. Easy
access across the country or long drives...
2. What is the suggested viscosity for winter, and hot summer?

Hello, Mobil 1 is available everywhere.
One thing I have asked mobil but not had an answer back is "what is the specific heat of mobil 1?" What this means is the ability of the oil to absorb heat. This is important - especially in older air cooled vanagons (I understand yours is H2O), but I think it's imporatnt to all vanagons - the cooling system on VW engines relies on the oil to help cool the engine. Almost a third of the cooling in air coole dengiens comes from oil cooler. If somebody has an answer to this I think it would be a valuable addition to the list - I'm just worried that the oil might not absorb as much heat as conventional oil. They should be the same, but it's worth checking out.