Date: Mon, 11 Jan 2010 22:10:23 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: Motor Oil (Synthetic)
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Seems to me no one has quite answered the original poster's basic question.
Seems to me he wanted to know if he should use synthetic, and possibly why
if the answer is yes.
first........synthetic oil is 'better' and it sure should be at 3 times the
cost of conventional oil.
You can read about oils and people's research and opinions until your
eyeballs fall out of course.
My understanding is that synthetic oils can withstand significantly higher
temperatures than conventional oils can, without breaking down.
that's not too much a concern in winter of course.
I couldn't say if a say, 5 W 30 synthetic flows better at say 0 degrees F
than a conventional oil.
I couldn't say if synthetic has a better additive package than conventional
oils, but they should, give the much higher cost.
here's what I do :
If I have a car or van that I really love, and it's a "keeper' and it
doesn't use oil at all, I will run a synthetic. Usually Mobil 1, 15W50.
One 'problem' with synthetics is that they cost so much, that you don't want
to change it as often, so you might be tempted to push it to say 5, to 7
thousand miles.
Your trip length is a big determining factor in how often you change your
oil. If you spend hours and hours driving cross country, and the engine
operates fully warmed up 95 % of the time, you can stretch out the change
interval. If it's all short trips in cool temps, you should change it more
often. ( btw, very short trips, like say only 3 or 4 miles, in very cold
temps, is just really rough on vanagons.
They must be driven until fully warmed up, every time, that means at least
20 minutes minimum, half hour minimum is better.
On modern cars there's an electronic brain that calculates engine oil life
by tracking how short or long the trips are, at what temps, under what
conditions, like highway or in traffic. Those engine usually require
synthetic I believe, like in BMW's and Mercedes Benzes.
In nice conditions, they can allow 15,000 miles between oil changes, with
synthetic oil.
The easier simpler way is use a good oil - I too like Rotella 15W40, and
change it fairly frequently. That's easy and not too expensive at all.
and you could do this if you really wanted to 'do it right' with
conventional oil. Buy a can of zinc additive. The can my FLAPS offered me
was at least $ 14 or so, and they said to use one can of that juice every
oil change, if you have non -roller cam followers, which vanagons do.
anyway, some of my thoughts on it.
I just use a good 15W40 most of the time these days. Exceptions are engines
being broken in, if it gets below zero F degrees, and on super new engines
that call for 0 W 30 and such.
And I have installed in engines at least fifty boatloads of Castrol GTX
20W50 back 'in the old days.' Never touch the stuff anymore. A good 15 W 40
seems 'just right' the vast majority of the time to me now.
Scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "craig cowan" <phishman068@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Monday, January 11, 2010 6:13 PM
Subject: Re: Motor Oil (Synthetic)
> My comment regarding cold temperatures dealt specifically with an
> occurance
> last year when the temperatures in my region were consistantly below zero
> for over a week. On the coldest morning of the lot, early, I tried to
> start
> my bus to no avail. My battery and all systems were in great shape, but
> the
> motor oil had turned so thick that the engine would BARELY turn. The
> solution involved draining the motor oil and replacing it for the
> remainder
> of that winter with a thinner oil.
> 20W50 is quite thick at or below 0*F.
> Put a bit of it in the freezer sometime (even at 32*F) and watch just how
> smoothly it pours.
>
> -Craig
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 8:34 PM, Dave Mcneely <mcneely4@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> My comment concerning warranty was meant to convey the maker's attitude,
>> not to suggest that we are trying to maintain the long expired warranty
>> on
>> our VWs. I change oil myself, have been doing so for a series of
>> vehicles
>> for about 50 years, and have managed to drive all of them for around 200k
>> or
>> more miles. My change interval seems economic to me. Oil is cheap.
>> Engines
>> are expensive.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 6:02 PM, Allan Streib wrote:
>>
>> Synthetic will flow better than conventional when cold.
>>>
>>> None of our Vanagons are under warranty anymore. Oil analysis can be
>>> used to determine if your oil is still "good" and over time you can
>>> establish a reasonable, economic change interval.
>>>
>>> Allan
>>>
>>> Dave Mcneely writes:
>>>
>>>
>>> I use Castrol 20W50, petroleum based (nonsynthetic). I change the oil
>>>> every 3000 miles, just as I always have for all my vehicles. I can't
>>>> imagine how synthetic could improve on that. I notice that most
>>>> manufacturers specify that oil should be changed at the recommended
>>>> interval, and that less often than that voids the warranty, whether
>>>> the oil used is synthetic or not. David McNeely
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 1:46 PM, Stephen Cebula wrote:
>>>>
>>>> What motor oils you you all use out there? A friend of mine keeps
>>>>> pushing synthetic oil. He's a Ford man, and not familiar with
>>>>> Vanagons. What's the rap on that?
>>>>> Steve
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> --
>>> 1991 Vanagon GL
>>>
>>
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