Date: Sun, 23 May 2010 10:59:42 -0400
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Castrol and BP
In-Reply-To: <20100523085803.69YND.474990.imail@eastrmwml45>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
To say that dirt is dirt is a testament that you consider your choice of filtration inadequate. Both air and oil. Similar can be said for wear particles. The Mobil 1 brand oil filter is a superior performing oil filter and it costs more than $6 by itself.
The only way to really know how often oil needs to be changed is by using oil analysis. Using oil analysis and good filtration 7,500 miles is a good number for most. Keep in mind that one trip on salt covered roads or really dusty/hi silica sand beach can change everything if that dirt makes it past the air filter.
One way to look at this is that if you ever have to replace an engine due to wear, the oil (or coolant) for some reason did not do its job. Almost all failures are fluid or fluid system related. Sure oil will not prevent burned valves or the pounding of the crank bearings on the case but stuck/broken rings, worn bearings, cam lobes etc are oil related failures. Even the rubber head gaskets can get effected by "heat soak" from oil temperatures after shut down. It's all related.
Most dirt/sludge/carbon deposits etc are the result of oil breakdown. Synthetics or real high quality oil almost eliminate this. You can leave the oil in twice as long and actually still get better engine protection.
Consider the cost if you were paying the labor and disposal of the oil. It is now costing me almost $2.00 gallon to have waste oil removed. What does an oil change really cost? Shops that do it cheap are doing it for the other business oil changes bring in.
As for experience, Waterboxer on conventional oils well taken care seem to be good for ~160K. The synthetics seem to help them get past the 200K mark. FUN BUS now at 254 and the heads have yet to be removed. Now if only I could get that out of the tranny. Since I have not had any engine repairs in 254K miles I consider the added cost of the oil "engine in a bottle". Of course since I left it in 2X as long, I really had no extra cost.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Dave Mcneely
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 2010 8:58 AM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Re: Castrol and BP
Ok, at the U.S. price (I'm not in Canada), if the filter is $6, then I'd be paying $6/qt for the oil. I change every 3k miles to keep things clean. Dirt is dirt, whether carried by synthetic or conventional oil. My experience with conventional oil is that engines run way beyond the time that a car chassis is trash (not so in Vanagon, I realize, but .......... .) Where are the economics in paying double the price of conventional oil? If I drive the vehicle 150k miles (not likely at my age and driving rate, but ......... ), then I will change the oil 50 times. At $6/qt that's $1200, or $600 extra that I could use on trips or something for Bonnie. Will I actually get more miles on the vehicle if I use synthetic? Haven't seen enough evidence to convince me yet, and I don't choose to leave the crud in the engine by extending the changes, as advised by many is wise. Help me to understand, please.
BTW, I also realize that a few vehicle manufacturers are starting to require synthetic oil to keep a vehicle in warranty. But that's not our vehicle, which was engineered when conventional oils were generally heavier and had different additives from those in our present generation of conventional oils (which is why we go out of our way to find 20W50). Different from the synthetics, too, of course.
Thanks again, David
---- Frank Condelli <RAlanen@AOL.COM> wrote:
> In a message dated 22/05/2010 6:12:44 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> LISTSERV@GERRY.VANAGON.COM writes:
>
> AND, 5 litre jugs of Mobile 1, 15w50 on sale at Canadian Tire this
> week for $29.39 CAD !
>
> >>>>>>>>>I know you said conventional, but a reminder...Mobil-1 full
> synthetic and
> Mobil-1 filter is 29.99 for a gallon at Autozone till 5/31/10.<<<<<<<<<<
>
>
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Frank Condelli
> Almonte, Ontario, Canada
> '87 Westy & Lionel Trains (_Collection for sale_
> (http://frankcondelli.com/trainsal.htm) )
> _Frank Condelli & Associates_ (http://frankcondelli.com/busindex.html) -
> Vanagon/Vanagon Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley
> _Vanagon Stainless Steel Exhaust Systems_
> (http://frankcondelli.com/exhaust.htm)
> _BusFusion_ (http://www.busfusion.com/) a VW Camper camping event,
> Almonte, ON, June 10 ~ 13, 2010
--
David McNeely
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