Re: Stop the old oil change arguments...here's the scoop

> I am the world's top authority on oil changes. Call me

>> Mr. Motor Oil. >> >> Here's the bottom line on oil changes: The 3,000 mile interval is >> a myth that the oil companies and oil change places have perpetuated. >> >> It certainly wouldn't HURT to change your oil every 100 miles, but >> even the most thick-headed can see that this would be overkill. >> >> I change my oil and filter in my Japanese car every 4,000 miles >> and always have---and this is lots of city driving, and it is >> STILL overkill. The car has over 180,000 miles on it, has never >> required anything more than basic maintenance (no engine work) >> and is still going like new. I've always used Castrol GTX dino, but >> many quality brands will do. >> >> In my BMW, I change my oil about every 8,500 miles (if I followed >> the "computer" it would be more like every 12,000 miles or so), >> and use Mobile 1 Synthetic, which is overkill, but I do it anyway. >> I just enjoy changing my oil I guess. But, you hard heads, do >> the environment a favor and stop the unecessary oil changing. > >Back in 1987 a fella by the name of Albert Klein of Pasadena, Calif, drove >into Santa Monica Volkswagen, had hoped to find a good engine rebuilder... >VW asked the man how he was able to put a million miles on his 63 Beetle - >Klein said that he had changed his oil every 2000 miles.. VW ended up giving >the man a brand NEW Volkswagen. > >Was depicted in 87 on front page Los Angeles Times! > >By Jan. 1993 Klein added an additional 400,000+ miles to his Beetle's >(original factory built) engine!

Don't forget that Beetle only had a 5 PINT capacity and was air cooled with large cylinder clearances by todays standards allowing tons of combustion by-product contamination of the oil. It needed changing every 2K or less. That old Beetle engine also had valve adjustment recommended every 2K miles making an oil change convenient at that time. Many of us including myself have owned Beetle and have fond memories but, they were not in the same league as modern cars when it come to reliability and durability.

In the late 60's, I did all the oil maintenance testing for several seagoing vessels in our group. I also threw in samples from shipmates vehicles from time to time as a favor and because comparisons were needed for calibration purposes. At less than 1K miles on average, the Beetles were invariably over limits allowed for our Diesel main prop engines which never had the oil changed unless it was found to be contaminated. My '63 Falcon w/260 V8 with 90k miles on the clock could make it to around 2k miles. My Mach I would easily top 4K miles and be in specs as would all of the other late 60's cars I tested. I went to a 5K change interval using dino oil and good quality filters more than

25 years ago and still get more than 200K with no problems on an engine. I think that may still be too often but, it is easy to keep up with. Once a car or light truck of mine gets past 200K miles, I consider it free mileage.

Lugnut

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lugnut
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