Re: Synthetic Leaks

["Rich Wagner" <drsavage@domain.elided>]

Ron wrote:

>I'd say a 12k oil change
>interval would be a car that's not getting regular maintenance, but 
>there we can agree to disagree. (po TAE to,  po TAH to...)

Well, I put myself through college working as a mechanic.  I have
absolutely no aversion to working on my cars.  In fact, I have to make a
conscious effort to pull myself away and take care of those other things I
must also do.  When my wife was going to school, she was driving the car
about 650 miles per week.  I was under the car every weekend, making sure
that everything was in its place and in no danger of failing.  Any parts
that were in danger of failing were replaced or rebuilt.  Any parts not
needing attention were left alone, including the oil.  In 160,000 miles,
the car has never had a failure on the road.  It has also continuously
maintained the performance that it had when it was new.  Why?  Because I
practice extremely careful and thorough preventative maintenance.  Shortly
after I bought it, I performed a tribology analysis on this car.  That
analysis revealed that the oil was still performing as new when it had
12,000 miles on it.  There is no arguing with that.  This isn't a matter of
potato/potahto.  Changing the oil at any shorter interval would have gained
me absolutely nothing.


>I think the real question may be which approach you prefer. As much as I
>may gripe about having to do another oil change (oil change? Geez, I just
>DID an oil change!) I've got to admit that I kind of like spending a
little
>quality time down under with the mechanicals from time to time. I
recognize
>that for most people, it's just an inconvenience, and if you can get away
>with an extended interval using a synthetic, go for it.

Some people may be drawn to synthetics by the extended change intervals.  I
should hope that, after reading my previous post, you would realize that I
don't rank among them.  I use synthetics because they offer clear
performance advantages over mineral oils.  The trade-off?  They're also
more expensive.


>I wouldn't want to
>leave people with the impression that the ONLY way to keep motors clean
and
>sludge free is to use synthetics, however. From my experience, that's just
>not so.

I never said that synthetics were the only way to keep an engine clean.  If
you use a mineral oil and change it frequently, you can maintain a fairly
sludge-free engine--provided the engine isn't prone to coking.  If you use
a Pennsylvania grade mineral oil, you will see an even cleaner engine using
the same change intervals.  If you use a synthetic, cleanliness is no
longer an issue, and you also get an oil with superior performance.


Rich Wagner
Montrose, CO
'82 GTV6 Balocco

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