oil

[Joe Elliott <jee@domain.elided>]

I don't know nearly as much as I'd like to about oils, but I think 
Karl should stick with his Mobil1.  I wish my car had had Mobil1 all 
its life--I'm afraid to switch *to* a synthetic.  But I agree with 
Thomas Gonnella that throwing out synthetic oil at 3000mi is a waste. 
He seemingly has the empirical evidence to justify going 7500mi, but 
if that scares your, do 5000 instead, and maybe just change the 
filter every 10k.  I think it's also worth suggesting that Karl use 
15W50 rather the 20W50 he says he's currently using.  Remember that 
(in the GTV6 anyway) the recommended oil 10w50 which we can't get in 
the USA.  While Bernie's (and others') mileage would indicate that 
20w50 isn't particularly detrimental, I'm tempted to go to a 
synthetic just for the lower viscosity at startup.  The difference 
between 10W and 15W is just the temperature at which the max 
viscosity (3500cP for both) is specified (-20 vs -15 degrees 
Celsius), 20W oils have a max viscosity of 4500cP at -10 degrees C, 
so it strikes me as though engines running (specifically, starting) 
in colder climates would benefit from the lower viscosity oil, and 
it's my understanding that synthetics don't have any of the 
compromises that come with mineral oils with greater viscosity ranges 
(e.g. 10W40 mineral oil apparently tends to be of lower quality in 
some respects than a 10W30 mineral oil, but that's not the case with 
synthetics).

Joe Elliott
'82 GTV6 (Kendall 20W50)
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