[T3] Stupid question #395 Oil change time?

[William Jahn]

I did watch videos of a VW engine builder who does any thing one wants. He
talked about synthetic oil , said it will make the oil temp in the case
cooler yet it will make the heads run much hotter.

here's a link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM5_ZXyNVl0&t=302s

On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 11:29 AM William Jahn <willjahn975 at gmail.com> wrote:

> The W stands for winter and 30w-30 not sure.
> Jim I only use 20W50 because 40 single grade is no longer available here.
> I figure on start up say 70 degrees since it's multi grade it's not 50
> weight until it gets hot. I thought I'd try the Valvoline 20W50 racing oil
> just to have the zinc , Valvoline also has a 20W50 none racing oil that has
> 830 ppm zinc and the racing has 1400 ppm as far as I can tell castrol has
> no zinc at all. The racing has less detergent yet since I only drive 250
> miles per year and changed it every year I'd be good. It does get hot here.
> I also thought I might use 2 qt's of the racing oil and 1/2 qt of the other
> just to get more detergent yet this may not be needed.
>
> William
>
> On Tue, May 28, 2019 at 10:45 AM Jim Adney <jadney at vwtype3.org> wrote:
>
>> I think there are a few basic rules we can apply to oil changes.
>>
>> 1) Change it every 3000 miles, or at least once a year.
>>
>>         a) Short trips are harder on an engine, but short means too short
>> for the
>>         engine to fully warm up.
>>
>>         b) Warmup happens faster in warmer weather. 50 F may seem cool to
>>         you, but that's nothing compared to -20 F.
>>
>>         c) If you don't have the complete thermostat, linkage, and flaps,
>>         installed, you should assume that your engine NEVER warms up.
>>
>> 2) If this car is going into storage for an extended time, change the oil
>> first,
>> so the engine sits with fresh oil, not contaminated oil.
>>
>> 3) Zinc, in the form of ZDDP, used to be an essential part of any engine
>> oil,
>> but it poisons catylitic converters, so it's been dropped. Cars with Cat
>> Cons
>> switched to non-ZDDP oils and roller cams, so now there are few standard
>> oils that are good for flat tappet engines. I THINK that any oil out
>> there that
>> has the API seal on the front lacks ZDDP. You might find diesel oils that
>> lack
>> this seal. (This API seal has a zig-zag border and is always found on the
>> front of the container, not to be confused with the smooth round Service
>> Rating on the back.)
>>
>>         a) ZDDP is especially important during breakin of the cam. It may
>> not
>>         matter so much in a well broken-in engine.
>>
>>         b) It sounds like GM's EOS is a good source for ZDDP.
>>
>>         c) I'd be surprised if STP had ZDDP in it, as that would make it
>> a very
>>         bad choice for any modern engines. I'll check on that later this
>> week at
>>         my FLAPS.
>>
>> 4) Going to higher viscosity oils, like 20W-50 may seem like a good
>> choice,
>> but that can be misleading. It takes more engine power to pump a high
>> viscosity oil and it may take longer for the higher viscosity oil to
>> reach critical
>> places in the engine upon startup. High viscosity oil is a poor choice
>> for
>> engines that spend a lot of time in warmup. This is not as simple a
>> problem
>> as it might seem.
>>
>> I used 20W-50 only one time, when I had an oil leak. That slowed the leak
>> until I had a chance to fix it. My favorite oil would be 20W-40, but I
>> haven't
>> seen that available for decades. I'm now using 15W-40 diesel oil that
>> lacks
>> the API seal.
>>
>>
>> I've never fogged my engines. In fact, I had to google it to find out
>> what this
>> meant. Seems like it's especially popular in the 2-cycle world, but it
>> makes
>> some sense. Anyone else out there do it?
>>
>> Quiz Question #1, for extra points: What does the W in 20W-50 stand for?
>>
>> Quiz Question #2, for extra points: would 30W-30 have constant viscosity?
>>
>> --
>> *******************************
>> Jim Adney, jadney at vwtype3.org
>> Madison, Wisconsin, USA
>> *******************************
>>
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>
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