20/50 Halfords mineral here. Nice good quality oil. I had some fresh tested at work then again after 500 (oil changed from new at 100, 300 and 500 miles) then tested again at 1000 and 2000 miles. It didn't break down at all with no appreciable degradation. There were no signs of wear contaminants from the engine either after the 500 mile change so i'm pleased with that performance. Also shows I did a good job of my engine build Goes in green and comes out green. Keeps things running nice and cool - not sure its suited to winter running though? When I first put oil in earlier this year in the cold snap it was like treacle. I'm nots sure the synthetic oils are suitable even on a new build aircooled engine due to the tolerances
I thought synthetic oils were ok in a brand new engine but not in a old one as the detergents break down all the cabon and stuff and send it round your engine blocking up oil galleries and the like .Personally i find snthetic oil expensive enough for 20k in the audi let alone 3k in a bug
And when I said I had it tested, it was in a lab that tests oils and lubricants for jet engines, so they know their stuff. It's a quality oil
Well that's really good to Know joker, top work Yea I had a good 3 hour trip to with out any problems.
semi synth stuff 10/40 i fink ...changed every 2 or 3 k miles .......no leaks and unless you count the git that keeps stopping for one
I'm with Joker here too. I thought fully synthetic was not recommend for older engines. So with your testing equipment how about testing the oil at 5000 miles to check its breakdown?? I'm going to go against the grain here and say I change my oil once a year (usually in the 5000+ mile range) the reason being that oil quality is far better than it was in the 70's and I use a much better grade of oil than VW recommend. Add to this that I have had no notable ill effects on my engine.
heres a good lil tip ..if your oil is black and very thin when you rub ya fingers together..change it !no buts or ifs...just do it ....regular oil changes will enhance the life of the engine,not the bus
i doubt i'll worry, ive done 900 miles since may, i'll change mine once a year i bought the old mineral type oil if i recall it was about a tenner
Bit of light hearted spin, My oil changes are a bit like the rolling resto of the van, never change at 3000 or 5000 we just seem to carry out a full oil change/top up every time we arrive at a show or arrive at home. its an on going job :-[ I thought this was the norm
seeing as we are dragging this tread up again i'll report that the 1st year i used the recomended 20/50 mineral but as my van was running too hot because of missing tinwear it got black quite quiclky, this year so far i've used 10/40 semi synth and it's a bit too thin i reckon as it's found some little leaks here and there, i'll be going over to the green halfords stuff mentioned above in the next month i think as by then i'll have no spare 10/40 for topping up.
