Terry,

Those Mack oil pans are designed to hold 8, 16, or 18 gallons of oil.
Meaning, the pans are larger, so the top of the pool of oil is at the same,
or similar level.  There's just more depth to the pool.

Generally, more oil = less molecular breakdown and less heat buildup, but
only if the engine is designed to hold more.

If the oil in the V'gons is being aerated, that would logically lead to a
drop in oil pressure, since the air in the oil would be compressible.
Aeration would also lead to a lesser volume of oil going over those engine
parts which need to have heat transported away.

I ain't necessarily buying into this, but I can see that the theory does
hold water.

Karl Wolz

----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry Kay" <CTONLINE@WEBTV.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Sunday, June 24, 2001 4:36 AM
Subject: Re: Oil Level Again

> Ken,
>
> Good thought, but for the life of me,I can't see why if the oil was
> foaming (aerating)
> why would this cause the oil to retain BTU's?
>
> This doesn't make any sense either.
>
> The less liquid in the engine, the less area the engine has to dissipate
> the heat.
>
> Case in point----
> A Mack truck has a couple of different sized oil pans.
>
> One is an 8 gallon
> The other is a 16 gallon.
> The last is about 18 gallon
>
> Guess which engines will pull harder, longer, before they start reaching
> their limit's on the temperature gauge?
> And with a larger volumes, the oil won't  break down as fast, due to the
> fact it's running cooler.
>
> Sounds like an awfully crazy theory to me.
>
> Later,
>
>             ______________
>            |[  ] [  ] [ ]\
>            |    |    |    |
>      ~~~ ~||-(())----(())-|
>
> Terry--
> 74 Campmobile- (Clementine)
> 85 GL- (Delilah)
> 86 BMW 325 ES- (Eva)
>