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Subject:Friday Story
From:David Kao
Date:Fri, 25 May 2007 16:33:27 -0700

OK, I must tell this Friday story, which was from a very wise man on this list
back at least 10 years ago.

This gentleman said if we park our vanagons on a slope over night. We would be much
more likely attacked by the extremely popular lifter noise problem which would go
away after 10 minutes of reving the box at 3000 RPM.

This gentleman's words had me thinking. What if I jack up the rear of my vanagon whenever
I park on my drive way? My Vanagon would be level. Or... I decided to fill more oil into
the case and see. The effect of more oil when parked on a slope may be equal to parking
on level ground with correct oil level.

Yes, it is. When I put my 84 in non operative for 4 years I overfilled oil to slightly
above the oil stick's upper limit mark. For 4 years I only started the engine once every
2 to 3 months. I never lost compression out of any lifters. The Vanagon never left the
drive way for 4 years.

Now my 84 has been back to service for a while. I always fill oil to the max mark on
the stick. Not a single lifter noise problem yet with daily parking on the same drive way.
If the oil level is between the marks the problem would attack at least once a month.
Dino 20w-50 made no differences. I will be back to 10w-40 to get 22 MPG instead of 20.

David

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