On Wed, 17 Aug 94 06:52:36 CDT David Carment said:
>The unrelated question was: would duralube or synthetic oils be
>appropriate for aircooled van  engines? This is probably a FAQ so please
>ignore my ignorance.e DC

so far all i've seen is agreement to disagree on this one. some folks say
that synthetics don't do well in air-cools. other folks say Mobil 1 works
great. some folks love Slick 50 and Duralube. other folks (like me) don't
see any difference after trying it.

the biggest vote AGAINST the oil additives (like Slick 50) was the bit on
Motorweek tv show where pat goss showed some of the additives had 'settled
out' in a test tube ... like the parcipitate stuff in chemistry class labs.
a rather startling picture of a test tube full of dark oil, with this 1/8"
of whitish crud in the bottom. only trouble was, he didn't tell us WHICH
product it was!!!

i tried slick 50 in my 88 water-cooled bus, and have observed zero change
in mpg or anything else. zip. nada. and i'm pretty sure that i saw/read
(say/read it myself, not heard from someone else) that vw did NOT recommend
these sorts of stuff ... claiming that it might affect internal engine
seals. but then, no auto manufacturer EVER recommends this kind of stuff.

my opinion became: use good oil, and lots of it. change frequently. for the
$20 i spent on one quart of slick 50, i could have done two oil changes with
filters on my bus.

but i can't PROVE anything, one way or the other.

have NOT tried Mobil 1 or any of those synthetic oils yet. too expensive for
me.

interestingly enough, this guy Robert Sikorsky, who writes a car-care column
for some arizona newspaper, and has written several books about Keeping Your
Car Forever (or Drive it forever, i think it was. also: Bumper to Bumper)
... anyway, he likes Slick 50 and PTFE (teflon) additives. go figure. :)

joel