Hallelujah!  Somebody finally said it.   (thanks, David)

 As my mechanic has told me for the last 5 or so years,
 changing the oil often in a gasoline engine is the single best
 thing you can do to clean and prolong the life of it. Synthetics
are superior, but if you're changing it and the filter out every 3,000
miles, the dino stuff will never have a chance to break down unless
you're continually driving in extreme conditions.

He also says buying any name brand $.99 / qt. that meets
all of the guv'ment requirements will work just fine.

Kevin

From: David Marshall <vanagon@VOLKSWAGEN.ORG>

>Here is my $0.02 worth on the subject:
>
>I think synthetic oil is great stuff and it is superior to dinosaur oil.
>But, a lot of the manufactures tell you that you do not have to change it
>as frequently as it doesn't break down as fast as dino oil.  The fact is
>that synthetic still gets as dirty as dino so you have to change it as
>frequently as dino oil in my opinion.  Personally I do not run synthetic in
>any of my 5 VWs as it is just too expensive to justify the small amount of
>extra protection that I will get.  Chances are very good that your
>wasserboxer will die from a non-oil related problem anyhow.  In the winter
>when it is anywhere from -10 to -40 I use 10w40 and in the summer I use
>20w50.  I use Castrol oil as they sponsor Volkswagen and Audi drivers in
>their racing efforts.  I change my oil every 5000km and change the filter
>at the same time.  Another thing to remember is there is no true Dino oil
>anymore, all of them have Synthetic additives for extra protection.
>