Its getting chilly up here on the West Coast of Canada, and my old 123 300D starts right up just fine with Mobil 1 Delvac 15W40. I think that this oil is the best stuff made.

She started yesterday although it was tough. Up here in the north end of chicago it got down to 0 and was 10 degrees at 800 and she started. I think that that might be the limit however. From now on I will plug it in to save the battery and glow plugs.

Now I dont know if it is the delvac or the fact that I recently blocked off the EGR valve but my baby hardly smokes on cold start up any more. She used to be a fog machine now hardly nothing. I blocked it off at the intake side with a piece of cut sheet metal that I found at home depot for 39 cents. Drill two holes for the bolts to go through now I got better midrange power with less smoke. Huray


bob c

Gixxer;

If your oil analysis using Delvac 1 comes back OK at 10K I would imagine that mine would be even more OK at 7K. I would also think that with these extended drain intervals we both would be wise to perhaps change filters a little sooner? I agree with the advice offered by Larry B. a while back that we all should "change it hot and change it often". I have felt cheap and guilty for stretching my drain intervals to 7K even with this expensive primo oil.

To bad there wasn't oil for our bikes that was as good for them as Mobil 1 Delvac is for our trusty old diesels. I am less confident in the abilities of Motul or BelRay to protect my expensive and finnicky desmodromics as I am with my choice of Delvac for the 617.

I measure the longevity of my 8-valve Duc in years; I measure the longevity of the 617 in decades. Too bad the Duc is almost as expensive to rebuild as a 617 5cyl TurboDiesel.

Duc Man

(PS: As an aside; I am working at a dealership that sells Subaru's now. I am sorry to say that what with the dearth of really nice used diesel Benz', Diamler-Benz unwillingness to reintroduce a diesel in N.America, & the cheapness (I percieve) in the post Chrysler/Mercedes Benz', my next car will be a Subaru WRX. Its at 4 wheeled "998". Mercedes was the best car on Earth for the better part of a century. What happened?)