I know a lot of you think its best to change the oil when its hot, but I go through extra effort to make sure the engine hasn't been run for at least two hours. I will even push my car out of the garage where I have more room to do the oil change. When an engine starts oil is pumped, and splashed, all around. It takes a LONG TIME for this oil to ALL drain back into the crankcase. I'm convinced I remove more of the old oil this way. The modern oils, with their detergents, don't let the impurities(sludge) settle out like they did forty or so years ago, when it was probably better to change it hot.

__________________
Tom H.

I've been intrigued by the threads here on synthetic vice dyno juice. This past weekend, I converted my 82 300SD Turbodiesel over to Amsoil S3000 diesel rated synthetic. Flushed it out with their flush, drained and renewed with the Amsoil. I'll keep posted on whether anything happens plus or minus. My car has about 220K miles on it and has been using a little bit of oil, less than a quart every 3K miles.

I'm also interested in any experiences with the bypass filters. The Amsoil literature really makes a good case for this, but it would require some modification - removing the oil filter canister and replacing it with their custom 2 filter setup. But their literature makes it sound as if engine wear will be brought down to essentially zero, with the other benefit that one can go long times between actual oil changes.

Brothers Of The Benz, All
If you love your machine, I mean really lover her, then DO IT.
My 1987 W124030, 103983 engine, with 176,000 excellent performing miles, and she's still original.
If I had changed over or started out new, possibly her engine will make 200 or 250,000 miles without even valve guide seals.
Say a prayer for her.
Happy Trails Beep Beep from The Spiderman in Houston!!!

Excellent thread bringing out salient points.I have researched the subject exhaustively,the consensus of informed opinion is overwhelmingly on the synthetic side.
I would also advocate diesel rated synthetic for soot supension properties,In my opinion, synthetic is vital for
turbocharged engines.

Tigerfox

[Edited by tigerfox on 07-06-2001 at 03:05 PM]

Well, hopefully my seals will swell with some added miles. Before this thread had progressed some, I had no idea the minor leaking I experienced had a likelihood of reversing itself. Right now I have only about 1k after the switch so it not be so bad after all. Over the weeks since my last post the leak does seem to be slowing considerably.

As a side note, when I replaced the Oil Pan gasket trying to stop the leak I was amazed at what I found in the bottom of my Oil Pan. Absolutely no buildup of any kind with Dino Oil, the inside of the pan looked as if I had just poured some oil in it and that's it.

Just more reason to,"Change it hot, and change it often."

I finally switched my 300D to synthetic on June 28 with 171729 miles. I am now at 172453 miles and my car still does not drip any oil. The rear main seal does/did leak a little bit due to a once overfilled crankcase, but the leak is slow enough and I drive enough that any fluid is simply blown off of my engine. My car never sits long enough to accumulate a drip.

Also, the oil pan gasket has/had a slight leak, but I only noticed this on 6/28 when I was in the process of changing my car to synthetic. I will update this post when and if I notice any changes.

My leaks must be extremely slow. Although the bottom of my engine is slightly wet, my car never drops anything on the ground.

__________________
Ben

The MBs:
1976 300D (W115) - 330K and still going (sort of)
1991 300D 2.5 Turbo - Sold at 221K
1983 280SEL - Sold at 206K
1981 300SD - Sold at 232K

Brother of The Benz, Old Doubtful
YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES.
WHY?
CAUSE, CAUSE, CAUSE, CAUSE, CAUSE, CAUSE, CAUSE, CAUSE, CAUSE, CAUSE.
Get the drift?
Hopefully, case closed.
Happy Trails Beep Beep from The exhausted Spiderman in Houston!!!