Re: Time for an Oil Change

[Sargent Schutt <sargent@novagate.com>]

FIRST OFF, DON'T TYPE IN ALL CAPS. It is the e-mail equivalent of yelling. Use
your indoor voice, thanks.

On the K&N - it is okay to use a K&N filter designed to fit in your stock box,
but the cone filter is probably not advisable - (Brett, Ned was referring to
the vortex effect (or something on those lines) that was created by the *cone*
K&N. K&N in the OE airbox will work fine. The only advantage is you can clean
it - you never have to buy another one. Performance gains? Maybe .5 HP and IMO
improved throttle response, especially in conjunction with a modified OE box
intake. 

A 100 5 cly probably doesn't draw enough air to see the cone/mass airflow
sensor problems Ned was seeing in the big hp turbo 20v 5cly.

On oil, if the car has been fed regular (non-synth) oil all it's life, keep
using regular oil. Summers (assuming warm temps) use Valvoline 20-50 'racing'
(yes it still has detergents) or equivalent. Winter, use whatever is
appropriate to your climate. If the car has been on a life-long diet of
synthetic oil, keep using it, but change the filters every 4k or get a big
deisel filter if it will fit and change it with the oil in 7k. (not starting
an oil fight here, these are my educated opinions).

If the car has always been run on regular oil, you might not want to change to
Mobil-1 or the like. Regular oil builds up deposits around gaskets and seals
and can cause the outside of the gasket to dry up and crack. When the synth is
added, it removes a lot of the icky dino-oil deposits and can subsequently
cause leaks around seals (if they've dried/cracked in the interim). Maybe this
will be a problem for you, maybe not. For me, it has been a problem. synth oil
is good if used from the start (or say 10k miles), but don't switch to synth
later in life. (that's my based on my experiences, YMMV).

Cap/plugs/wires - if the car has a lot of miles on it, you should do the plugs
(regular Bosch non-plat will do fine, in some cases best $2 each), check the
resisance on the wires (as long as they're all relatively the same resistance
and not too far out of spec you're fine) and replace the cap/rotor if it is
corroded. Use OE Bosch stuff from Carlsen or Blaufergnugen or the like (see
the vendor list).

That's my .02. Oh, and speaking of O2, check the Oxygen sensor as well...

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Sarge