A buddy of mine has a 1980 dodge vam he is using for ministry purposes. Sometime during its lifetime the van was legthened, widened, and made taller, and it is now a 20 passenger bus.
It belonged to my buddies father previously. He used it for ministry purposes and for the past 5 years it has sat in a pasture. His father thinks he changed the oil in it... once. He just topped it off otherwise.
We have done a lot of work to make it pass inspection and run better. Making all the lights work so that it is registered as a "bus" was tough.
The only dial that works is a aftermarket temp gauge that someone put in.
Running down the highway at 55-60 MPH, again MPH dial dosent work, the temp says it is about 195 degrees (in 100+ degree weather) and sitting at stoplights it can get up to 210. After it is shut down the temp guage can go up to 230-240 due to the engine no longer having any coolant or air pushed around/through it.
We flushed the coolant system, and it has all new coolant in there.
Before the first oil change I changed out the oil filter (the one on there looked ancient) and we drove it around town. Then we went ahead and cleaned the carburator and finally dropped the hot oil. Replacing the filter a 2nd time.
I wanted to make sure the filter could do its job on a hot engine because I wasnt sure how much junk was in there.
Right now it is on its 1st oil change. Quaker State 10w30 with Auto RX. It takes 5.5 quarts to bring it up to the fill mark after the 12 oz of Auto RX.
It only gets driven on weekends, and my buddy says it has more power. Might just be it has new oil in it for the first time, might be the Auto RX working. We have done another filter change just to make sure things stay clean as possible. Filters are cheap.
My question to you guys is if I should go to a 15w40 diesil oil, or just go with a more robust 10w30? Perhaps this is a good qualifier for a synthetic oil?
BTW, It has a new exhaust system, one of the things that has been replaced, but no catalytic converter (1980 dodge van).
I worry about the standard Dino oil in these conditions. I am sure it gets up to full temp every weekend. What would yall use?
It belonged to my buddies father previously. He used it for ministry purposes and for the past 5 years it has sat in a pasture. His father thinks he changed the oil in it... once. He just topped it off otherwise.
We have done a lot of work to make it pass inspection and run better. Making all the lights work so that it is registered as a "bus" was tough.
The only dial that works is a aftermarket temp gauge that someone put in.
Running down the highway at 55-60 MPH, again MPH dial dosent work, the temp says it is about 195 degrees (in 100+ degree weather) and sitting at stoplights it can get up to 210. After it is shut down the temp guage can go up to 230-240 due to the engine no longer having any coolant or air pushed around/through it.
We flushed the coolant system, and it has all new coolant in there.
Before the first oil change I changed out the oil filter (the one on there looked ancient) and we drove it around town. Then we went ahead and cleaned the carburator and finally dropped the hot oil. Replacing the filter a 2nd time.
I wanted to make sure the filter could do its job on a hot engine because I wasnt sure how much junk was in there.
Right now it is on its 1st oil change. Quaker State 10w30 with Auto RX. It takes 5.5 quarts to bring it up to the fill mark after the 12 oz of Auto RX.
It only gets driven on weekends, and my buddy says it has more power. Might just be it has new oil in it for the first time, might be the Auto RX working. We have done another filter change just to make sure things stay clean as possible. Filters are cheap.
My question to you guys is if I should go to a 15w40 diesil oil, or just go with a more robust 10w30? Perhaps this is a good qualifier for a synthetic oil?
BTW, It has a new exhaust system, one of the things that has been replaced, but no catalytic converter (1980 dodge van).
I worry about the standard Dino oil in these conditions. I am sure it gets up to full temp every weekend. What would yall use?
