TigerLily,
Would it be a fair assumtion that growing up down where you did and being around a track as a kid you are probably familiar with Smokey Yunick?

As for the oil change, I got a service contract with my lease and they change it evey 3750 miles until the lease is up, plus the dealership uses synthetic.

 

Linus ~ you would be correct. I don't know much about him, except that he was well known in "that world". I do remember Daddy talking about him and I'm sure if I asked he'd be able to tell me about him. Did you or someone you know know him?

 

Naw. I own his books and the recorded versions of them as well. He seemed to be a lot like my father, and I am a lot like he was, so, I guess that means he (Smokey) and I are a lot alike as well. He has done the things that I would like to do, in the way I would ldo them. I guess you could say he is one of my heros in life because I think we think alike.

 

Hi LG ~

I had to call my Daddy and ask him - he said he knew Smokey. He even took him a car (a Chevellle that he built the motor in, driven by Joe Thurman and sponsored by Homer Leggett) to see if he could get more speed out of it (Daddy didn’t think it was fast enough), he said Smokey told him “your getting more speed out of it now than I get with two four barrels�.

He said Smokey was a great guy, (with a mouth on him that would make a sailor blush - hehe!) and he wished they had keep in touch.

Daddy said he was a role model to them all and he really looked up to him too! If my Daddy thought that much of him, he must of been a good man! Sounds like he's a good hero to have!!

 

If you ever run across a copy of Sex, Lies, and Superspeedways, pick it up. This is one of the audio copies of Smokey's biography, The Best Damn Garage In Town, and it is read by long time Smokey friend, John DeLorean. It is absolutely hilarious, and full of foul language, just as if he was speaking, and other quirks of Smokey. After about the first ten minutes you forget the voice you are hearing is John's and not Smokey's. The other audio copy, More Sex, Lies, and Superspeedways is read by various other people that knew Smokey, or that Smokey had some major impact on thier life. I have all three copies. I just wish I could have met the man.

 

LG~

It's funny that you asked me about Smokey ... I'm in the middle of trying to plan a surprise retirement/birthday party for my Dad. The hardest part of this [so far] is trying to remember the names and locate all the guys he used to run with. When I asked him about Smokey, it opened the door for me to say "Dad, this guy on the hummer bb wanted to know who else you knew, he was curious because maybe he knew them too". It was the only way I could think to get the names of those that I don't remember. Within a minute he piped out nearly 30 names ... so now I've got more guys to track down!! [&:]

I think I will pick up that book! I googled it and found where you can order it. Maybe I'll get two and get one for Dad too!

 

My rec is to do the first change at 1000, every then 5000 after unless you're on a lot of unpaved roads or a dusty environment. Synthetic oil is great stuff for some applications, but for most private vehicles, its just pointless expense. Engines just don't wear like they did before computer machining and QA; its common for abused engines in econoboxes to go 200K miles without significant internal wear. I do use syn oil in my Audi as insurance for its two turbos because it stands up to very high temps much better, but I know there's some there paranoia too. In a non-turbo engines there's really not much justification for it. The bearing loads, speeds, and temperature just don't call for it. It doesn't hurt, but its mostly a vanity expense like $40/can wax. Its probably better to invest the $$ on an oil analysis every change.

Syn oil gets cheaper if you go 10K between changes, but thats self-defeating because the dirt load is doubled and dirt is what eats engines. If I was planning to keep the H3 for 250K miles or if I did a lot of heavy trailer pulling, I might use syn oil. If I had a an aftermarket air filter, I think about syn oil too.

 

I'm gonna have to disagree with you somewhat...I change every 5000 if I'm using the Synthetic and when I was using dino based, it was every 3000 or 3 months...Period..I agree on the part about changing often to eliminate the dirt and contamination load from the internal combustion process inherent with all engines.

It is also a proven fact and I think Importkiller gave a great analogy once, that Synthetic is molecularly slicker than petrol based oils, hence the engine runs easier with less wear, ergo, better mileage and synthetic also leaves more of a protective film on all the metal surfaces to help protect from the extreme wear on cold start ups.

Castrol had a commercial out a while back (couple of years ago) that demonstrated a fill and drain with conventional oils vs. Castrol Syntec...They drained the engines, then started and ran them...The conventional oiled engine ran shortly before it seized up, while the Castrol Syntec engine continued to run without any signs of seizure.

 

Agree with ya 100% Dennis. Also an aftermarket filter filters BETTER than stock (K&N).

 

Not only is synthetic slicker, it doesn't breakdown as petroleum oil does. Synthetic oil is the only oil I have used since Mobil 1 came out in the late 70's (1977).