New regulations in the European Union require really long oil change periods to conserve resources.....

G.M. specs their factory fill for 2004 cars to go two years!

The oils that can take this punishment are, shall we say - 'special'.

They have to meet stringent specs, like the BMW 'Longlife-01', Volkswagen's '505-00', and Mercedes '529.3' and get 'Porsche Approval'. the underlying technology requirements are covered in the European Economic Community standard - ACEA-B4, their highest.

Part of the specs is that they have high 'Total Base' numbers, protect from buildup, degradation, rust, acids, and stay in their target viscosity range for the entire period.

Surprise, surprise, they are of course fully synthetic.
Actually, these oils have as much resemblance to good ole' dino 10w30, as a Nascar 'Ford Taurus' does to a real one.

What has all that oily overachievement got to do with me, you ask?

Well, though it costs around $9 a quart in europe, you can buy it here, if you look carefully, for about $5 a jug, AT WALMART!

One of the new Euro oils is Castrol SLX, and 'people in the know' have found that Burma/Castrol is a little lazy. They don't have a good supply of '0W30' in north america, so they re-label 'SLX' as 'Castrol Syntec 0W30' to cover that small market.

The imported stuff says 'Made in Germany' in tiny print by the bar code. (There is SOME domestic made 0W30 around, so you have to check.) It is pretty obvious once you open the jug, it is a bright flourescent green, like anti-freeze, that is just its color, no dye.
Oh, and it smells like Jolly Ranchers - don't let the kids near it!

Now, no one is suggesting that you run your precious rotary for two years without changing the oil, but if you are intent on using the finest (synthetic) oil available, bar none, then you should check out the backstory on this stuff. Lots of further information online......

....and the first person to post 'I heard you're not supposed to use synthetic in a rotary' gets a free kick in the *****.
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doc

 

Interesting. Have any links to further information you'd care to share?

 

The 'oil geeks' talk about little else these days....

Link to OilDrop site.

Some people get obsessive over the smallest things, (not like us....) :p
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doc

 

Yeah, enough already :p

 

As long as oil comes in bottles you can buy OTC, I'll just keep changing mine every 3,000 miles. Simple, easy and straightforward

 

I've seen this discussed a bunch on the forums at www.bobistheoilguy.com as well!

Regards,
Gordon

 

There's a Group Buy running for Amsoil Synthetic motoroils which have Drain intervals between 6 months and 1 year (7,500 miles to 25,000 miles).

Here's a link https://www.rx8club.com/group-buy-center-85/closed-amsoil-synthetic-oils-usa-canada-only-38152/