yea- when I called around asking autozones in my area if they had any german castrol 0w30 in stock, they said they had never heard of it, and didn't carry it.. I then decided to give it a go.. I went to every store in my area and came up with 56 quarts... They didn't know what I was talking about, shoulda just said "Castrol Syntec 0w30."
I explained to the clerks that I had talked to previously on the phone, showed them the "made in germany" on the back... They were happy to get the information. One particular manager was particularly interested... I even went on to explain the manufacture code on the bottom of the bottle... At every store I went to.... I pulled every bottle down... and often had to searth through the depths of the oil on the shelf.. having to ask for permission to enter the back or to push oil forward for me to get to.. they were all very curious about what I was doing.. after picking out the bottlers I wanted (green)... they would start picking up the other bottles and restocking them... I stopped them and assured that I would pick up my mess, and restock them with the oldest in front... made them all very happy. hehe.
sory for the rambling...
anyhoo... about the filter.. K&N makes a good oil filter. Very tough, plenty of pleats... you'd never have to worry about a K&N filter breaking or anything... however.. the K&N is really designed for flow, the filtration, is not as good on small particals as the other options.. much like their air filters... they give extra flow, at the cost of small partical filtration... If you are racing, and need every bit of HP evailable- the K&N will serve it's purpose... but for everyday use, trying to get the most miles out of an engine... there are better options available for small partical trappment. (Mobil 1 filters, and Purolaor Pure-One filters come to mind, the purolator being cheaper with nearly the same quality as the mobil)
I'd suggest against the K&N for the long term... (just my personal opinion, which is based, entirely, on what i have managed to read on this board and a few others)... great filters- but they serve a purpose that is not related directly to enginle longevity.
