Yes, Spector, I do. What I can see of the valvetrain through the oil fill hole is clean. Red Line did such a good job of flushing when I first switched that the oil filter clogged within 1,000 miles. There's no trace of baked-on oil on the dipstick, which is as shiny as when the car was new. At the same time, I realize that by switching at such a high mileage I probably haven't received--and may never receive--the full benefit of the switch. You have to understand that I did not trust synthetics at all because of my father's bad experiences with M1 in the late 1970s-1980s, and it took a lot of convincing for me to try anything synthetic. That said, I was impressed by Red Line's basic honesty in its website and its staff's willingness to answer arcane questions by e-mail.
By nature, I am quite conservative and decided to do no more than double the oil change interval when I switched. So 3K changes became 6K changes. This was in part because of my suspicions about overhyped extended oil change intervals (e.g., Amsoil claiming 25K+ and M1's original 12K claims) and because of research published by SAE and others saying that much over 10K miles (about 16K km) is pushing it for any oil, even the best synthetics. I wanted to maintain a safety margin with the oil.
Someone remarked on a thread a few months ago that in their opinion Red Line was probably best changed at between 6K and 9K miles. I concur based on my experience with my car, but again I switched at a rather high mileage. Depending on how well Red Line 5W40 holds up, since I just switched to that viscosity, I may try going to 9K between changes. The specs on that viscosity are sweet, and it's a shame RL didn't make its existence more widely known sooner.
Perhaps I'm spending too much on motor oil. But I need my car to hold up for another 3 years due to financial issues, and by changing the oil and filters myself, the cost comes out about the same as paying a shop to change dino oil every 3K as I typically did before. By late 2006-early 2007 at the rate miles are accumulating, I'll have 360K on this car. I'd like to think that Red Line will play a key role in getting there without a lot of trouble. (Also, my running a K&N filter with an aftermarket cold-air intake probably lets a certain amount of dust in that stresses the oil, and RL is probably a better oil to handle that kind of load. But in contrast with other posts in the air filter forums, when I have removed the intake to check, I have found little evidence of dust.)
On the next car I get, I intend to switch to RL early--as soon as possible after break-in. Will keep you posted then. Whatever that next car is will probably be similar to this one--i.e., a small wagon with preferably a stickshift. Rumors say that Ford intends to offer a diesel Focus; if true, that will probably be the first choice.
[ February 11, 2004, 11:23 AM: Message edited by: ekrampitzjr ]
