Originally Posted By: ecotourist
Originally Posted By: rshaw125
On 1960's quality oil? I seriously doubt it. Even well maintained engines in the 1970's were done at 100,000 miles.
Maybe they used a time machine to send back some modern synthetics??
I'm sure that Castrol GTX in 2017 is not the same oil as Castrol GTX in 1965. Castrol GTX in 1965 would not be able to meet today's standards. It was good oil for the time and that's all anyone can expect.
What I do suspect is that he changed the oil often in the first couple of decades. And drove gently and (mostly) long distances.
OK boys, there's an article about the history of this car, found
HERE.
One of the key quotes is as follows:
Quote:
Perhaps owing to the fact that he is a former schoolteacher, the Long Island native literally goes by the book in terms of maintaining his 3-million-mile Swedish car. Gordon lives by the owner’s manual. He reasons that nobody can highlight the maintenance needs of the vehicle better than its creators. Therefore, the original paint color,
the strong engine (which has been rebuilt twice) and other accessories of the Volvo P1800 are still intact to this day.
The engine has been rebuilt. Twice. So the engine doesn't have 3 million miles on it.
Another article goes into a bit more detail indicating:
Quote:
In all the years Gordon's been driving the P1800, the engine has been rebuilt just twice. The first came after 680,000 miles, when Gordon insisted on a complete teardown even though the dealer said it wasn't needed.
"Like they said, there was nothing wrong," Gordon said. "I learned my lesson."
Gordon set the Guinness record back in 1998 when he passed 1.69 million miles. The car kept running like a Swiss watch until last year when he had some trouble getting over the Rockies. Another engine rebuild brought everything back in order.
"It was still running, but I was losing compression," he said. "I had one bearing that had some wear on it, and I had a cracked piston ring. I was losing oil pressure, but the cylinders and so on had very little wear on them."
So, as far as intervals:
Rebuild #1: 680,000 miles
Rebuild #2: ??? Maybe somewhere around 1.7 to 1.8 million? So over a million anyways between this one and the previous.
Present engine has the remainder, so maybe around a million as well.
