Tuesday, April 27, 2010

What engine oil should I use in a 1600 Volkswagen air cooled beetle engine?

My local aircooled guru says straight 30 in the winter, and straight 40 in the summer.





10w30 is an absolute NO NO!





A HD 15w-40 is acceptable.What engine oil should I use in a 1600 Volkswagen air cooled beetle engine?
Use OIL Made for airplanes (the small ones) it is made for air cooled engines and will not break down as fast. You can get at any small airport. It is a little more expensive but it will last long and be better for your engine.What engine oil should I use in a 1600 Volkswagen air cooled beetle engine?
use areo shell, made for air cooled motors.
30 W...change it every 1,500 mi as suggested in original manual.
10w30





And check it often. The 1600 has a two piece block. They leak as they heat and cool....unavoidable.
seems like we used to run staight 40wt in those :)





you know they run staight 50 wt in some air cooled bikes, if it's high mileage,that might be what you want
Being a Beetle fanatic, and having 8 of them in the past, plus other VW models, I was told by VW mechanics that a heavier oils was always preferred, as air cooled engines run hot in comparison to the water pumpers. So...I always used 15-40 in the winter and 20-50 in the warmer/hotter months. Just my take...
Years ago when I worked in a vw shop we used straight 30w in all vw vehicles.


That was in California, where the only two seasons you have all year is night and day. But really a vw motor wants to perform. And I found it was always best to run a higher weight oil. In my stock 1600 I always put 40w in it. On larger motors I built, like 1835, or 2180, I would use nothing other than Castrol 50w. And given the age of your motor now I would not consider any thing lower than 40w. And change it often,and dont forget to clean the screen at every change.
Standard!
SAE30, or 20w50.


10w30 is way to thin for an old engine like that.
This has topic is basically the never ending debate and no one ever agrees. So, here is what I believe. VW was pretty septic about what oils it recommended for their motors. Yes, it's been 30 years or so since they put this info out, and there maybe better oils today, but it worked just fine for millions of people back then and for my 2 cents it works just fine today. So, here is the chart from one of the official service manuals (1978 printing).


http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f386/p鈥?/a>





You'll fine a lot more info on this topic on thesamba.com.
use a good 10w30 in the winter months,and 10w40 in the summer months.

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