Which Engine Oil?

[hobajay]

Hello all,

I bought some engine oil from a motor spares shop the other day, asking the man in the shops advice on which oil I would need (am a new owner!). He didn't fill me with confidence that I was buying the right one, and want to just double check it's correct before putting any in!

My van is a 1981 Aircooled, 2.0 litre petrol.

All advice much appreciated!

Jo.

[R0B]

you must of missed this when you read the wiki...you did read it didnt you.???https://club8090.co.uk/wiki/Pe ... oil_change

[hobajay]

Thank you Rob, for pointing me in the right direction.
I appreciate it must be very annoying having loads of newbies asking the same questions over and over again, I did do a search and genuinely missed that section on the wiki.

Thanks again for the help.

Jo.

[Grun]

hobajay....Jo,

I just get the feeling that ROB may be upset about something .... I could be wrong... and I have a water cooled engine (for which the details in the wiki are quite correct), but no knowledge of the 2 litre Aircooled.

Aircooled engines run a bit hotter and rely on the oil to transfer the heat, so I would be inclined to wait until some of the Aircooled brigade answer your query.

20W 50 grade oil may be the better option and the capacity of the system may be different than the watercooled version.............. wait a bit for someone to confirm.

Oh......... and welcome.

Mike

[R0B]

not at all.its just my way.of pointing to the wiki.and a bad attempt at humour...

I just get the feeling that ROB may be upset about something

[VWCamperfan]

I would go for 20/50 mineral oil, not synthetic as this doesn't have such good heat transfer which is needed with Aircooled engines when the oil passes through the oil cooler.

[chuckle-bus-tom]

Duckams (spelling?) 20/50 mineral is most peoples weapon of choice, but I'm more than happy with Halfords 20/50 which is £14.99 for a big ol can.

[Dubstar]

I get my 20/50 from GSF, and I'm sure it's only £8.99. The make is Morris and it seems ok to me. They also do a straight 30 grade, which in my current engine was a little noisy.

[bigherb]

I use Morris's Servol 15w/50, pumps the tappets up quicker.

[hobajay]

Thank you all for your replies!

There is a GSF around the corner from me here so I'll pop in today and pick up some 20/50.

What VWCamperfan said actually reminds me of something else I was going to ask about. There is no gauge on the instrument panel to indicate the engine temperature... Nor does there seem to be at least a warning light to say the engine is too hot.

I really have no clue about anything mechanical, in fact most of the wiki articles may as well be written in Dutch for all I understand them! So I just want to know if this is normal!?

There is a large, empty dial, was this it?! There is no needle or numbers/markings on the dial...

urely driving around not knowing if the engine is overheating is not a good thing!!?

Again, thanks for any help offered!

Jo.

[ermie571]

Ha...Aircooled no temp guage, sorry. If you are lucky, the petrol guage will work.

When I had mine, I was told a good rule of thumb was the dipstick...if it burns to hold it, its too hot!! Should be warm/hot in your hand, but you should be able to hold it without pain! (depends on your pain threshold!!!)

Oh - sometimes you will see a clock in the big blank area (mine did)

Em
x

[hobajay]

Ah! Well, at least my point about me not knowing ANYTHING about engines etc has been well proved!

Thanks again Em.

[airhead]

On a watercooled engine, there is a temperature gauge at the top of the large empty space, with a light that flashes when the water level is low or its overheating. In an Aircooled engine, so confident they were that it wouldnt overheat that they didnt provide an oil temperature gauge. In most vans, where you have the empty space, there'd be a clock. On some vans there's a rev counter there with the fuel and temperature gauges at the bottom and a digital clock in the middle below where the warning lights are.

[Hacksawbob]

or its overheating

The light does not tell you that the van is overheating AFAIK. The needle tells you that, some other VW indicator like coolant boiling over hitting the exhaust and a big cloud of steam, oil pressure dropping, the seizing of engine and so forth are overheating indicators.

[airhead]

Hmmm, well mine came on when the water level got low, yes, but I suppose since my van never overheated I wouldnt know for sure. Do you know if your fridge light stays on when you close the door?