dirty oil?

[murf]

Hi all, I drive a 2l Aircooled and noticed recently that when I dipped the oil it had a kind of dirty froth in there. Wasnt too bothered because she went to garage and had oil change amonst other things.
However dipped it again today (engine cold, not started for two days) and same mucky froth on the stick, made it difficult to ascertain my oil level, any ideas??

cheers murf

[72BUG]

Frothy oil is usually a sign of water in the oil, which would normally be a sign of a blown head gasket. However as its Aircooled then that's not possible so I would have to put it down to condensation in the filler / dipstick tube. Unless anyone else has an alternative suggestion.

[Mocki]

condensation?
is it kind of mayo looking nastyness ??
at the top of the dipstick and in the top of the filler?

caused by warm moist air and condensation

[CovKid]

Too short a journey each day. Common on Beetles too. Short or infrequent journeys are nearly always the cause - give it a few decent runs. V-dubs work best when driven lots. With engine up to full working temperature (hot), any moisture eventually evaporates. Yours isn't working hard enough to do that - hence the moisture in the crankcase.

Bear in mind the bug was designed to run on the Autobahn all day almost with your foot to the floor (which they did very well). The 2ltr Aircooled is a somewhat bigger version with the cooling system flattened down to give more head height in the engine bay (ie squeezed into a tighter space) but your engine can suffer from this too. Its layout originated from the original Type 4 (not to be confused with the T4) to increase loading space.

This was something I learned very early on in the early 1980s and I've come across it a few times where the vehicle is being used just to go to work or shops and not being given the room to flex its muscles a bit. Hope that helps.

A remote possibility is the timing is slightly out or some other issue that is leaving the engine running cooler than it should be and not actually reaching normal operating temperature, but the cause of this yellow scum remains the same.

[murf]

Thanks guys, Mocki you described it pretty well and CovKid, you have guessed right that I havent used her much lately and only done a couple of short runs, cheers for the help

murf