best oil for Aircooled

[dapple]

What is the better oil,justkampers sell morris 30 oil monograde for Aircooled engines or wilkos sell 15/40 mineral petrol oil ,not sure which one to use or does it matter just want to get it right

[CovKid]

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[California Dreamin]

Hmmmmmm now let me see....an oil that even Volkswagen NEVER used in a T25 or the correct grade and type...hmmmmmm hard choice.

Just Kampers need a good seeing too by trading standards.... passing stuff off as fit for purpose. Worst still is where do they get their information from, certainly not Volkswagen.
I think they must do a Sunday afternoon pole on VW maintenance by driving around their local housing estate and seaking advice from any Tom Dick & Harry washing his car.....
"OH...THERE'S A GUY WHO KNOWS ABOUT VW'S, LET'S GO AND ASK HIM"

15W40 mineral if your engine is in good order.
15W50 or 20W50 if it's a little long in the tooth and breathing heavy.

Martin

[CovKid]

Wilko is your friend, as Martin has hinted Its all there if you care to read through. In fact in my old Beetle I even used to run with Shell Rimula, a diesel oil that was a little thicker than regular oil (just suited it) but I never used monograde.

[dapple]

Thanks for clearing that up

[Bowton Lad]

Hmmmmmm now let me see....an oil that even Volkswagen NEVER used in a T25 or the correct grade and type...hmmmmmm hard choice.

Just Kampers need a good seeing too by trading standards.... passing stuff off as fit for purpose. Worst still is where do they get their information from, certainly not Volkswagen.
I think they must do a Sunday afternoon pole on VW maintenance by driving around their local housing estate and seaking advice from any Tom Dick & Harry washing his car.....
"OH...THERE'S A GUY WHO KNOWS ABOUT VW'S, LET'S GO AND ASK HIM"

15W40 mineral if your engine is in good order.
15W50 or 20W50 if it's a little long in the tooth and breathing heavy.

Martin

I take it that you have never seen a genuine VW Transporter/Caravelle owners handbook from 7/1983 (or earlier). VW listed SAE 30 monograde oil as an alternative to 15W40 multigrade oil. Why do owners of late model water cooled T25s always assume that things that apply to their vans were the same with early models, both air & water cooled? What a load of nonsense about JK and trading standards.

[California Dreamin]

I was working in a main Volkswagen dealership from early to late 80's...grade 1 technichian.....I actually have several of those genuine blue with orange band handbooks (small soft cover A6? size)
Yes Volkswagen Audi Group VAG as it was then, did use a banded system in those manuals to recommend oil viscosity type dependant on ambient temperature etc
Those service manuals were designed and distributed for VAG technicians and although they were written in English they still contained all the rellivant information for VAG service around the world...by that I mean recommendations for lubricants in LOW & High ambient conditions (regions of the world)

However, the fact remains that here in the UK mono grade oils were NEVER used on even the earliest of the air cooled T25 (maybe Bays, I wasn't working there then) although I can ask my father in law who was (forman at the same dealership for 29 years and in his earlier days in charge of the Beach Buggy Production Line) That's if you want a definitive answer as to when they stopped using monogrades in VW's.
And
The stores never stocked monograde oils (in my time there)....they were obsolete then as much as they are now (for T25 use)
My very earliest recollection (very early 80's) was that we used 20W50 (Castrol GTX) in our pumps for all the petrol Volkswagens and Audi's (this was before Volkswagen marketed their QUANTUM PRODUCTS) when VW's own products were released (somewhere around 82 - 84) all petrol T25's went from 20W50 to 15W40 Quantum Blue Mineral.

Please don't assume just because I happen to be the owner of a later watercooled T25 that I don't know the facts!


With the greatest of respect to you... I have no agenda, it just so happens that I am in a fairly unique position to have actually been there at the time. So my applogies if I sound a bit matter of fact but to me this isn't really an opinion...it's how it was.

My rant may have been a little out of order regarding JK but I suspect their recommendations are more about nostalga and 'urban legend' fuelled by Split and Bay owners within their own staff rather than what is actually the best to recommend for our vans.

So does this mean you can't use Morris Monograde 30 in your air cooled CU...no! of course not....is it the best oil to use, I think I've made my point.

Martin

[Ian Hulley]

My rant may have been a little out of order regarding JK

You carry on mate .... plenty of examples out there of their blatant miss-selling.

Ian

[CovKid]

I'll just add my own thoughts here which to a large extent bear out what Martin has said on this. A good quality modern multigrade would whoop the pants off monograde. Most of the early VWs didn't have proper oil filters either. The 2.0lt Aircooled T25s (which were thrown in to test the market for a redesigned van) were essentially a powered by a larger Beetle engine with the cooling ducting flattened down and the fan relocated. At the end of the day. It was very much a 'suck it and see' launch. VW were good at what they did and petro-chemical companies good at what they did. Both have advanced in their own right. Traffic is far more condensed these days though - mostly stop and start and to be honest, multigrade is better suited to such conditions and even by the early 80s, VW were recognising this.

[California Dreamin]

And
I'm quite happy to jump completely the other way with this and say that although I recognised the immense leaps forwards in oil technology there is a point at which these ULTRA MODERN, fully synthetic, massively wide viscosity spectrum oils, with all their proven advancements are completely unsuitable for our particular engine needs.

So it's not just a case of saying more modern is better because it's not in this case.

Martin

[California Dreamin]

Oh God! ..... I've gone and done it again...yet another thread on oil.

How did I let myself get drawn into this AGAIN.


Martin

[California Dreamin]

My rant may have been a little out of order regarding JK

You carry on mate .... plenty of examples out there of their blatant miss-selling.

Ian

I think that was the reason that started me off....so much, lets say, poor advice and recommendations on the JK site:

For example: we have seen lots of owners coming on here who have bought wheels from JK that they have been sold as suitable for T25 1979 - 1991 .
These have been shown to have an unsuitable offset and are not sufficiently load rated for T25's (EMPI's) ?

Martin

[CovKid]

Aye, and it was you that mentioned fully synthetic too. I don't play the oil game anymore. Been done to death. Shove in what you like I say - sunflower oil will do but change it after 20 minutes

[Ian Hulley]

Webbers, dizzys ..

[Mocki]

fuel pumps that have the outlets in completely the wrong place........
mirrors that dont stay still.....and have comedy "glass" ..........