Synthetic oil in a WBX wierdness to report
Posted: 14 Jan 2014, 22:00
So I have a wbx van
175k miles engine (1 head seal done in situ 9 years ago otherwise the engine is original)
Just over a year ago I swapped to fully synthetic oil as I was pissed off with the performance of the mineral oils since Quantum became unavailable - I was suffering high oil usage, poor oil pressure with tappets depressurising and heavy carbonisation of the oil even though i run mainly on lpg.
Since I went synthetic, 3 oil changes, much lower oil usage so the 500ml left after doing the oil change is enough to top up between services , ie ~100ml/1000miles which is acceptable on an old engine running lpg with no head oiling system I think. Oil is still very clean at oil changes with little carbonisation evident.
The bad tappet has become a little rattly again, after 12 months of silence; I suspect the cam is actually worn and next service I will check the valve adjustments and adjust if necessary; an engine rebuild is promised.
The weirdness is to do with the crank oil seal - one of the reasons in the past that peeps didn't go synthetic oil was the suspected issue of oil seals leaking with the thinner oil - well I seem to have experienced the reverse - my flywheel oil seal had been weeping for a good few years, not too bad to bother changing it on it's own, ie not doing anything but leaving a slight film of oil on the bellhousing and bottom of engine and in the bash bar (Syncro) but slightly annoying.
Tonight I had to change the clutch so did the oil seal whilst I was there and found slight oil residues along with the clutch dust in the bellhousing - checked the gearbox input shaft oil seal was fine, cleaned up etc.. and fitted replacement release bearing, then pulled the flywheel to find back of flywheel clean and dry but obvious long term oil residues on back of engine and the oil seal was the original one gone totally hard as had the o ring seal, but no current leak apparant, so it appears to have been leaking less oil past the tired old seal and on closer inspection the whole engine is noticeably less oily than it was a few years ago - but it is a typical wbx in that slight dampness and build up of dirt and oil around bottom of disi, rear main seal and oil pump and breather tower, just now less so.
FYI at th emoment I'm on the Carlube equivilant of VW Platinum 5W40 Fully Synthetic, I will be using the VW again next time as it's just been on mega deal
175k miles engine (1 head seal done in situ 9 years ago otherwise the engine is original)
Just over a year ago I swapped to fully synthetic oil as I was pissed off with the performance of the mineral oils since Quantum became unavailable - I was suffering high oil usage, poor oil pressure with tappets depressurising and heavy carbonisation of the oil even though i run mainly on lpg.
Since I went synthetic, 3 oil changes, much lower oil usage so the 500ml left after doing the oil change is enough to top up between services , ie ~100ml/1000miles which is acceptable on an old engine running lpg with no head oiling system I think. Oil is still very clean at oil changes with little carbonisation evident.
The bad tappet has become a little rattly again, after 12 months of silence; I suspect the cam is actually worn and next service I will check the valve adjustments and adjust if necessary; an engine rebuild is promised.
The weirdness is to do with the crank oil seal - one of the reasons in the past that peeps didn't go synthetic oil was the suspected issue of oil seals leaking with the thinner oil - well I seem to have experienced the reverse - my flywheel oil seal had been weeping for a good few years, not too bad to bother changing it on it's own, ie not doing anything but leaving a slight film of oil on the bellhousing and bottom of engine and in the bash bar (Syncro) but slightly annoying.
Tonight I had to change the clutch so did the oil seal whilst I was there and found slight oil residues along with the clutch dust in the bellhousing - checked the gearbox input shaft oil seal was fine, cleaned up etc.. and fitted replacement release bearing, then pulled the flywheel to find back of flywheel clean and dry but obvious long term oil residues on back of engine and the oil seal was the original one gone totally hard as had the o ring seal, but no current leak apparant, so it appears to have been leaking less oil past the tired old seal and on closer inspection the whole engine is noticeably less oily than it was a few years ago - but it is a typical wbx in that slight dampness and build up of dirt and oil around bottom of disi, rear main seal and oil pump and breather tower, just now less so.
FYI at th emoment I'm on the Carlube equivilant of VW Platinum 5W40 Fully Synthetic, I will be using the VW again next time as it's just been on mega deal