Club 80-90 Forums

HI me again.

As i'm having to do so much on the van myself these days i have to start thinking more about what products i use.

So guys and gals what anti freeze and engine oil do you recommend. I ask because i was told ordinary anti freeze is no good for a type 25 engine and can rust it? and i always see Morris oil being sold every where at Van fest is this the oil i should be using?

Many thanks in advance

Hammy x

The Wiki has the answers....

Any quality brand is fine and prob a good idea to use a ready mixed one unless you have access to plenty of distilled water (never use tap water if you lve in a hard water area.. or "softened" water if you do too)

the cooling system components are at least 15 years old generally and filling with the costly VW "!correct" stuff wont reverse the corrosion that has happenend..

For a wbx (1.9/2.1) a good brand mineral 15w40 or 15w50 or if tired a 20w50, Quantum (as used by VW) is perfect in the 15w40....

D/TD..... dunno...

It is dificult to ague against the concept of using distilled water for mixing with the coolant, it is purer and won't deposit limescale but the reality is that using it is totally unecessary and was never a recommendation by Volkswagen or any other manufacturer for that matter.
Think about it this way.....you boil your kettle 6-10 times a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, each time there is approx two pints of water boiled and used so that's 5,824 pints of water going through your kettle each year approx.......and your ellement gets a couple of millimeters of limescale build up.
So what is 30 litres of this water (and the lime contained within it) going to do to the internals of your engine........I will tell you....NOTHING!
God knows where this idea came from but using distilled water to mix your coolant is absolutely unecessary and pretty anal if you ask me.
VW G12 if wasserboxer, any other quality branded if not.
Quality 15W 40 branded if petrol engined
Proper branded 15W 40 Turbo diesel oil if DIESEL engined (not normal engine oil)

Martin

Red Westy,

God knows where this idea came from but using distilled water to mix your coolant is absolutely unecessary and pretty anal if you ask me.

Lucas at Gowesty recommends and uses distilled water on all engines (although he may live in a hardwater area).
As he knows a fair bit about T25s I assume that provenance is pretty good.....

Urban myths, old wifes tails, heresay.....whatever you want to call them, unfortunately and strangely become fact after being circulated several times by the gullible.

I was a grade 1 motor vehicle technician at a main VAG (Volkswagen Audi Garages) back in the mid 80's and now teach motor vehicle as a profession. I'm not saying I know everything...far from it! and I'm not saying that distilled water shouldn't be used (if you have 100litres of the stuff then by all means) but the 'minuscule' amount of impurities in this quantity of tap water would not cause any problems!
Martin

Thanks guys

i know "go westy" are good but they sell stainless steel water pipes for ally head engines. not a good combo or particularly well thought out!!

so sometimes its best to use your own inititive rather than rely on so called experts!!

Come round my house and see the crap that comes out the kettle each week

Take your choice.... do what you please... bung any old "pooh" in if it pleases you...

Having dissmantled quite a few waterboxers, I can say the amount of contamination from limescale etc in some has been pretty amazing and I wouldnt have thought it could be that bad... let alone several blocked and low flowing radiators that drop limescaley type material out of them when bashed..... not to mention the oil coolers off the 2.1's

So going on what I have seen, I will continue to be "anal" about it when fitting new engines and radiators etc........

Then saying use costly G12 (that supposedly doesnt need changing) and bung any old water in seems very contradictory.. G12 + water that has all sorts of chemicals minerals and salts in it.... give it a head start, isnt it worth the effort....

Red Westie wrote: Quality 15W 40 branded if petrol engined


Martin

I think 20/50 mineral (Morris, Duckhams) is better for a higher mileage engine.

toomanytoys
My comments were not aimed at any one person and I certainly don't mean to offend, we all are entitled to an opinion and mine was not meant to be personal.
The contamination you mention could well be the result of weak and or old antifreeze which has become acidic and corrosive with age, the deposits you mention are just as likely to be sedimentation of these corroded metals withing the engines cooling system and the very reason why antifreeze should be changed every two years. Limescale or any other build up does not generally occur if owners have followed strict service scheduling and carried out a regular flush and antifreeze change.
Using distilled water certainly won't hurt.
As we know, it is extremely rare to come across an engine that has lived it's life to the service book, with most running on much less than a 50% strength and 6 year plus mix that has lost much of it's rust inhibiting properties. By this time this mildly acidic watered down coolant has had several years corroding and depositing metal oxides within the cooling system.
Dito; higher mileage engines may well be prefered a higher viscosity 20/50 (I think Castrol has a GTX High Mileage product)

Martin