What engine oil should I use in a 1600 Volkswagen air cooled beetle engine?

Answer 1

My local aircooled guru says straight 30 in the winter, and straight 40 in the summer.

10w30 is an absolute NO NO!

A HD 15w-40 is acceptable.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

Years ago when I worked in a vw shop we used straight 30w in all vw vehicles.
That was in California, where the only two seasons you have all year is night and day. But really a vw motor wants to perform. And I found it was always best to run a higher weight oil. In my stock 1600 I always put 40w in it. On larger motors I built, like 1835, or 2180, I would use nothing other than Castrol 50w. And given the age of your motor now I would not consider any thing lower than 40w. And change it often,and dont forget to clean the screen at every change.

Answer 4

As per the manual:

SAE 30: 32-86 degrees F.
SAE 40: 68-104 degrees F.

Many people are old school and will stick to a mono-grade viscosity. However, I'm the type that has embraced the 21st century and realize that multi-grade oils are not terrible like they once were. With that being said I have had no problem running both 10W-30 and 10W-40 here in CA.

Answer 5

Being a Beetle fanatic, and having 8 of them in the past, plus other VW models, I was told by VW mechanics that a heavier oils was always preferred, as air cooled engines run hot in comparison to the water pumpers. So...I always used 15-40 in the winter and 20-50 in the warmer/hotter months. Just my take...

Answer 6

From my understanding from VW, the issues are ones of cost. Air cooled engines run hot; in order to cool them down, they use large "fins" for cooling air flow to reduce temperatures. Because of horsepower issues, emissions, fuel economy concerns and weight, air cooled engines are at a majour disadvantage vs. water cooled motors. Oil leaks which are fairly common on air cooled motors would be a disaster on a air cooled motor created to meet todays emissions and fuel economy standards. On stock VW Beetles, cylinder #3 is known to overheat and have piston problems due to the lack of air flow to cool the piston barrel and head assembly. Todays engines work on a very tightly controlled temperature and computer operations to deal with emissions and fuel economy. As it has been explained to me, air cooled motors have a much wider temperature range that is very hard to control; fans could do the job, larger surface area of fins (either more of them or/and larger ones), but this increases cost. Water cooled motors allow for a much tighter temperature control, thus making it easier to control various emissions levels, yet, allow the engine temperature to run right at the edge of improving thermal efficiency, without going into overheating. And then there is the issue of oil cooling; it would need a fairly large oil cooler to keep the engine oil from overheating and becoming jelly.... Finally, there is the issue of a heater/defroster operation. The issues of the lack of an effective heater and defroster are legendary to both the public and Beetle owners alike; various attempts to improve the air flow of the heater and defroster have only had marginal effect at making the interior environment more comfortable. The gasolene powered heater that was sometimes used in the type II and other models as an aftermarket option (and in the original year of the Corvair) generated enough heat, but often had odor issues and decreased fuel economy in the process. Hope this sheds some light into your inquiry, a car nut.

Answer 7

Vw Engines

Answer 8

This has topic is basically the never ending debate and no one ever agrees. So, here is what I believe. VW was pretty septic about what oils it recommended for their motors. Yes, it's been 30 years or so since they put this info out, and there maybe better oils today, but it worked just fine for millions of people back then and for my 2 cents it works just fine today. So, here is the chart from one of the official service manuals (1978 printing).
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f386/patrickm2213/Misc/IMG_1057.jpg

You'll fine a lot more info on this topic on thesamba.com.

Answer 9

Use OIL Made for airplanes (the small ones) it is made for air cooled engines and will not break down as fast. You can get at any small airport. It is a little more expensive but it will last long and be better for your engine.

Answer 10

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