20w-4- Diesel Oil

20W40 was better than what? 20W50 or 10W40? The higher viscosity sounds good, because the engine can get hot, but low viscosity means that the engine is well lubricated even when you first start the car. What do you guys think?

-Sam

John wrote:

Thanks for the link, John. But I'm curious what you guys use in your air-cooled engines. I've heard some conflicting advice. I feel safe with

20W50, but I'm wondering if people prefer a lower weight.

Of course, my climate matters: I'm talking about the San Fransisco Bay Area: it usually doesn't get above 100F in the summer, or below 40F in the winter.

-Sam

john wrote:

I,m just above Sydney in Aust and its climate sounds much the same as San Francisco. Strangely enough the oil I replaced was a 20W-40 but intended for petrol (or at least it didnt specify oil). I think I,m resistant to the placebo effect enough to discount that. I,m told that when one goes over 40 grade the oil flow around engine drops which affects cooling. John

Castrol 20W50 Syntec for the last 20 years with nary a drop or leak.

Yes, interesting link. Reminds me when I was at my "inlaws" farm at Tintenbar about

1985. Old bloke had a Ferguson TEA20 tractor which used an old Vanguard engine. Typical Brit engine, long stroke, low revs, heaps of torque. Anyway, was asked if I could do an oil change on the tractor. Sure, piece of cake says the unsuspecting. Couldnt get the sump plug out for hours, siezed in. Eventually got it out and what dropped out had the consistency of treacle , appearance of pitch and viscosity of both. Asked when it had its last oil change--- when it was made about 1948 was as close as he could get. Sorry, thats just a little off topic , John

As you know John, everyone has opinions on oils............and of course I think I am right. Be that as it may, your oil probibly does a lot more good than you know. Not only might the 20/50 help an older motor but in searching oils for zinc contents last year I found that most auto oils have removed the zinc as the new cars do not require it since they went to overhead cams and roller cams instead of the flat lifter/cam style. I read that an engine builder was having trouble with the engines since they were using solid lifters and he felt this was (zinc) required to prevent excessive wear and flat spots. Anyway Amsoil now sells a oil for older engines that require zinc. It turns out this is the exact same oil they sold before for diesel engines. As I looked at other brands it seems that most diesel oils have a high zinc content. The original engine in my Puma developed a very noisy rap when I started it and I believe the flat spot worn could have been agrivated by the new oils without the higher zinc content. So maybe, just maybe your oil choice might be doing your engine more good than you thought. Just my opinion of course...................Dennis

The Zink (and other) additives have been removed from "Gasoline" oil due to emission requirements. Diesel car/trucks do not have to meet the same standards, so they retained the Zink. A diesel engine also operates under higher stress than gasoline ditto.

Here is a good link:

A serious site despite its name..

J.

Yep, sounds right to me. Dennis

"Sam" schreef in bericht news:g14p04$o5d$ snipped-for-privacy@news.stanford.edu...

15w40 non synthetic in middle european climate, not too cold and not too warm. Vary from -15 to +35 C (both very rare)

Roger

On May 24, 3:16 am, "bug '59" > air-cooled engines. I've heard some conflicting advice. I feel safe with

I just changed the oil on my '64 a couple of days ago and used...... wait for it...... 5W30. I've never owned a Beetle before with an engine that runs as well as this one. The oil light DOES work but not so much as a flicker when idling at a stop even after driving HARD (75+ mph) in high heat for a while. I've driven the car about 200 miles since the change to 5W30 and it seems fine. On other Beetles I've owned I had to run 20W50 or the oil light would come on at idle if I'd been pushing the car hard. I've always read/heard that most of the wear on the engine is supposed to happen during startup and immediately after startup. Seems like the light "5" weight would help the oil get distributed throughout the engine faster after startup than a heavier weight oil, preventing some of that heavy wear. Oh yeah, I (obviously) replaced the accelerator cable that broke and repositioned the pin on the hinge at the bottom of the pedal so it's fully seated in both hinge points now. I put axle grease on the cable when threading it in and now the pedal is so light that it makes the engine seem to rev up much more quickly. Of course the fast revving up might also have something to do with the lighter oil... This baby runs almost as quick/fast as my gsx-r 750. OK, well maybe not quite that quick/fast. :-)