Which Weight Oil To Use In My Beelte?

Question

Which weight oil to use in my '73 Beetle?

I have been using Castrol 40HD in hot weather, 30HD in mild weather, and 10 W30 in cold weather.

Most seem to like 20 W50, but after reading Ed Hackett's article on multi -grade oil I am trending towards Bob Hoover's opinion of 40HD in Hot weather and 30HD all other times.

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Motor Oil by Ed Hacket

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And another thing, a day or so before Thanksgiving '96, my oil filter imploded. I had a filter pump on my Type I upright engine and was using 20 W50 oil. It was cold that morning and the thick oil somehow imploded the oil filter and caused a big oily mess on the driveway.

dave AKA vwdoc1 · Accepted Answer

Hope it was not a Fram filter!But how can the implosion create an external oily mess?

Jim347a · Answer

Yes, it was a Fram filter.That was before I read negative views concerning Fram filters. crushing a pop can in the middle and how the ends move.The oil squirted out at a high rate. The oil filter pump had 26mmgears.A couple of years later the engine was still running, but I had achance to get a new engine with a new case so I went for it.

John · Answer

I,ve been using a 40 grade 'light diesel"  oil for a while now . Engine definitely seems less noisy. Was reading on some website ( it,s on the internet so it must be true!!!) that oils intended for petrol use have had a lot of the minerals that used to lubricate the solid lifters  etc removed. Simply not needed on modern engines so the yarn went but are still in old intended for diesels .  Havnt heard any negative comments about using diesel oil in VW donks though.                        John

Bob Hoover · Answer

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I live in southern California; 30W does fine 99% of the time. I've had occasion to use 50W (warm day in Baja) and 20W (Cherry Valley, CA., in the winter time (temp was close to zero!)) But those were exceptions.

-Bob Hoover

Which Weight Oil To Use In My Beelte?

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