No oil in air cleaner - signs of damage to watch for?

[KarenTheBug]

A while ago I had my former mechanic replace the 1973 & up paper element air cleaner in my 1971 bug with a stock oil bath air cleaner, after cleaning it up & restoring it for me.

After about 7,000-8,000 miles (almost two years worth of driving), I decided to clean it out & put fresh oil in it. I opened the top ... and it was bone dry. Dirty yes, but bone dry. Looks like he didn't put any oil in it when setting it up. This is why he's my former mechanic, this wasn't the first thing I found screwed up on my car.

Realistically, is there any chance of major lifetime damage done to the engine? I change the oil every 1,000 miles and don't drive on dusty back roads. Normally the oil is barely dirty when I change it, kind of a watery coffee color. Are there any signs for damage I need to watch for?

[sideshow]

I drive more on weekends that you do between oil changes, the dangerous part isn't the air cleaner it is a$$hats that “share” public roads. The last few years I have been running empty, partly because I am lazy, partly because I keep meaning to hook up some magnehelic to see how they are.

[Piledriver]

Short answer--- Put oil in the filter and change it when you change your oil.

The worst wear issue will be to your rings, along with increased wear to your bearings from silica that got by the rings.
Your excessive oil changes actually helped here, as they would have kept the oil relatively clean.

Assuming you don't have a filter, 3K is fine. Excessive oil changes can actually increase wear according to some studies.
The only places that recommend 3K oil changes (on "normal" cars) are the places selling oil changes.
T1s are an exception and DO need 3K oil changes as they only hold 2.5 quarts and have no filter.
They also need the front end greased, and the valves and brakes adjusted at the same time, easy 30 minute job all in one pass.

I change mine ~12K miles, but I have a 4 quart sump and a full flow filter setup from the factory.

If it isn't burning oil, I would not lose any sleep over it.

Most of use here found decades ago that the only mechanic you can trust is YOU.
(And even then there can be issues)

I know you are a stickler for originality, but the paper element filter was a much better air filter, as well as being faster/cleaner to replace. The paper elements would last you for many years.

[sideshow]

I am at a loss of why one would change the oil in an air cleaner at the factory intervals. Severe dust like an active volcano ash storm and like require desludging.
Air cleaners are the sole application that I have for SM or better motor oil.

[Piledriver]

I dunno, 3K miles seems a perfectly good interval to do the air cleaner in "normal" environments, esp since you need to change the oil/adjust valves etc anyway

I personally would not run an oil bath air cleaner provided a choice, oiled foam or paper (or synthetics AMSOIL like stuff) only, oil bath passes fine silica... Hell, gauze filters pass visible grit.

But on a T1 you don't expect 300K miles out of it anyway, might feel different if I still had one.

[KarenTheBug]

Everything I've read about oil bath air cleaners said that, as far as an aircooled VW engine is concerned, they're more than sufficient because anything fine enough to get through them is so fine it won't do any lasting damage or major wear & tear to an engine as "imprecise" (to put it nicely) as ours are. Let's be honest, just because Porsche designed it doesn't mean it's a 911 Besides, it's taken me nearly four years to put 16,500 miles on the car - at this rate, I'll be too old to drive before the oil bath air cleaner & anything that slips by it bricks the engine.

As far as not losing any sleep over it, I still will, but just because I'm the type of guy who changes his oil ever 1,000 miles - but thanks. The only reason I was changing it that frequently is because at 1,000 miles, the oil started to look like weak coffee, which is dirty enough for me to change it (if it's black, you waited too long IMHO). Like I said, I'm past that mileage now and it still looks fresh out of the bottle, so I'll push it out to 3,000 from now on assuming it stays clean. I check my dipstick (in both this and my daily driver) every time I fill up the gas tank.

What really makes me angry is two-fold:

1. The previous owner rebuilt the engine a few hundred miles before I bought it, which is the only reason I shelled out as much as I did for a '70s bug with rusted floors. Now, because of this pee-happy peckerwood "mechanic" I have no idea what damage, if any, was done. The engine has about 16,500 miles since it was rebuilt, with 8,000 of them being with a wide open carburetor.

2. I don't even have the satisfaction of ruining Mike Myers' reputation as a mechanic, because in the two years since he last worked on my car, word has gotten out about the quality of his workmanship, and he's gone out of business TWICE at different locations. Now he survives off odd jobs around Richmond, VA & the Outer Banks, I'm assuming for people who have been living under a rock for the last few years.

Does anyone have a picture of one of these that is properly filled so I can see how much goes in it? I've looked and there is no fill line on the inside of the bowl that I can see. I'm assuming that when I filled it up, I probably overfilled it just a little bit.

[Piledriver]

From memory, there should be a thin red "fill" line. (may have to be clean to see it)
...but it has been many moons.

[SCOTTRODS]

The filling of the Air filter, if I remember correctly, is the left over oil from the 3 qt's you bought to change the oil..... Exact numbers? not really sure right now, but something like 2.6 quarts in the Engine, and .4 in the air cleaner.... = 3 full quarts.... I think that's more correct than the 2.5 number above.... Again, not completely up on the oil volume right now....

[sideshow]

As you self described yourself as obsessive, I'm shocked that you haven't read the Bentley. Or looked at the picture, in the Bentley, that follows “Servicing Air Cleaner” section.

Oil bath air cleaner are so good, they are even used on type-4s.

[Marc]

From memory, there should be a thin red "fill" line...

...or an arrow/arrows embossed into the sheetmetal; the oil level should be even with the arrow tip.

[KarenTheBug]

Thanks, I'll take a look next time I'm out in the garage and see how close I got it.

[Marc]

It's not the end of the world should you overfill a bit, the engine will suck in most of the excess. The blue cloud in the rearview mirror when you're nearing peak RPM is a clue...

[Piledriver]

True, it is one of the few truly "self correcting" service errors that exist.

[E_bug]

If you are worried about engine condition do a cylinder leak down test.

I am sure your EX mechanic did not wash the oil,bath with any solvent so, i guess the filter element was still oily and did its job for at least 1000k.

[jrandy]

As said above, I wouldn't lose any sleep over it.
If something drastic happened to the engine you would already know about it.
If something drastic happened, what are you going to do about it?
Just run it.

It is amazing how much dirt will collect in the oil bath over time.
It is also amazing how much stuff will just pass right through an engine if left unfiltered.

If it was an offroad engine running in a cloud of dust at redline all day it would be a different deal.

I ran my old Chevy after the aircleaner caught on fire while it was running and it sucked the whole burning mess through the engine and it just kept going- for years.