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gmd wrote:20/50 is too thick? Most people here in Texas recommend that grade, as does Rick Higgins in the "Bug Me" video series. He's in southern Florida, where it gets as hot as it does here in Texas. Does that not make a difference?

Your location only makes a difference when it causes your oil temps to get high. You pick your oil viscosity based on what your oil temps are, not the outside weather.
What temp does your oil get to?

Ol'fogasaurus wrote:If I remember correctly, VW still recommends straight 30 wt oil.

The only reason VW recommended straight weight oil 35+ years ago was because multigrade oil was more expensive. In their logic it made no sense to put expensive oil into an economy car. It's the same reason VW recommended against using radial tires.
Embrace the new technology.

Sorry you took my post to rail against!

As of a couple of years ago, during a similar discussion on another site, a post was made that was (as I remember) by VWoA. VW still had the opinion that the additives that are added to oil, to make them multi-viscosity, were still not up to handling the engine temps that air cooled engines could reach. (I must admit that I know of a lot of people who run multi-weight oils and have not had problems with doing so)

At the time of the post, they weren't recommending synthetic oils in air-cooled engines either.

A lot of well-known V-dub experts recommend 20/50 in summer. Rick Higgins, Rob and Dave, etc. Respected local mechanics like Brian at V-Dub Folks here in Dallas agree...

Once upon a time multi-grade engine oils had quality issues that made VW reluctant to recommend them. They got over it in the mid`70s when oils meeting the API/SE standard came out.

Thanks Marc, I have never seen, or heard of what you posted…interesting! It is in conflict to what other stuff I have seen and that is interesting too. Is that a VW publication?

It is interesting indeed.

I've seen that table before, but it had nothing to do with VWs. When I went to "Oil School" for Tidewater, in the late '50's, the table they had (on film) sure looked a lot like that one but with no VW notation.

That particular page is from a `75 Type II owner's manual (note where it says "...in your VW engine." and "...the engine of your Volkswagen."), but you'll find similar information in the orange Bentley `70-`79 Type I book.

I did some loose "tests" a few years ago, basically trying different brands and seeing how the hot oil pressures worked out in the Dallas heat of summer. (this was ~2002)

I was a GTX true believer before this...

I had better hot and cold oil pressure from Pennzoil 10W30 syn than a "certain" well marketed 20W50, esp so when time to change ~3K miles. (Recent oil testing has shown this was NOT a fluke)

Note that is NOT recommending Pennzoil 10W30 in any way, it is SM rated now, and thus not suitable IMHO for ANY car made before 2007.

The 5W40 Rotella-T syn works seems to hold up far better than either, hot idle pressure stays steady over time. I have run it >12Kmiles between changes.

//rant on
The SM rating explicitly does NOT confer older rating compatability, unlike older ratings, where SA<SB<SF etc.

I suspect shenanigans of any oil that says SF,SM or CI AND CJ4 compatible, as the additive requirements are pretty mutually exclusive, and I seriously doubt they actually recertified the new blends for the older spec. The FTC should look at this...
//rant OFF

I'm running Brad Penn 20W50 now... We'll see how it holds up.

The old Pile 1700 has a 30 year old factory bottom end AFAICT, and I have personally put ~150K on it, at least.

Still got ~12 PSI at hot idle (950 RPM) after a 40 mile commute @65-70MPH/100F day with 5W40 Rotella, after 10K miles.(Just before change)

Initially, the BP 20W50 is showing ~15-18 PSI, same conditions. (Mechanical gauge, NOT VDO)

"The old Pile 1700 has a 30 year old factory bottom end AFAICT, and I have personally put ~150K on it, at least.
Still got ~12 PSI at hot idle (950 RPM) after a 40 mile commute @65-70MPH/100F day with 5W40 Rotella, after 10K miles.(Just before change) "

Man, that's great. What kind of exhaust are you running on the old Pile 1700? Anything other than stock on that or say your fan shroud set-up?

Pile, did you get a PM from me?

gmd wrote:"The old Pile 1700 has a 30 year old factory bottom end AFAICT, and I have personally put ~150K on it, at least.
Still got ~12 PSI at hot idle (950 RPM) after a 40 mile commute @65-70MPH/100F day with 5W40 Rotella, after 10K miles.(Just before change) "

Man, that's great. What kind of exhaust are you running on the old Pile 1700? Anything other than stock on that or say your fan shroud set-up?

The old Pile is a 914, currently with 2.0 HX boxes and a Bursch exhaust. (Stock pancake cooling)

I'm trying to clean up the smaller original 1.7 HX boxes and put a 1.7 Bursch on it, as it got much better gas mileage way back when, and the exhaust config is the only thing I haven't changed back.

The 1.7 Bursch is EXACTLY the same flange-to-flange spacing as a T4 stock setup in a Bus. The 2.0 setup is narrower ~1" at the flanges.

Ol'fogasaurus wrote:Pile, did you get a PM from me?

No, try again, my email works too.

Hi I'am new in the fórum and my bug also runs with high presure in summer, and here it gets really hot, easily, over 100's for weeks in a row, and I steal get 60 pounds in the morning, and 40 to 50 in the afternoon, i got a fresh engine with only 4,000 Km.