[Vwdiesel] Air-cooled and diesel oil?

Shawn Wright swright at zuiko.sls.bc.ca
Thu Jun 3 01:26:33 EDT 2004


On 2 Jun 2004 at 22:37, Mary Beth and Chris Geiser <geiser at execpc.com> wrote:

> A question for the list oil guru's and anyone familiar with VW's
> air-cooled engines (since diesel guys generally know lots about
> everything - and we're better looking)...
> 
> The great majority of my miles get put on my VW diesels ('92 Ecodiesel,
> '82 Vanagon), but I have a '74 Westy (air-cooled) that we camp with in
> the summer (which in recent years in Wisconsin seems like about a
> month).  40W oil is recommended for the Westy... are there any issues
> with using the 15W40 diesel rated dino oil (Cenex) in the air-cooled gas
> engine?  
> 
> I keep enough of the diesel oil around - just seeing if I can avoid
> having to keep a whole supply of different oil just for one rarely used
> vehicle.

I'm guessing the 40W is from the manual, printed when multigrade oils may not have 
been too common? This may have been the best oil in 1974, but I doubt it is now, 
although for summer use, it's probably ok. My Vanagon Bentley says that 15w40 is 
good to ~90F/30C, the highest rating for a MG oil. The 40W rating does go a bit higher, 
but I've never heard of anyone having problems with 15w40 or 20w50 in hot areas. The 
manual covers the 80-82 aircooled engines, so should be applicable to the '74, as it is 
basically the same engine. I'd probably go with a good 20w50 dino oil to be safe, 
although 15w40 has the same high temp rating.
--
Shawn Wright
http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright
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