Light Aircraft Association

What oil is generally recommended for a 1600cc VW?

It's a car engine Jim, use car oil! The oil galleries are smaller than the trad aero engines like Continental, Lycoming etc. If you are building from scratch you have a choice of synthetic, semi-synthetic etc. I think GtPlanes make recommendations but oil technology goes on improving.

The engine doesn't actually know it's changed into an aero engine! It's also not being subjected to torque reversal (which is what kills off car engines, braking through the gears, changing down at high revs etc).

The wider the temperature range of the oil the better I guess as cooling seems to be the main issue.

Thanks, Nigel, that is my own line of thought.

I found a supplier of straight-30 'running-in' oil for about £6 per gallon. It was hard to find anyone stocking it. Not great quality but it gets changed every couple of hours during the running-in procedure. I've done 3 changes of oil and filter so far (not yet flown) for minimal cost and, hopefully, for better life due to the rings bedding in correctly. No signs of lumps in the filter and just a few fine particles showing up.

After the running-in is over I shall go with an average quality car oil.

I found a supplier of straight-30 'running-in' oil for about £6 per gallon. It was hard to find anyone stocking it. Not great quality but it gets changed every couple of hours during the running-in procedure. I've done 3 changes of oil and filter so far (not yet flown) for minimal cost and, hopefully, for better life due to the rings bedding in correctly. No signs of lumps in the filter and just a few fine particles showing up.

After the running-in is over I shall go with an average quality car oil.

I'd forgotten about the running in requirement of straight 30, but do wonder if it's simply hereditary memory from the days when all air cooled beetle style engines including Porsche ran on 30 grade anyway.

I have dim memories of running my 911S on straight oils in the early 70's (arghh given it away!) but agonising with my mechanic whether we should go to Duckhams 20/50.

I see no harm in using straight 30 to run-in on though. It would be good to some expert opinion on this?

I'm just about to start the re-assembly of my 1600 so this is a hot topic for me!

I'm pretty sure that fully synthetic oil is NOT recommended for VW and derivatives -- certainly the Limbach operating manual prohibits its use (I recall the guy at the factory saying the oil seals don't like it...)

You see -- we need a VW maintenance course !

I have always run VW's on and have always run them on 20/50 mineral oil which seems the ideal choice of many.

Ivan
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20/50 Mineral oil for me too. (Well 15/40 at the moment during the cold snap.)

Last time I was doing any serious VW flying (in a Taylor Mono) we used Castrol CRI 30......with no problems at all.

david

The air-cooled VW fraternity seem to favour straight 30 all the time as far as I can see.

Morris Oils of Shrewsbury do a straight 30 of good quality which is what we've been using in the Evans VP1's 1835. Too early to say much about it with only 5 hours or so on the engine except that the wee beastie seems to start fine from (sometimes very) cold and from warm/hot, and seems to hold good oil pressure and temperature at all times.

I sourced the Morris oil from an aircooled VW specialists (Kingfisher Kustoms in Birmingham), but agricultural suppliers Burgess's are an agent for them and have supplied me with heavy (EP140) gear oil and straight 40 oil, albeit in a pack of 4 x 5 litre cans. (I sold 3 of the EP140s on!)

I use the straight 40 in my Morris 8 and have done for a while.

When I first got my Jodel D9 with a 1600 VW I ran it on Morris 30 (on Barry Smith's advice). I then switched to Castrol GTX 15W-40 which improved winter starting and having found it to be an excellent oil, I continued with it all year round without any problems (for over 10 years).

Rob Swain. The Morris 8 engine is also used in the early Minors. I've got 2 1940s Minors running on many of the same bits as the VW engined FRED. The sparkplugs used on the military version of the Morris 8 engine are shielded like proper aircraft plugs and are the same dimension and heat rating as the B6HS plugs recommended for the VW. A trip to a Tank museum (Bovington?) secured a pile of new dimantleable plugs and leads.

Rob,

I flew behind a VW for about 500 hours or so in my biplane.
Always used Castrol GTX 20/50. Never gave a moments worry with lubrication, even in peak summer temps.
Straight 30 is great for running in.

Happy Landings
Barry Plumb