Hi wondering what the best engine and gearbox oil was to use in a standard 67 beetle.
Castrol GTX 2 for the engine?
and 80w 90 hypoid gearbox oil castrol too?
Thanks.
Also would you recommend a bosh plug or are the denso/ngk plugs better?
The best engine oil to use is clean oil, as frequently as possible. Due to the lack of oil filter, the 3000 mile (5000km) oil change interval is very important. I've previously used Penrite, Castrol GTX2 and various other stuff and haven't noticed any problems. Short of doing a scientific study over a couple of hundred thousand km it's pretty difficult to tell the difference. Some people recommend straight 30 weight oil rather than multigrades, a lot of people are full of praise for the special ACE oils but I don't think it's likely that special expensive oil will be worth the money. The oil is changed so frequently in VW engines that it doesn't really need to be anything super-special in my opinion, it's not like you're doing 20,000km oil changes or anythiing like that.
Gearbox oil is a question which I'm contemplating myself at the moment as I'm going to be doing a gearbox oil change soon. The manuals specify Castrol Hypoy LS I believe, which is still available and described thus:
Castrol Hypoy LS
Mineral based, SAE 90 extreme pressure gear oil designed to cope with the special friction characteristics of limited slip differentials fitted to road going cars
I've also heard of a specific transaxle oil which some recommend, but can't remember the name of it at the moment.
matberry wrote:Air Cooled Engine Oil, designed specifically for our air cooled engines.
This kind of reminds me of how HKS made special engine oils for individual engines and cars, such as Nissan RB-series oil, Toyota 1JZ/2JZ oil, Mitsubishi 4G63 oil and so forth.
Mitsubishi Evo X oil
4G63 oil, which is presumably the same as Evo X oil? This oil goes for roughly $160 per 4 litre tin.
smithy68 wrote:Hi wondering what the best engine and gearbox oil was to use in a standard 67 beetle.
Castrol GTX 2 for the engine?
and 80w 90 hypoid gearbox oil castrol too?
Thanks.
Also would you recommend a bosch plug or are the denso/ngk plugs better?
Hi
I've always used Castrol GTX2 in My beetle engine...
and 80w90 hypoid oil in My transaxle
with a MOLY additive . MOLYBOND - PROMAR etc..
but with this gearbox I filled with EXPENSIVE Castrol Syntax synthetic oil... I don't recommend it as it leaks thru the stud threads etc... not bad leaks , no drips, but always wet with oil... where I never had any problems with normal Hypoid oil.
I use German made BOSCH spark plugs or BERU..
Nippon denso or NGK plugs should be OK too..
I also recommend replacing the points with Pertronix ignition kit...
A little common sense is all takes when picking oil ie. don't feed it that homebrand woolies crap but you have to go OTT buying exotic whale oil extracted from albino gorrilla urine either.
ACE is the ducksnuts in oil for vw engines, and if you had a nice built up vw engine I'd use it too, but for a stocko with XXXX miles under its belt may be a bit over kill
My old 1600 from my first bug hasnt been split since I built it over 12 years ago, Ive fed 10psi boost into it and flogged the crap outta that thing all the time only running Castrol GTX in it changed every 3000 miles and it still has perfect oil pressure after 60k
Conversely, a friend ran shell helix in a rebuilt engine and after only 40k the oil light used to flicker at idle
I'm interested in thoughts on tranny oil though, after 9 years I think i need to change mine
We live in the present not the past, a mono grade oil might be alright in 1960's but as the demands are made for the engine's to perform better use a better oil, i have used a good quality multi grade of oil for year's and have had no issues, as for the gearbox i run a redline pure synthetic that is not hydroscopic and has a much greater ability to resist gear tooth contact pressure, all this adds up to a more reliablity on the mechanical side. Oil's have delevoped incredibly over the year's and are suitable to use in our cars, you can phone any of the oil companies and speak to any of there engineer's to find out what is suitable for your aplication.
Our air cooled engines need anti wear additives and high concentrations of Zinc and Phosphorus combined to form ZDDP, not additives that prolong oil change intervals.
These two oils use roughly 0.12% - 0.15% Zn & P, it would be interesting to find out about the make up of ACE motor oils as it is a local product.
QPL's website may be hard to find. (I think there's a new one?) Yes they are in Bacchus Marsh.
Anyway their old one is: http://www.qplubes.com/index.html
The Volks Enthusiasts Club may be the only current distributor of ACE oil for Adelaide (contact: Barry L or Jon K).
The level of Zn in ACE 30 & 40 (& 20) is 0.11%. (There is an "optimum" level for Zn & P, ie. too much of anything can degrade other properties.)
ACE 30 & 40 oils: specifically engineered for your Air Cooled VW
delivered (free del.) throughout Yarra Valley / Ranges, & Gippsland areas. Also ACE 20, 50 & 90.
FOR SALE: ACE 30, 40 etc. Oil formulations & Trade-names.
Anyone have any updates on where I can purchase this oil in NSW or Sydney or do I have to get it freighted? Also whats are the rough costs, may be better to order a few bottles as save on multiple freights
no problem at all , personally i use HPR 15 in winter and HPR30 in the hotter months. I did the same when i was using ACE , 30 in Winter and 40 in summer. Keeps my 2276 happy.
I only use Nulon and whatever they recommend for the cars in my family
03 STI bug
1904 cc bug
02 Prado 3.4litre
RB30+T Skyline
LS400 Lexus
Never had an issue.
Actually a true story, we bought low k R31 Nissan Pinatra a few years ago, changed the filters and all fluids with Nulon when we got it, after a few months the oil light was coming on (son told me checked the oil level) so I decided to change the oil and filter again thinking a bit of crud might be in the engine as it hadn't been driven very much by the po.
When I dropped the oil what came out hardly covered the oil drain container, so about 500ml, so I checked the dipstick, it still read 1/2 full, then I had a better look, the rubber stop on the dipstick had slipped up giving a false reading
So this motor was run without hardly any oil and survived.
I always used to use Pennzoil SAE30 and SAE50. They always worked brilliantly, the SAE50 sounds like thick goop, but when you're running a tweaked ACVW in mid-40s all day on the highway I found the film thickness ended up doing the job well, the SAE30 didn't give the oil pressure I needed.
I also went to Redline 20W40, that stuff is just amazing, really really trick, but hideously expensive and difficult to find, so back to Pennzoil dino I went. I don't even know if Pennzoil is available any more though, so was interested in what worked and was readily available now.
Oh yeah, and although new modern oils are just the ducks guts for protection of components, running slippery stuff 0W20 in an older single-relief case that has stock OEM clearances in it is just asking to have to paint over the oil warning light just to get down to the shops. In a single-relief case the oil cooling and oil pressure is reliant on a SAE oil getting thinner as it gets hotter, so new wonderful thin synthetics will normally cause issues..........but since it falls out of every damn weeping porous VW casting it can find, it might not be in there long enough to matter much! 😏
Save that stuff to use in the just-rebuilt engine using components and clearances that are put together to use it effectively.
Can anyone recommend an off the shelf oil for a new motor with good clearances that dissipates an air-cooled engines heat better or as well as Motul 300V 15W40? I can get that stuff easily, 20L drum in the shed for my bikes, but it's still $18/L, a cheaper alternative would be nice.
1303Steve wrote:Actually a true story, we bought low k R31 Nissan Pinatra a few years ago, changed the filters and all fluids with Nulon when we got it, after a few months the oil light was coming on (son told me checked the oil level) so I decided to change the oil and filter again thinking a bit of crud might be in the engine as it hadn't been driven very much by the po.
bajachris88 wrote:Is there any oils that supercede the requirement for zinc content?
Is the required presence for zinc content just 'old form' and no longer required?
From what I've read Chris..
normal mineral oils still need the zinc and phosphorus in them..
to lubricate the camshaft mainly.. in a VW..
Now the Zinc and Phosphorus is being reduced so it won't damage catalytic converters..
Oils are changing as Castrol who had GTX and GTX2 and maybe a GTX3 ? now have just GTX in different colored containers..
the dates of the cars to be used on has changed...
the new 20w/50 GTX exceeds API SL
and its had that on it for a few years.. so, Maybe You are correct...
as We don't know what is different from say an SH or SJ oil to an SL...
they are still saying it exceeds the SL Rating even with lowered Zinc and Phosphorus levels..
Maybe the SL rating is OK for camshaft wear ???
maybe different additives are used???
Lee
- Helping keep Air Cooled VWs on the road - location: SCONE in the Upper Hunter Valley - Northern NSW 320 kms NNW of SYDNEY---
Penrite HPR30 for me.
Won't touch Castrol for any reason.
I have seen it fail to perform too often over the years to bother with it.
Oh, and Fusch was cr@p, too. (but that was a while ago)
