I used 20-50 in the original engine.  Since I live
in the SF Bay area and I installed the new engine
in March, I have been using 10-40 in the rebuilt
engine.  Next oil change I will switch to 20-50 and
see what happens.

Tim

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Greg Stelz [mailto:gstelz1@yahoo.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 29, 2002 1:13 PM
> To: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com; timothy@VERIO.NET
> Subject:
>
>
> Tim,
>
> What grade of oil are you using?  I use 20W-50 and my
> van has never consumed nearly that much oil.  I have
> 122k miles on the original case.
>
> Greg Stelz,
> 86 "westfakia"
> Columbus, Ohio
> ----------
>
> Date:    Tue, 28 May 2002 23:49:20 -0700
> From:    Tim Hurlbut <timothy@VERIO.NET>
> Subject: Oil Consumption
>
> Greetings listmembers,
>
> I purchased my 1987 new in Germany at one of the
> "drive around europe
> and ship it home" purchase plans.  While driving in
> Europe, I found
> the van to use 1 quart of oil every 1000 miles.  I
> asked a mechanic at
> a
> VW
> dealer in germany what was the problem and he told me
> that it is
> acceptable for Vanagons to use as much as one liter
> every 1000 KM's.
> I accepted his answer and the van ran fine, using a
> quart every 1000
> miles for 193,000 miles.
>
> I recently had a rebuilt engine installed and now the
> van uses a quart
> of oil every 900 miles.
>
> Thoughts?  Anyone else use a lot of oil in their
> wasserboxen.
>
> By the way, the oil seems to be blow-by ... the air
> intake near the
> AFM is very oily.  Blow-by could be rings that didn't
> seat properly.
>
> Tim Hurlbut
> 87 Vanagon
> 90 Vanagon GL
>
> PS.  The 90 uses about 1 quart every 2 thousand miles.
>  145,000 miles
>
>
>
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