There is no doubt that you have a leak, you see it.
There are a few funny things about an air cooled type IV engine though.
If you check your oil with the van sitting in your drive way on a nice
flat surface before you start your engine first thing in the morning it
should be at or just below the MAX mark on your dip stick.
After you start your engine and run it for a few minutes you'll find that
the level is 1/4" lower.
This is ok since the oil is in your cooler, lifters and oil galleries.
This sounds like a bunch of nun-such but you need to run the van 100
miles and determine how much oil you're loosing.
Here is how it breaks down, when you're checking the oil be sure you are
on a very level location. The Type IV oil pan is like a cookie sheet and
a little slant can cause you to add too much oil. When you have too much
oil it gets airborne in the crankcase and gets sucked through your
breather or is blown out through marginal seals (mostly push rod O rings
or Valve covers).
I'd suggest that you install new valve cover gaskets ($4.00 parts) and
spray clean your engine area on the bottom side with Gunk Engine cleaner
to make any leaks easier to locate.
I've included a link to more info for new Air Cooled Vanagon owners. I'm
assuming of course that it is not a diesel you're discussing.
http://williamwareagency.com/forsale/stanvan/shapingup.htm

Stan Wilder
83 Air Cooled Westfalia

On Sun, 4 Aug 2002 00:25:15 EDT Rachelle Hulbert <Randrhulbert@AOL.COM>
writes:
>  We just purchased this 82 vanagon.  it's really a great motor, but
> has
> slight motor leak.  want to take on long road trip.  should I have
> it checked
> out?  anything to worry about?   thanks for your input.  rachelle
>

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