So . . . has anyone worked out the torque specs for the various flavors
of oil plug gasket/washers?

Bentley shows 18 ft/lb for the plug for the gas engines, 15 for the
diesel. This would be when using the OEM type copper washer.

--
Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
Bend, Ore.
1984 Westfalia. A poor but proud people.
1971 "Ladybug"-brand utility trailer from a defunct company in San
Clemente, Calif., now repurposed as The Westralia.

Sent from my kitchen.

On 08/09/2011 02:07 AM, Frank Condelli wrote:
> John, the OEM gasket was and still is a flat copper washer which is
> also called a crush washer also although it does not have any layers.
> It is a one time use seal, it must be changed every time you remove
> the oil drain plug as it will only reseal properly one time from new.
> These are the only oil drain plug gaskets I use and have been using
> them for over 20 years on my van and all of my customers vans - no
> problems with oil leaking if the plug is OEM and the seal is renewed
> each time the plug is removed and reinstalled.
>
> On 2011-08-09, at 12:00 AM, Automatic digest processor wrote:
>
>> I want to know just what contitutes and oil plug gasket. I started
>> out in my current van - before I knew a whole lot about them - with
>> a crush type copper gasket - a folded copper ring with a piece of
>> somekind of crushable fiber squeezed inside. When the oil plug was
>> tightened, this material wash crushed down, making for a very good
>> seal. Several oil changes later, by garages and other nether places
>> - I discovered the crushable had been replaced by a solid copper
>> washer - and they called that an oil plug seal. Well, I beg to
>> differ. In my experience  - and granted, it was in the aviation
>> field - a crush gasket was just that - crushable as I described,
>> and to be replaced at each oil change. It was somethign you didn't
>> re-use. I have ordered "Oli Plug Gaskets" from list vendors, only
>> to get that copper washer. Not cool! Was what I had in the
>> beginning a fluke? The van was used, after all, and perhaps someone
>> put that crushable gasket there in place of the copper washer - I
>> don't know. But i would like to know what is properly called for
>> and if it's not the copper washer, then where  do I get what is
>> called for.
>
>
>
> Cheers,
>
> Frank Condelli Almonte, Ontario, Canada '87 Westy&  Lionel Trains
> (Collection for sale) Frank Condelli&  Associates - Vanagon/Vanagon
> Westfalia Service in the Ottawa Valley Vanagon Stainless Steel
> Exhaust Systems BusFusion a VW Camper camping event, Almonte, ON,
> June 09 ~ 12, 2011