hmmmm..
spying on what  my location is,  I see.

wellfirst ....if it's that hot ( 115 F ) and having oilprotecting the
engine well enough and maintaning viscosity at very high ambient
temps..is a concern,
then one should run a synthetic oil.

And watch max oil temps ..one guy said his subaru was hitting 280F ..
that's more or less the upper end of the acceptible range for
non-synthetics as I understand it.

Nope , almost never hits 115F in my area.  It does get pretty  hotday
after day after day in the Rogue Valley in the summer....
hate it acutally ..but the most it usually gets is 95 to 100.

Considering climate change ..there may be 30W60 and 40W70 oils pretty
soon.  lol

And Bentley specifies what the oil pressure should be at so many rpm and
such and such an engine or oil temp.
If your OP is in that range ...you're within spec .

15W50 and 20W50 works for me in the summer.
and I personally can't say if a 50W holds up at very high temps better
than a 20W50 does .
Very easy to research in the infinite library at our fingertips of course.

scott

On 3/13/2013 7:37 PM, Rob wrote:
> Medford Oregon
> http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=79527&cityname=Medford-Oregon-United-States-of-America
>
> Maybe 10 miles from Scott's shop, probably less.
>
> Run what oil you want and get an oil pressure gauge and an oil temp
> gauge so you can SEE how well the oil is really working for YOU in
> your Vanagon. Keep records and let us know how it worked out come Oct.
>
> Rob
> vwrobb@gmail.com
>
>
>
> At  3/13/2013 08:04 PM, Dave Mcneely wrote:
>> Scott, in coastal Oregon it is unlikely to ever be 115 F.  I have
>> run my 2.1 with 170K miles for hours at temperatures approaching
>> that, at highway speed.  I think VW meant the single weight
>> recommendation, and what multi-grade has the capacity to maintain
>> viscosity with that condition?
>>
>> mcneely
>