From my experience, if your rings are good and a spark plug is oil fouled,
that indicates bad valve stem seals or valve guides.  If its guides, then
your in for a major ordeal.:(

-----Original Message-----
From: Katherine Lee <katherine@DNA.BC.CA>
To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Friday, May 01, 1998 8:19 PM
Subject: 89 Vanagon "losing" oil

>Hi:
>
>I've just joined the list, so apologies if this topic has already been
covered.
>
>I have an 89 Vanagon Westfalia, with around 138,000 km on the original
>engine.  I'm not the first owner, so I don't have the COMPLETE history on
>the van, but I don't think that the cyliner heads have ever been replaced
>... a lot of the mechanical parts ... muffler, shocks, etc. are still
>original.
>
>Here's the problem.  I had the oil changed just before I went on a weekend
>trip.  The garage was supposed to have put in 15W40.  The technician showed
>me the dipstick, and the oil appeared to be at the full notch.  After about
>1000 km of mostly highway driving, the oil light came on constantly and the
>warning buzzer sounded.  I pulled off to the side of the freeway and looked
>at the dipstick, and it was completely devoid of oil.  We managed to get a
>tow to a service station, where we put about 3 litres of oil in, and kept
>on driving, keeping an eye on the oil level every 100 km or so.  I noticed
>that after about 200 to 300 km, I had to put another half a litre in.
>
>However, in the city, I'm not doing extensive driving, so the engine does
>not warm up as much.  I check the oil every morning and it stays fairly
>constant.
>
>My mechanic looked at the spark plugs, and one of the plugs appeared to be
>coated with oil.  The compression on that one cylinder seems fine (140
>psi), so I'm wondering if any of you has seen something like this before
>... is there a test I can do myself, an oil switch I can replace?  I'm
>hoping this is not a major ordeal.
>
>Thanks,
>
>Katherine