The Syncro seal will not hold the oil in any better.  It will help keep dirt
and water out.  Unless you need the extra protection, use the standard seal.

Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: David Bayer <bayer@SYBASE.COM>
To: Vanagon@VANAGON.COM <Vanagon@VANAGON.COM>
Date: Wednesday, June 03, 1998 5:54 PM
Subject: One last main seal question for a syncro

>After a quick call to the VW parts desk, it turns out that what I had heard
>about different pulley backings (and thus a need for a different 3 groove
>pulley between engines using the regular oil seal and the syncro oil) was
>not true. Both the syncro and nonsyncro use the same pulley and thus the
>pulley works with both the syncro and nonsyncro oil seal. So now I have to
>decide between a two part oil seal that will run $100 and one that came
with
>my engine gasket kit (or would run something like $5 by itself if I
remember
>the quotes correctly).
>
>So I have a question for anyone that has gotten a good look at the two part
>syncro oil seal - is it going to stop leaking any better? Does it look
>like it will resist blowing out any better (my old seal ripped along the
>face that touches the crank which I believe resulted from putting in too
>much oil)? What do the two parts look like? How do the two parts fit
>together? Since no dealer in the Bay area stocks this part, I cannot get a
>look at it to make a gut feeling based decision ;)
>
>dave