> My oil light does not come on when my 84 vanagon first starts.  After a
> few minutes, it begins to flicker at idle.

Sound familiar.  See:

http://www.vanagon.com/  under Problems

Our van has almost 180K and does the same thing.  I installed an analog
oil pressure gauge to monitor what's going on.  Basically, you want higher
pressure at higher RPM, say pressure(psi) >= RPM/100.

> I plan on turning the idle up a bit, but am I merely masking the >
> problem?

Yes, you are.  I did this as well, but what happened to me is that the ECU
compensated and the idle started oscillating.

> Should I be thinking oil pressure problems (bearings?)

See what the real oil pressure is while running, either from a shop or
installing a gauge.  It's not that hard, even for a VW dummy like me, and
that way you can monitor your engine's eventual death (i.e. rebuild it
*before* you get a rod through the side of the case).

-Karl

__________________________________
Karl & Kristina Bloss - bloss@enter.net
Trexlertown, PA - '87 Vanagon Weekender "Beverley"
http://www.enter.net/~bloss/vw