Oil Type for Diesel

[imassageu]

I just bought my first diesel a 1985 vw golf. I am curious if anyone has any recommendations for what type of engine oil I should use.
I plan on burning biodiesel and live in seattle, not too hot of too cold.

Also there is an oil leak coming from the vacuum pump (part of the braking system I think). Any ideas?

[ASE-tech]

I was in Everett (workin at the Lazy B during the 7.0 quake!!) 2 years or so ago..lotsa folks are now using Bio-D in the NorthWest. In fact..on Vashion Island (where they are not required to pass any emissions testing like in King or Snohomish County!!) there is a growing co-op of Bio-D producers and contract owners. They were featured in HomePower Magazine (free on-line) I think 3 issues ago. Some are using SVO (Straight Veggie Oil).

BTW, I used to live in Arlington back when it was a loooong way off I-5, and there are "R.E." lifestyle hardware companies (Trace for one) now being built at the airport there, several folks driving water cooled V'dubs on Bio-d and SVO as well. I wouldn't be surprised to hear of a Bio-D fuelled VW diesel powered Experimental flying out of Arlington either!

You probably need to get a vacuum pump rebuild kit, and yes, it provides the vacuum source for your brake booster.... and possibly a new pump itself depending on the wear of the "slot drive" that links up to the oil pump. Yank the pump and clean the lower end up. It MUST have sharp edges on the rectangular slot that accepts the oil pump shaft. Look in the block with a good brite flashlight and be sure the pump shaft has a clean sharp "tab" also. Any rounding of either is not a good thing...so...be sure!
These engines will run a billion miles (it seems) but you do have wear in them eventually. You really should first gain confidence in your timing belt since you just bought this vehicle and unless you are 100% sure of the miles on the belt it's the first thing to get warm and fuzzy over. If you loose the belt I'm here to tell you it's all over in a hurry with this engine. The valves are VERY close in phase with the pistons in any of the NA diesel, TD, or TDI. The change is not as difficult as the books make it out to be IF you use the methods in lieu of the book methods as explained on this Forum in the "non TDI" link.
"Sharkey" and several other pro techs have a sure-fire way to swap belts and NOT loose your temper or your engine doing so. It's suggested to use the later 1.9 belt..it's stronger, and tho more expensive; you have added confidence that it is rated to 80K before next replacement rather than the 60K miles recommended (and followed here) by VW. A $20 belt simply is too cheap compared to $800 and up for a good used long block and the difficulty in engine replacement, let alone the price for a correct rebuild. It's not much to pay for the 250K or more of the life of the engine will serve you if maintained and remember,your saving a lot of money on your fuel using Bio-D or SVO.

Ok..oil. Diesels get black oil quickly..it's simply the nature of the beast. IF your engine is TurboCharged (or Supercharged like mine will be soon) you should only use the best quaility Synthetics. Mobile1, Amzoil, high brand Synthetics..not a "blended". This is because the turbo bearings get hot AND the fact that the pistons also get a bit hotter under "boost" which will coak even the best petro based oils. Siezed up bearings in a turbo unit is really a hard hit on the wallet. Unfortunatly some TDI owners here have learned the hard and expensive way that $4 a quart oil is cheap insurance.

When I ran my 1.6 in my Rabbit truck (it's in rebuild now, I'm doing all the work and machining myself) I used Lucas products. If you have trouble finding these in the SeaTac area and you want to use them, there is a diesel shop in Marysville called NorthWest Diesel and they have some parts and all the Lucas products you might need. These folks are nothing but diesel and they know some about VW too (the delivery driver is an 81 Rabbit pickup like mine in fact, still running at 275K last I seen it), but I will tell you right now they are high in price compared to Jack here at this website so it definitly will save you money to buy here on things like the vacuum pump I mentioned (if you need one). Schucks/Checkers might have Lucas products in King County....they did in Snohomish at some stores. NAPA usually does too.

Recently there have been some folks here using Lucas "booster" and it really does seem to help a bit with Petro fuel but I have not yet had the opportunity to try it with Bio. I will be running the Rabbit I own on Bio since I can grow and press my own virgin oil and the largest Ethanol (which will work with virgin oil use) refinery in the States is less than 125 miles away from our home. You might try the folks on Vashion to buy your bio first and after gaining some experience try adding the "booster"

You could then contribute your findings, but better to do so on the non-TDI link since you will find there is more there to help you than here on the TDI site.

Hope this gives you some ideas of what we would do first and that you meet many other friends using the veggie solution to Arab oil. Many happy miles to you and your 85 Golf

Vern Lehman
Carson, New Mexico
1981 Rabbit P.U. SC 1.6
2003 Jetta GLS TDI

[wild3bill]

Previous owner used Rotella 15W-40 in my 1985 Golf. I switched to Rotella 5W40[synthetic]. It Worked good over the winter.
Then I bought a 1998 Beetle TDi. and then:Mobile One SUV showed up on the shelves of my local WalMart. So I bought the Mobile SUV, I have had the TDi only one week, but that is what I plan to use.

[mycoleptodiscus]

I use Castrol Syntec 5W-50