Originally Posted By: XS650
Originally Posted By: ChiTDI
VW originally thought that in their air cooled jobs. History doesn't seem to support that posture. All the rebuild California type sand and street buggies pride themselves in oil filtration as well as cooling, so I think the filter has a valid place.
On the original air cooled VWs the #3 exhaust valve went at about 80,000 miles so lack of filtration wasn't the limitation on engine life
#3 exhaust valve was a problem because the in the cooling shroud oil cooler was over #3 cylinder and it restricted air flow and preheated the air for #3.
Agree, but when you split the case and saw all those metal shavings in the oil wouldn't an oil filter have been nice?
They went to a 12 volt system in '67, and I think it was '68 or '69 that they redesigned the air flow for the oil cooler.
80k was about right, unless you knew enough to gap the exhaust valve on #3 at 0.006" rather than the spec of 0.004". Sometimes you got an extra 20k.
The 150k mi people were on later engines as you well know. Valve adjustment and head torque wasn't done by the average owner.