How did my 1200 VW work so well
Interesting thread this, but it got me thinking how my old VW 1200 (1955) Beetle engine never needed any special treatment to go to work every day.
On some days the car would look like an huge snow drift and you may have to "heat" the key to unlock it but as long as it "cranked" (6 Volt remember) it went and the oil light would go off in a second.
Now this engine was very similar in construction to what i fly behind today.
Steel crank,Allui or Mag alui crank-case,steel cylinders,Steel rods,Allui pistons,allui heads with alloy bronze guides and normal valves,operated by steel camshaft and followers.
In those days (mid sixties) you had the option "like today" of mono grades Castrol 20 30 40 XL20-50 or the "new" Castrolite" (which i used).
The hand book suggested various grades depending on the average OAT but in the UK the 30 or 40 would have been normal.
That engine did over 150,000 miles before a teardown to replace a fibre cam drive that got oil soaked and failed. (a known problem)
Years later i did hundreds of hours behind all sizes of VW engines that did not know they were flying (nor did they care).
The question is was the VW just a very good engine that could run in the Artic or the Desert or was it having the correct lubriction for the application that made the difference !!!