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Thought I would get my 3 cents worth in here... I have always used 30W oil in my aircooled VWs. I would switch to 5W30 in the late fall when growing up in Northern, MN. Never liked the idea of straight 5 or 10 weight oil for the VW engine because it would get too thin once the engine was up to temperature, but the straight 30 weight was too thick at -20 F. This was very apparent when I went off to college in NY. I was running straight 30 weight oil all fall in NY and it never get cold enough to be a problem in NY. Well, I drove home for Christmas break (1500 miles - one way)and stopped in Minong, WI for the night. Woke up to -25F temperatures the next morning. The car went "click"...."click".... nothing, would not even turn over. I borrowed the motel owners magnetic block heater (for all you warm weather listees, a block heater is a electric heater that keeps things on the engine from getting frozen solid :^) ) and stuck it to the oil change plate for an hour or so. After this the car spun freely.... But, to show you how cold -25F is....the car still would not start. I check everything...plugs, electric connections, carb (for icing), etc. Everything looked in place and fine. Except my toes and fingers....I finally happened to notice as I stared helplessly at the open distributor cap that the points were open, by the follower was not on the distributor cam lobe. The points had frozen open!!!!!! A couple of minutes with the wife's blow dryer and she fired right up and we were on our way... Sorry for rambling on...my point was/is if you live in a northern climate a good multigrade oil (5W30 or 10W30) is almosta necessity. Later, John Jaranson 71 FI Auto Fasty (with oil that stays liquid to -40F, I hope) ------------------------------------------------------------------- Too much? Digest! mailto:type3-d-request@vwtype3.org Subj=subscribe